CHAPTER 1

Research may be defined as documented prose work. This prose work means organized analysis of the subject based on borrowed materials with suitable acknowledgment and consultation in the main body of the paper. Simply research is one of the ways to find answers to your questions. The research is a human activity based on intellectual investigation and aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising human knowledge on different aspects of the world. Research can use the scientific method, but need not do so.

We undertake research when we wish to explore an idea, probe an issue, solve a problem, or make an argument that compels us to turn to outside help. We then seek out, investigate, and use materials beyond our personal resources. The findings and conclusions of such an inquiry appear in the research paper. The term research paper/work describes a presentation of student research that may be in a printed, an electronic, or a multimedia format

The research paper/work is generally based on primary research, secondary research, or a combination of the two. Primary research is the study of a subject through firsthand observation and investigation, such as analyzing a literary or historical text, a film, or a performance; conducting a survey or an interview; or carrying out a laboratory experiment. Primary sources include statistical data, historical documents, and works of literature or art. Secondary research is the examination of studies that other researchers have made of a subject. Examples of secondary sources are books and articles about political issues, historical events, scientific debates, or literary works.

Most academic papers/works depend at least partly on secondary research. No matter what your subject of study, learning to investigate, review, and productively use information, ideas, and opinions of other researchers will play a major role in your development as a student. The sorts of activities that constitute a research paper—identifying, locating, assessing, and assimilating others' research and then developing and expressing your own ideas clearly and persuasively—are at the center of the educational experience.

Research increases the knowledge and understanding of a subject. Sometimes research will confirm your ideas and opinions; some-times it will challenge and modify them. But almost always it will help to shape your thinking. Unless your supervisor/teacher specifically directs you otherwise, a research paper should not merely review publications and extract a series of quotations from them. Rather, you should look for sources that provide new information, that help-fully survey the various positions already taken on a specific subject, that lend authority to your viewpoint, that expand or nuance your ideas, that offer methods or modes of thought you can apply to new data or subjects, or that furnish negative examples against which you wish to argue. As you use and scrupulously acknowledge sources, however, always remember that the main purpose of doing research is not to summarize the work of others but to assimilate and to build on it and to arrive at your own understanding of the subject.

Any publication like this cannot present all the profitable ways of doing research. Because this “Doing Research and Referencing: Based on MLA …” emphasizes the mechanics of preparing effective papers, it may give you the mistaken impression that the process of researching and writing a research paper follows a fixed pattern. The truth is that different paths can and do lead to successful research papers. Some researchers may pursue a more or less standard sequence of steps, but others may find themselves working less sequentially. In addition, certain projects lend them-selves to a standard approach, whereas others may call for different strategies. Keeping in mind that researchers and projects differ, this compiled publication discusses activities that nearly all writers of research papers perform, such as selecting a suitable topic, conducting research, compiling a working bibliography etc.

Actually, a research paper is an adventure, an intellectual adventure rather like solving a mystery: it is a form of exploration that leads to discoveries that are new—at least to you if not to others. The mechanics of the research paper, important though they are, should never override the intellectual challenge of pursuing a question that interests you (and ultimately your reader). This quest or search should guide your research and your writing. Even though you are just learning how to prepare a research paper, you may still experience some of the excitement of pursuing and developing ideas that is one of the great satisfactions of research and scholarship.

Skills derived from preparing research papers are by no means just academic. Many reports and proposals required in business, government, and other professions similarly rely on secondary research. Learning how to write a research paper, then, can help prepare you for assignments in your professional career. It is difficult to think of any profession that would not require you to consult sources of information about a specific subject, to combine this information with your ideas, and to present your thoughts, findings, and conclusions effectively.

A research paper is a form of written communication. Like other kinds of nonfiction writing—letters, memos, reports, essays, articles, books—it should present information and ideas clearly and effectively. You should not let the mechanics of gathering source materials, taking notes, and documenting sources make you forget to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired through previous writing experiences.

This Doing Research and Referencing: Based on MLA 6th Edition is a guide for the preparation of research papers / works. It is not a book about expository writing. Although you must fully document the facts and opinions you draw from your research, the documentation should only support your statements and provide concise information about the sources cited; it should not over-shadow your own ideas or distract the reader from them.

