UNIT 17 STRATEGIES FOR PREWRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER: DEVELOPING THE WORKING THESIS STATEMENT, TAKING NOTES, SUMMARIZING, ORGANIZING YOUR NOTES, OUTLINING
STRATEGIES FOR PREWRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER: DEVELOPING
THE WORKING THESIS STATEMENT, TAKING NOTES, SUMMARIZING,
ORGANIZING YOUR NOTES, OUTLINING
Task 1 Read about drafting a working thesis statement.
Developing the Working Thesis Statement
Разработка рабочих тезисов исследования
Drafting a working thesis statement expresses the main idea of the paper. The
following working thesis statement is based on information gathered about computers
helping people with disabilities.
Model: Working Thesis Statement
Computers are able to help people who have language problems, vision problems,
and motion problems related to paralysis and loss of limb.
Task 2 Below are notes on robot sensors, which allow robots to sense objects around
them. Write a working thesis statement that covers the information.
Model: Developing the Working Thesis Statement
1 Sophisticated devices on robots allow them to imitate the human senses of hearing,
sight, and touch.
2 Some robots are programmed to hear and respond to only one human voice giving
commands.
3 The sense of touch in some robots is controlled by the machine’s receiving an
electrical charge when it touches an object.
4 Some robots can be programmed to edit out differences in voice quality so that they
can respond to any human voice.
5 The simplest form of robot sight is the ability to detect the presence or absence of
light.
6 In some hearing robots, a double system entry is used. The first step is a voice
command from its programmer; the second step requires an additional command
from the programmer.
7 Some robots can control the amount of pressure they exert on an object through
what is called forced feedback.
8 Some robots can “see” gradations of light and dark, not merely its presence or
absence.
9 TV cameras are used in some robots as a vision device.
10 Some robots do not have to touch things to know they are nearby; proximity
sensors tell them when they are near objects.
Task 3 Learn the guidelines for taking notes and writing note cards.
Taking Notes
Составление конспекта
Once you have chosen a topic for a report, you need to consider what information you
want to include. One way to decide is to write questions you want the report to answer.
While you are researching your topic, keep your questions in mind and look for facts that
answer them. Take notes.
Guidelines for Taking Notes
1 Read your selection. Notice any headings or subheadings.
2 Reread the selection, noting important ideas and facts. Use sentences, phrases,
words, or abbreviations.
3 Write the notes in your own words, but do not change the author’s meaning.
4 Include enough information so the notes make sense.
5 Write a particularly interesting fact word-for-word, in quotation marks. You may
want to use it in your report.
Guidelines for Writing Note Cards
1 Write one question at the top of the card.
2 Write the notes that answer the questions.
3 Write the title and page number of your source.
Task 4 Learn how to write summarizing. Take any story and summarize it.
Summarizing
Обобщение
The research guide questions you developed earlier will help you locate relevant
information in each source. As you take notes on that information, keep the following goals
in mind.
The purposes of note-taking are to summarize main points in your own words and
record quotations that you might use in your research paper. Here is an example of note
card with summarizing about Stephen Hawking, the world’s greatest theoretical physicist, a
man with disabilities caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal nerve disease that
strips its victims of the ability to walk, talk, and eventually move even a finger.
Task 5 Read about organizing notes.
Organizing your Notes
Систематизация записей
The working thesis statement and your guide questions are all you need to help you
sort your note cards into categories. Notice, for example, that the following categories on
the subject of computers’ helping people with disabilities are directly related to the
questions that guided the research. Some questions have been left out, however, to control
the length of the paper.
Student Model: Organizing your Notes into Categories
CATEGORY 1 How computers help people with language disabilities
CATEGORY 2 How computers help people with vision-related problems
CATEGORY 3 How computers help people with paralysis or loss of limb
CATEGORY 4 Computer costs versus benefits
Task 6 Group the notes of your research paper into three or more categories of
information.
Task 7 Read about what outlining is Outlining
Написание плана к работе
Your final prewriting step is to organize your notes into an outline. As the basis of
your outline, use the categories into which you grouped your notes. Then look over your
notes to determine the overall organization of the paper. If your subject is historical event,
chronological order may be appropriate. If you intend to describe something, spatial order
may be suitable. However, the two most common methods of organizing research papers
are order of importance and development order.
Plan the outline of your research paper by deciding on a method of organization and
by assigning your categories accordingly, using Roman numerals.
Below is the model of the outline for the paper on computers and disabled people.
Notice the parallel phrasing. Each group of subtopics is phrased in parallel form.
Model: Outlining
WORKING THESIS STATEMENT Computers are able to help people who have language
problems, vision problems, and motion problems related to paralysis and loss of limb
MAIN TOPIC
I Computers helping people with language disabilities
SUBTOPICS
A Program for children slow in speech and development
B “Light talkers” for cerebral palsy victims
C Computer and speech synthesizer
II Computers helping people with vision disabilities
A “Seeing Eye” computers
B Reading machines