Noodletools for Graduating Seniors

NoodleTools for graduating seniors

Many students "grow up" with NoodleTools, and we look forward to supporting the leap to college. Ensure continued access to existing high-school projects, and be prepared for that first college research paper. For a limited time, graduating high-schoolers are eligible for a special promotional rate! Only $15 for access all the way through September 2016. Students can sign up themselves, or parents can help out. Click to learn more:
http://noodle.to/taketocollege


Thousands of college and graduate students use individual NoodleTools subscriptions to scaffold the first-year experience and expanding research needs.


College Professor
"This is an online tool created by folks who have deep, long-term investments in how students learn and how we can scaffold without stifling."


University Librarian
"I have never found a friendlier, more helpful, more responsive, more ethical website than yours."


High-School Librarian
"NoodleTools helps us do an excellent job of preparing our high school students for academic research, as many of them write to tell us from the rigorous 4 year institutions to which they matriculate. In fact, many (most?) of our students subscribe as individuals once they matriculate to college because the tool is comprehensive (creates APA, MLA, and Chicago style bibliographic citations), is integrated with note-taking and outlining software, and is familiar to them with its organizational tools like the Dashboard."


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Damon Abilock
NoodleTools Co-Founder

Smith ~ Comprehensive English Research Paper

THE RESEARCHED ARGUMENT PROJECT                                                        MR. SMITH

This assignment is intended to be a culmination of the skills you’ve developed throughout the year in this course.

The researched argument is an academic piece of writing that requires analytical thinking, synthesis of information, and intellectual inquiry. The result of your study will be a well-developed essay that argues a position using collected data and facts. Your paper should possess what Gerald Graff refers to as an “intellectualism” worthy of a student about to enter their senior year in high school.

You will spend the next four weeks making very important decisions that will greatly affect your 4^th quarter grade. Please take these assignments seriously. The following are tasks to aid in this process. You are required to keep all portions of this assignment including hard copies of source materials, annotations, and completed tasks. Each task is meant to provide a foundation for the next step in the process towards completion of the essay.

*****All tasks must be typed (Times New Roman, 12 pt., double-spaced, MLA format).

Task #2 (suggested time: 1 week)                                            END PRODUCT: Flawless MLA Works Cited Page

Make a decision about a topic that will generate a suitable argument. Do some reading about your chosen topic to familiarize yourself with the issues that will allow for intellectual inquiry. It’s through your reading that you’ll begin to consider an arguable thesis or claim that you will want to pursue. As you amass information, you should KEEP HARD COPIES of every source (make photocopies of pages in books, print internet articles). You will need a total of 4 sources; 1 primary and 3 secondary.

Please familiarize yourself with MLA citation style. Use Owl@Purdue or Diana Hacker sites for samples pages, examples of sources and format assistance. DO NOT USE NOODLE TOOLS!

Create a typed Works Cited page with at least 4 relevant and varied sources that you have accessed.  

Task #3 (suggested time: 2 hours)                            END PRODUCT: Statement of the argument and outline

What’s expected in this portion of the assignment is a thesis statement that reflects a well-considered argument that the paper will address. Remember, it should be one that can be adequately supported by a document that appears on your Works Cited page.

Your outline that follows should lay out the supporting paragraphs necessary in the support of your thesis. Provide a topic sentence as an indication of your intent in the specific paragraph.

 As with any argument, you must include a paragraph that presents counterarguments. Start this paragraph making a concession.

 Suggested Information Resources: 

You can access credible resources of information using the DESTINY Library Services page. (Username/Password) information available in Computer Labs or ask at Library Front Desk.

• VRC Databases (E.g. Opposing Viewpoints in Context; SIRS Knowledge Source;Academic Onefile)
• Owl@Purdue link available on Destiny 
  

McAuliffe ~ AP Literature & Composition Research

Assignment.  Find a topic that derives from something we have studied this year. Choose a major work or an author we have read, a novelist, playwright, or short story writer.  Or choose a poem or poet we have studied.  Consider literary theories, such as New Criticism, Reader Response, or any that have derived from Deconstruction Criticism. The topic should be suitable for a 5-7 page research paper using a minimum of three legitimate outside sources.  Your paper must follow MLA guidelines for manuscript format and citation conventions.

Getting Started.  Begin with a topic that interests you. Then follow a “true inquiry” process: ask a difficult question, offer a hunch or hypothesis, test it and ask, What else do I need to find out? Then visit a school-sponsored site (e.g. Bloom or Gale Group) or begin with a book or article.  The topic may be one that you have already thought about  (female characters in Hamlet), or it may be a question you have not yet considered ( How did a particular closed form – e.g. villanelle – develop over time?)

Read pages 2179-2184 in your textbook.  This will give you an overview of what this kind of paper entails.  It also addresses important issues like internet reliability and plagiarism.

Review the hand out, “Sample Research Topics.”  This will give you some idea of suitable topics for this assignment.  It may also stimulate ideas of your own.  Whatever topic you choose must be related directly to this course; it should not derive from a class you took previously (e.g., A.P. Language, 11 H, or 10H).

Work will be submitted through Turnitin.com. Some will be done in school, though you will have to do much of the drafting on your own time.  Steps along the way will be graded. These grades* will count for Quarter 4. 

Suggested Information Resources: 

• Bloom's Literature Resource Center (located under the VRC's Literature & Language)
• WMHS Library eBook Collection (if you need a copy of a work you have read)
• WMHS Destiny Library Catalog for print copies of a work you have read

Schedule.

Wed. May 13          Topic due*

Fri. May 22             Tentative thesis statement* and Preliminary Works Cited due*

Tues. May 26          Rough draft peer review*

Mon. June 1            Paper due