Different courses and different supervisor/teachers offer widely varying degrees of freedom to students selecting topics for research papers. The supervisor/teacher of a course in a specific discipline (e.g., art, history, literature, science) may supply a list of topics from which to choose or may, more generally, require that the paper relate to an important aspect of the course. If you are given the latter option, review course readings and class notes to find topics that particularly interest you. Discuss possibilities with other students and with your supervisor/teacher. If your choice is limited to a set list of topics, you will probably still need to decide which aspect of a topic to explore or which approach to use.

In a writing class, you may have more freedom to select a topic. The supervisor/teacher may assign a general problem that can generate many kinds of responses—for example, you might be asked to choose a modern invention and show what benefits and problems it has brought about. If you have complete freedom to choose a topic, consider using a personal interest that lends itself to research (e.g., education, the environment, new technologies, nutrition, politics.) or an issue that has recently generated public interest or controversy (e.g., cloning, global warming, terrorism).

Teachers understand the importance of choosing an appropriate topic for a research paper. When freedom of choice is permitted, students are commonly required to submit topics to the supervisor/teacher for approval early in the research project.

As you choose a topic, remember the time allotted to you and the expected length of the research paper. "International politics in the modern age" would obviously be too broad a subject for a ten-page term paper. You may prefer to begin with a fairly general topic and then to refine it, by thought and research, into a more specific one that can be fully explored. Try to narrow your topic by focusing on an aspect of the subject or an approach to it. A student initially interested in the general subject of "violence in the media" might decide, after careful thought and reading, to write on "the effects of cartoon violence on preschool children." Likewise, an interest in architecture could lead to a focus on the design and construction of domes, which could in turn be narrowed to a comparison between the ancient Roman dome and the Byzantine dome.

Preliminary reading is essential as you evaluate and refine topics. Consult, in print or electronic form, general reference works, such as encyclopedias, as well as articles and books in the areas you are considering. You can also refine your topic by doing subject searches in reference databases and in online catalogs and through Internet search tools Such preliminary reading and searches will also let you know if enough work has been done on the subject to permit adequate research and whether the pertinent source materials are readily accessible.

Selecting an appropriate topic is seldom a simple matter. Even after you discover a subject that attracts your interest, you may well find yourself revising your choice, modifying your approach, or changing topics altogether after you have begun research.

The library will generally be your most reliable guide as you conduct research for papers that draw on the published work of experts. Librarians evaluate resources for authority and quality before acquiring them for use in research. You should therefore become thoroughly acquainted with the libraries available to you and take full advantage of the resources and services they provide on-site and over the Internet.

The modern academic library typically offers resources in print and electronic forms and in other non print media (e.g., films, sound recordings), as well as computer services, such as word processing, high-quality printers, and access to the Internet. Whereas some important resources are available only in the library building (e.g., most books and other publications solely in print form, microfilm materials, special collections), your library probably provides a number of electronic resources, such as bibliographic and full-text data-bases, that are accessible not only through computer terminals in the library but also over the Internet through the library's Web site.

Most academic libraries have programs of orientation and instruction to meet the needs of all students, from beginning researchers to graduate students. The library's Web site likely contains scheduling information on such programmes as well as descriptions of available resources and services.

Nearly all public and academic libraries have desks staffed by professional reference librarians who can tell you about available instructional programs and help you locate sources. Consulting a librarian at key points in your research may save you considerable time and effort.

Touring or reading about your library will reveal the many important sources of information it makes available to researchers. Information sources fall into four general categories.

The library typically houses a vast number of books as well as similar publications such as pamphlets and perhaps dissertations. Books are essential sources for many projects, and some supervisor/teachers require that students use books—in addition to articles, Internet sites, and other materials—during research. Relatively few books are available electronically over the Internet, but you can usually borrow most books from the library. A common exception is the library's collection of reference works (e.g. indexes, bibliographies, abstracts, statistical resources and references works). Although reference works usually cannot be borrowed, many important ones are likely available to you through the library's Web site. e.g

The library gives access to numerous articles and similar writings (e.g., reviews, editorials) published in print periodicals such as scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines. (See 5.7 on citing articles and other publications in print periodicals in the list of works cited.)

