Chapter 6

山东滨州学院外语系

Chapter 6 Locate General Information

on Your Topic and Read to Refine It Further

1. Two essential points

Library research

Individual thinking

2. Division of Library Sources

Three types: reference books, periodicals, and general books

(1) Reference books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, handbooks and bibliographies.

(2) Periodicals include journals, magazines, and newspapers.

3. The differences between journals and magazines

(1) content and readership

Journals usually refer to scholarly or professional periodical publications such as English Education for a professional readership.

Magazines are non-specialized periodicals such as Newsweek for a much broader readership.

(2) some technical aspects

Journals are published quarterly, whereas magazines usually appear weekly or monthly. Journals have a continuous pagination for all the issues over a period

of one year. Each issue of a magazine has an exclusive pagination.

4. General books

General books are listed alphabetically in the library’s general catalog.

5. Library Service System

(1) The Reference Section

The reference section of a library contains reference books and many college libraries attach reading-rooms to the reference section. You particularly need to familiarize yourself with those related to your specialty as an English major.

(2) The Card Catalog

The card catalog is the general directory of books available in the library. It usually takes the form of three sets of cards alphabetically arranged by the author’s last name, title of the book, and subject-heading respectively.

involve any knowledge beyond the authors’ specialty.

(4) It can be easily seen that there will be sufficient materials for research on both topics.

(5) Students have put appropriate limits to their topics to meet the specific length requirement for their B. A. thesis assignment.

6. Four points of choosing and limiting a topic

(1) Interest Does the topic stimulate your own curiosity, an

d possibly that of the potential readers? (2) Availability of information Is there enough information and material for th

e topic? Are they good enough to support the topic, or are they too recent, too specialized, and too geographically removed?

(3) OriginalityDoes the topic provide enough

room for original analysis, original thinking, and an original conclusion?

Avoid writing a report containing only all-known information.

(4) Academic valueIs the topic of sufficient

academic interest?Avoid topics that may be too

general, too sensational, or too personal.

Some Examples

1. Early Childhood Education The Content of Early Childhood

Education The Teaching Methods of Early

Childhood Education The Best Period of Early Childhood

Education

Why some girls cannot accept early child education?

The deep root of social systemWhat measures should be taken and

the value of advantage of doing the early childhood education?

2. The Lost Generation3. United Nations and World

Peace4. Food as Culture

7. A suitable subject depends on four factors

(1) length of time you have to research and develop your paper

(2) length of paper (3) availability of secondary resources School library, computer database (4)need for primary research Interview, surveys, experiments or data

analysis

Chapter 7 Make a Working Bibliography

A working bibliography means that the bibliography can be very useful for your later writing.

Using card files

MLA bibliographic formats

The Modern Languages Association bibliographic style is the standard for research writing in English.

The basic format for a book (1) Full name of the author: last name

first, followed by a comma, and then the first name and middle name or initial. End the

author’s full name with a period and two spaces.

(2) Full title of the book, including any subtitle. Underline the complete title, capitalize all the important words, and separate the main title and the subtitle with a colon and one space. End the complete title with a period and two spaces.

(3) Publication information. Provide first the name of the city of publication followed by a comma and one space, and finally the year of publication. End the publication information with a period.

E.g.

Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. New York: Harcourt, 1965.

夏洛蒂·勃郎特，《简·爱》 , 祝庆英 译，上海：上海译文出版社 , 1992 。

盛宁，《二十世纪美国文论》，北京：北京 大学出版社， 1993 。

弗吉尼亚 · 伍尔芙 , 《伍尔芙随笔全集》，黄梅等译，北京 : 中国社会科学出社 ,2000 。

陈章云，“孤舟在命运的沧海”，《外语教学与研究》 2003 第 5 期。

刘小枫，“圣人的虚静”，《读书》 2002 第 3 期。 王克非，“英汉 / 汉英语句对应的语料库考察”，

《外语 教学与研究》 2003 第 6 期。 许 英，“达沃斯经济论坛的政治解读”，《瞭望东

方 刊》 2005 第 5 期。

中文书目按作者姓氏字母顺序排列

文章标题用“引号”，刊物、杂志名用《书名号》

第二行缩进两个汉字

Chapter 5 Develop tentative thesis statement and outline

1.Evaluating Sources and Reading for Ideas

(1) How to read a book

A simple and efficient way to do this is to scan the front and back covers, the introduction, the table of contents, and the index.

(2) Factors to determine the reliability of sources

The author: Reputation is the best criterion for

judging the reliability of a source. The publisher: The more established and well-known

the

Publisher, the less likely it will be to public unreliable works.

Date of publication: The year in which the book was

published is indicated on the bottom of the title page. The more recent the date of publication, the more up-to-date the content.

Periodicals: Signed articles with the author’s credit. Content: An outline is an orderly plan in writing,

showing the division and arrangements of ideas.

2. Writing a tentative thesis statement

A thesis statement should be expressed in “a single sentence that formulates both your topic and your own point of view toward it.”

3. Writing a preliminary outline (1) draw up some plan that will act as a

blueprint. (2) put your thoughts down on paper

with

The idea that you will be reviewing this outline and eliminating items that are not pertinent.( 相关的 )

(3) The actual order will be determined by the subject matter.

(4) Always keeping your thesis statement before you, you should list those topics that

You think should be discussed in your paper. (5) After listing all possible topics, you should

check each one against your thesis statement, asking yourself, “Will this help to prove my thesis?” If the answer is no, then that topic should be eliminated. The remaining topics should be organized in a logical order, focused on solving the problem set forth in the thesis statement.

山东滨州学院外语系山东滨州学院外语系