Most libraries also provide non-print sources such as sound recordings and video recordings and possibly also unpublished writings (e.g., manuscripts or private letters in special collections). (See 5.8 on citing these sources in the list of works cited.)

Your library probably offers reference works in electronic form and full-text databases and may also recommend useful Internet sites. Your library may also subscribe to journals available only in electronic form. e.g. http://www.gcu.edu.pk/library/S_FullJourIP.htm. (See also 5.9 on citing electronic sources in the list of works cited.)

Most academic libraries provide an online central information system to guide students and faculty members to research sources. The system ordinarily includes

· The library's catalog of holdings (books, periodicals, electronic sources, audiovisual materials, CD-Roms etc.(e.g. http://libraryportal.lums.edu.pk/)

· Bibliographic databases, such as Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Business Periodicals Index, Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index, and General Science Index

· Other electronic resources, including reference works e.g. http://www.gcu.edu.pk/library/E_Ref.htm (see also 1.4.4), full-text databases to which the library subscribes e.g. http://www.digitallibrary.edu.pk/Resources.php (see also 1.4.6), and recommended Internet sites to which the library provides links. (e.g. http://www.gcu.edu.pk/library/S_FullJourOA.htm. see also1.4.8)

The central information system might also be part of a network linking the catalogs of a number of libraries. For instance, the system in your institution might permit you to search the holdings of local public libraries or of other universities. If your library is part of a network you may be able to locate sources recorded in the catalogs of thou-sands of other libraries. The central information system (e.g. http://www.thetowertech.com/gculms/search.asp) has almost completely replaced the card catalog in academic libraries. Card catalogs are sometimes still used for materials such as special collections that have not yet been incorporated into the information system.)

A useful way to begin a research project is to consult relevant reference works. Some reference works, like indexes and bibliographies, categorize research materials by subject and provide data that permit you to locate sources—author, title, date of publication etc. Other reference works, like encyclopedias, dictionaries, and biographical sources, give basic information about subjects. This section provides a brief introduction to the range of general and specialized reference works you should know about, many of which are available in print and electronic forms.

Indexes guide you to material in newspapers, magazines, and journals as well as to writings in book collections.

· The New York Times Index, The Wall Street Journal Index, The Washington Post Index and GCU Newspapers Index list articles in selected newspapers.

· Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature indexes the contents of popular magazines.

· Most subject areas have their own specialized indexes, such as Art Index, Business Periodicals Index, Education Index, General Science Index, Humanities Index, Philosopher's Index, and Social Sciences Index.

Collections of abstracts present summaries of journal articles and other literature.

Guides to research seek to direct you to the most important sources of information and scholarship in the area you are researching. Unlike indexes, bibliographies, and collections of abstracts, which tend to strive for comprehensiveness and objectivity in presenting information, guides to research are usually selective and evaluative.

Dictionaries are alphabetically arranged works that provide information, usually in concise form, about words or topics.

Encyclopedias are works, usually alphabetically arranged, that give introductory information about subjects.

Yearbooks present information about specific years in the past. Examples are The Americana Annual, Britannica Book of the Year, and The Europa Yearbook.

Almanacs are annual publications containing data, especially statistics, about many subjects. Examples are The World Almanac and Book of Facts and The World Factbook.

Atlases are collections of maps. The Times Atlas of the World covers regions and nations of the entire world.

Gazetteers provide geographic information. Examples are The Columbia Gazetteer of the World and Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. Recently Gazetteers of different cities of Pakistan have been published by Sang-e-meal publishers Lahore.

Print. Print works may be located in a reference room. General reference books, like dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, yearbooks, atlases, and gazetteers, may all be shelved together in one place, while specialized reference books may be grouped according to subject area—biology, business, literature., psychology, and so forth. The volumes of reference works published annually—indexes, bibliographies, and abstracts collections—are likely lined up in chronological order.

Electronic. Reference works available as electronic databases are usually online or on CD-ROM. Searching and drawing material from the library's databases can be done in the library building and probably from outside as well, over the Internet. Print versus electronic. Online and CD-ROM databases have a number of advantages over print versions of reference works.

Every field of study has standard reference works. One such work is the MLA International Bibliography, which lists studies in the fields of language and literature. This work is published in print and electronic formats.

Print. The printed library edition of this work is published annually in two clothbound books. The first contains listings in five areas: literature in English, literature in other languages, linguistics, general literature and related topics, and folklore. The second book provides a subject index to the first.

Electronic. The MLA International Bibliography is also published in online and CD-ROM versions, which contain all citations published in annual volumes of the bibliography from 1963 to the present. Each vendor's system has help screens to guide you through its software interface.

Author searches. By entering the name of a scholar, you can obtain a list of the titles by the author that are collected in the data-base. For example, if you want to know what studies by the writer Deborah Tannen have been published in the fields covered by this bibliography, you can enter her name and receive a list of titles.

· Title searches. If you know only the title of a work—like the essay "Black Matter(s)" or the book Talking Voices—you can call forth complete bibliographic information about the work from the data-base by entering the title. If you remember only part of the title (e.g., "city"), you can request a listing of all titles containing that term (e.g., "Fun City: TV's Urban Situation Comedies of the 1990s," "The City in Modern Polish and Hungarian Poetry," "The London Scene: City and Court," "Japanese Adolescent Speech Styles in Hiroshima City: An Ethnographic Study").

· Subject searches. Since every work added to this bibliography is accompanied by at least one descriptor—a term that describes the work's subject matter—you can also search the database by subject. Thus, if you ask for studies that discuss, for instance, "detective fiction," the system will search through its files and present you with all titles that have "detective fiction" as a descriptor. If you want studies of Toni Morrison's novels, you can search for records with "Toni Morrison" as a descriptor.

· Expanded searches. All databases (e.g like the MLA International Bibliography) also permit you to expand or narrow your searches use-fully. While you are trying to decide on a topic, you may want to do expanded searches to get a broad sense of possibilities. An expanded subject search of this database can be particularly helpful when you are developing a suitable research topic. If you have a general idea that you want to write on detective fiction, you can find related subjects by entering the word "

Pakistan

" in your expanded subject search. The following is a sampling of the related topics you will receive, with links to relevant bibliographic listings:

Also useful for expanded searches is the truncation (or wild card) feature. By using a truncated, or shortened, term—for example, a word root—followed by an asterisk (or the symbols : or $, depending on the vendor's software interface), you can retrieve all variants of it. If you wish, for instance, to do a paper on feminism but cannot decide what aspect to focus on, you can enter as a search term "femini*" and receive records on, among other subjects, "feminine discourse," "femininity," "feminist literary theory and criticism," "feminist movement," and "feminist writers."

· Boolean searches. Like all other databases the electronic MLA International Bibliography also permits searching according to Boolean logic—named after the nineteenth-century British mathematician and logician George Boole. In this kind of searching, you customize your search request with the operators and, or, and not (see fig. 1). For example, you can use the Boolean operator or to expand your search. The following search expression will furnish

more titles than either "Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Sherlock Holmes" by itself would:

If you want to perform narrower searches, the Boolean operators not and “and” can limit the field of titles accessed. If you are interested in finding studies on, say, versions of the story of Othello other than Shakespeare's, enter the following:

Or if you would like to identify studios that compare Shakespeare's play with Othello, Verdi's operatic adaptation of it, keying the following rather than just "Othello" will result in a shorter, more focused list of sources:

· Other advanced searches. The MLA International Bibliography in its electronic versions offers other ways to restrict your search. It allows you to retrieve titles from a single publication source—for instance, articles on Othello that have appeared in Shakespeare Quarterly over the last several decades. The database also allows you to limit your search according to language of publication (e.g., Japanese, Spanish), publication type (e.g., book, journal article), and publication year. You can obtain a list, for example, of books on Goethe's Faust that were written in German and published in 2000 or later.

The database allows you to print out and download bibliographic information. It also gives you a choice of how to view, print, or download data. The display style varies among the interfaces through which the MLA International Bibliography is offered. Figures 2 and 3 present two ways in which the bibliographic information may appear. The complete record (fig 2) includes title, author, source, international standard serial number (ISSN), language of publication, publication type, publication year, subject descriptors, sequence number, update code, and accession number. The shortened citation (fig. 3) usually gives only title, author, and source.

In the line of fire: a memoir/ Pervez Musharraf.

LC Control No.:	2006050489
Type of Material:	Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name:	Musharraf, Pervez.
Main Title:	In *the* *line* of *fire* : a memoir / Pervez Musharraf.
Published/Created:	New York : Free Press, c2006.
Description:	xii, 354 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
ISBN:	0743283449
	9780743283441
Contents:	Face-to-face with terror -- Train to Pakistan -- Settling in Karachi -- Turkey : *the* formative years -- Home -- Leaving *the* nest ---*The* potter’s wheel -- Into *the* *fire* -- Life in *the* *fire* -- Living through *the* dreadful decade -- From chief to chief executive ---*The* Kargil conflict -- Plan to Pakistan ---*The* conspiracy ---*The* countercoup -- Anatomy of suicide -- Pakistan first ---*The* quest for democracy -- Putting *the* system right -- Kick-starting *the* economy -- One day that changed *the* world -- Omar and Osama ---*The* war comes to Pakistan -- Manhunt -- Tightening *the* noose -- Al Qaeda in *the* mountains ---*The* symbiosis of terrorism and religion -- Nuclear proliferation -- International diplomacy ---*The* social sector ---*The* emancipation of women ---*The* soft image of Pakistan -- Leadership on trial : *the* earthquake -- Reflections.
Notes:	Includes index.
Subjects:	Musharraf, *Pervez.*
	Presidents--Pakistan--Biography.
	Pakistan--Politics and government--1988-
LC Classification:	DS389.22.M87 A3 2006
Dewey Class No.:	954.9105/3 22
Other System No.:	(OCoLC)ocm70778393
Geographic Area Code:	a-pk---
Quality Code:	Pcc
Electronic File Information:	Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0701/2006050489-d.html
Links:	Publisher description
CALL NUMBER:	DS389.22.M87 A3 2006 (LOC), 954.91053 (DDC)
	Copy 1

Fig. 2. A complete citation from a Library of Congress (LoC) bibliographic database.

In the line of fire: a memoir/ Pervez Musharraf

LC Control No.:	2006050489
Type of Material:	Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name:	Musharraf, *Pervez.*
Main Title:	In *the* *line* of *fire* : a memoir / Pervez Musharraf.
Published/Created:	New York : Free Press, c2006.
Description:	xii, 354 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
ISBN:	0743283449
	9780743283441
Links:	Publisher description
CALL NUMBER:	DS389.22.M87 A3 2006 (LOC), 954.91053 (DDC)
	Copy 1

The advantage of the short form is that it saves time and space while providing the information necessary for locating the material and for creating a preliminary entry for your works-cited list. You can easily convert the bibliographic data in figure 3 to MLA documentation style.

Tannen, Deborah. "Gender in Research on Language: Researching Gender Related Patterns in Classroom Discourse." TESOL Quarterly 30 (1996): 341-44.

An important part of a library's central information system is the online catalog of the holdings known as OPAC. There is no standard system for online catalogs. Systems differ, for example, in how users access information and in what appears on the screen. All systems, however, permit searching.

When using an online catalog, you can locate a work in a number of ways. The most common are by author, by title, and by subject.

· Author searches. If you enter the author's full name—whether a personal name (e.g., Maxine Hong Kingston) or a corporate name (e.g., Pakistan.Senate)—the screen displays a list of all the works the library has by that author. If you know only an author's last name (e.g., Kingston), you can obtain a list of all authors with that last name.

· Title searches. Entering the title produces a list of all works the library has with that title. The online catalog contains not only book titles but also titles of other works in the system, including journals (e.g., Psychology and Marketing), databases (e.g.,EBSCO), and book series. If you enter the name of a book series, such as "Approaches to Teaching World Literature", you will receive a list of all book titles in the series. If you know only the beginning of a title—for example, only Advertising, Competition, instead of Advertising, Competition, and Public Policy: A Simulation Study—you can enter what you know, and the screen will display all titles that begin with those words.

· Subject heading searches. If you have no author or title in mind, you can enter a subject heading to produce a list of works about the subject. Most academic libraries exclusively use the subject headings that appear in the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Sear’s List of Subject Headings. Many headings have more specific subheadings. For example, you can enter "Mass media and the environment" and receive a list of all works assigned that general subject heading, or you can obtain a more specialized list by entering one of the following:

Information Agreements, Competition, and Efficiency Conglomerate Mergers and Market Competition

A subject heading search using the keyword "competition" will produce the titles of all works whose subject descriptions include the word, such as Europe versus America? Contradictions of Imperialism, one of whose subject headings is "Competition, International," or Unequal Freedoms: The Global Market as an Ethical System, one of whose subject headings is "Competition—Moral and ethical aspects."

· Boolean searches. Online catalogs also typically permit searching according to Boolean logic—that is, using the operators and, or, and not. For instance, suppose you are interested in studies on the relation between nutrition and cancer. A search using "nutrition" alone or "cancer" alone would yield a list of all works having any-thing to do with the subject of each search, and you would have to pick out the items dealing with the two subjects together. In contrast, a Boolean search using "nutrition and cancer" excludes all works not about both subjects. Likewise, if you want to see which authors besides Goethe wrote about the Faust theme, you can enter "Faust not Goethe." In addition to narrowing lists of titles, Boolean searching is useful for expanding them. For example, if you wish to research solar heating, you night enter "solar or sun and heating," which will produce more titles than would just "solar and heating." (On using Boolean logic in searching a reference database)

· Other advanced searches. Online catalogs allow you to limit your search in various ways. You may ask for titles published during a certain range of years (e.g., 2000 to the present) or titles located only in one specific part of your library (e.g., the main collection). You may be able, too, to limit your search to specific media (e.g., books, serials, electronic publications, archives, manuscripts, musical scores, films, video or sound recordings). This feature will permit you, say, to request a list of books that were published in Spanish between 1990 and 2000 about cave paintings in Spain, or it will let you find out if your library has any video recordings about mythology or the Civil War.

When you access a title, the screen shows something like the example in figure 4. The top lines of the screen image contain the author's name (Beg, Muhammad Abdul Jabbar.), the full title of the book (Brief lives of the companions of prophet Muhammad : the Saḥābah in Islamic history (including the first four caliphs 632-60AD), and complete publication information (the book was published by Cambridge : M.A.J. Beg, 2003.). Then follows the call number. The next section tells you that the library possesses one copy of the work, which is located on an open shelf. The following lines describe the physical characteristics of the book (it has 112 pages and illustrations 21 centimeters in height); indicate that it contains a bibliography and an index; show the subject headings under which the book is cataloged; and give the international standard book numbers (ISBNs) for the cloth and paperback versions of the book.

For the purposes of researching and writing your paper, you normally will not use most of the information that appears in the catalog entry. You need to know the call number, of course, to locate the work in the library. (DDC classes: 000 -999) and, for your paper's works-cited list, you also need to know the author, title, and full publication information (see ch. 5 on information needed for compiling the list of works cited).

McCann, Sean. Gumshoe

America

: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism. Durham: Duke UP, 2000.

Transcribe this information carefully. Online catalog systems typically give the option of printing out or downloading the bibliographic data displayed on the screen. This feature saves you the effort of copying the information and eliminates the possibility of transcription errors.

System number	010126041
Author – personal	Beg, Muhammad Abdul Jabbar.
Title	Brief lives of the companions of prophet Muhammad : the Saḥābah in Islamic history (including the first four caliphs 632-60AD) / Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg.
Edition	2nd (rev.) ed.
Publisher/year	Cambridge : M.A.J. Beg, 2003.
Physical descr.	112 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
General note	Previous ed.: 2002.
Person as subject	Muḥammad, Prophet, d. 632 -- Companions -- Biography.
Subject	Islam -- History.
Subject	Arabian Peninsula -- History -- To 1500.
Holdings (All)	Details
Shelfmark	YC.2003.a.3897 Request
ISBN	0954188217 (pbk.) : £8.00
Dewey class. no.	297.648 21