Descriptive Report Writing One of the writing requirements for all grade 8 students is a descriptive report. The purpose of this kind of report is to present your reader with factual information on a topic. Descriptive reports require the evaluation of research - assessing what others have written about a particular topic. Reports do not contain personal opinion and should not include the personal pronoun "I." Your Task: Research a topic of your choice and report your findings in a well written, five paragraph report. Requirements: o Verify your topic with me before beginning o Use at least three sources of information o Complete a graphic organizer/outline o Revise and edit your rough draft o Good copy written in MLA format (no title page please) o Neatly printed, doubled spaced, in blue or black ink OR typed, 1.5 spacing, in Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri font o Bibliography listing all sources used You will be evaluated using the rubric provided. This rubric is the one used to evaluate the writing portion of your ELPA in grade 9. Remember, this piece of writing is going into your cumulative files as an example of your best work. Please submit your best. Your report is due at the beginning of class Wednesday, December 5.
Grade 8 Descriptive Report Guide Researching a topic requires essentially three skills: 1) Finding the best and truest of what has been written and said about that topic 2) Doing the above quickly 3) Giving proper credit to the sources you use to write about the topic While growing content and faster connections make the internet a powerful tool for retrieving information we want, the information we find there may not be as reliable as the materials you may find in the library. The internet has made research both easier and more difficult. Imagine you are going on an overnight trip with some friends, and you make a short list of a few things to pick up at Costco: a disposable camera, some batteries for your CD player, a bottle of Pepsi, and some toothpaste. While you are strolling fifty aisles for a half hour to find your items, you realize that they could have been bought and bagged in five minutes at the corner drugstore. The internet is like a huge Costco. It provides you with lots of choices (not to mention distractions!) at fifty different websites, but doesn't necessarily help you get what you need quickly. You need to decide how you'll spend your research time to get the job done most efficiently. This research guide shows you how to keep track of what you find, and how to give credit to others who have studied and published materials about your topic before you. We make bibliographies not only out of respect (and because law requires us to), but also to help others find the sources we used to complete our research. Sometimes the order of items in a bibliography is hard to remember, so hopefully the examples in the guide will help.
Step 1: What Makes a Good Topic? Ask Yourself the Following Questions: A. Is this topic PERTINENT? - Does it have to do with the subject at hand? - If the assignment is to research fruits grown in British Columbia, don't choose to research "bananas" - it is not pertinent. B. Is it RICH? - Can you find enough information on it? - Don't research "Women jockeys who have won the Triple Crown" if there are none. C. Is it NARROW ENOUGH for the assignment? - Don't choose "Viruses" for a two page paper on "Diseases." Choose something specific instead, like "Measles." Step 2: Finding Sources There are many places to look for research but some may be better than others. Your topic should also guide you to the best place to find information. Here are some good places to start: o School library o Encyclopedias o Newspapers o Magazines o Internet o Interviews Step 3: Evaluating Your Sources Gather your sources and then consider the following questions: 1. Did you find enough information to meet the requirements of the assignment? 2. Are your sources understandable to you? 3. Are your sources current enough? Not out of date? 4. Who is the author? Are they a credible source of information? 5. Is the information factual based on evidence or just someone's opinion?
Step 4: Keep A Research Worksheet State your topic: List three questions you would like to answer about your topic. 1. 2. 3. List your resources: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
A Note About Plagiarism In class, we read about Tina and her descriptive report on sharks. We know that you cannot simply copy and paste someone else's work into your report, change the font, and call it your own. To be fair and honest, you must indicate when you borrow another writer's ideas or words. You do this by citing your sources. "Citing your sources" means nothing more than telling your reader whose ideas or words you have used and where you found them. To use someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit is called plagiarism. Plagiarism is very serious. Two different acts are considered plagiarism: 1. Borrowing someone's ideas, information, or words without citing the source 2. Citing the source, but paraphrasing the text too closely, without using quotation marks to show that words and phrases have been borrowed You must document all direct quotations. You must also document any ideas borrowed from a source: paraphrases of sentences, statistics or little-known facts, and tables, graphs, or diagrams. The only exception is common knowledge or information that your readers could find in any number of general sources because it is commonly known. For example, everyone knows that Fredericton is the capital of New Brunswick. It is common knowledge and would not have to be cited. Step 5: Outlining Your Information: Now that you have collected information on your topic, it is time to organize that information so that it can be the most useful to you. Organize your information in an outline. It will make writing your report easier because you know what you will be including in each paragraph, but be flexible: be prepared to change your outline as you write your draft.
Descriptive Report Outline Topic: 1. Introduction: Hook the reader without being boring and include your thesis statement 2. Main Idea # 1: a. Supporting Detail: b. Supporting Detail: c. Supporting Detail: 3. Main Idea # 2: a. Supporting Detail: b. Supporting Detail: c. Supporting Detail: 4. Main Idea # 3: a. Supporting Detail: b. Supporting Detail: c. Supporting Detail: 5. Conclusion: (Refer back to the introduction)
Step 6: Write your paper Using your outline as a reference, write your report. Step 7: Documenting Work You "document" your work when you acknowledge and give credit for ideas or information you have borrowed and used in your paper. You provide documentation for your reader in two places: 1. within the body of your paper (in-text documentation) 2. at the end of your paper (bibliography page) How to Do In-text Documentation In-text documentation means putting information about one of your sources WITHIN your paper instead of at the end (on a Bibliography page). When do you use in-text documentation? *if you use an original idea from a source (whether quoted or paraphrased) *if you summarize someone else's ideas *if you quote directly What does an in-text citation look like? Put the author's last name and the page number within parentheses and usually at the end of a sentence. Example: The Romans called the German tribes barbarians (Hinds 19).
Everything You Need to Know About a Bibliography What is a bibliography (bib-li-og-ra-phy)? A bibliography is a list of the books of a specific author or publisher, or on a specific subject. Why do I need to make a bibliography? A bibliography helps you know where you got your information from and it lets your teacher know you are giving proper credit for your sources of information. What do I include in a bibliography? You should list every source you use such as a book, a movie, a website, an interview or any information that did not come from you. Where do I put the bibliography for my assignment? The bibliography goes at the end of your assignment. The title of this page should be Bibliography or Works Cited. ******************************************************************* How to Make a Bibliography: Center the words "Bibliography" at the top of the page, then list all the sources used in your report, in alphabetical order, by the author's last name. If there is no author, go by the first main word in the title. Who, What, Where, When is a good way to remember the order in which to put this information. 1. Book with one author: Blodgett, E.D. Alice Munro. Boston: Twayne, 1988. 2. Book with more than one author: Elwood, Ann, and Linda C. Wood. Windows in Space. New York: Walker, 1982.
3. Article in a magazine: Daglish, Brenda, A Matter of Interest. Maclean s, February 15, 1993, pp.36-37. 4. Article in a newspaper: Smith, Beverly, Canadians Skate to Gold Medal, The Globe and Mail, March 11, 1993. p. A1. 5. Article in an encyclopedia: Humber, William. Bicycling. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1988. 6. Video or Film: Shooting Stars. Videotape. National Film Board of Canada (Toronto), 1987. 49 min., 30 sec. 7. Radio or television program: Haida Gwaii Islands of the People. Nature. PBS, December 19, 1992. 8. Interview: Delaney, Daphne (musician). Personal interview, Toronto, April 10, 2006. 9. Information from the Internet: Include the website title, address and the date the information was researched. Hershey Canada http://www.hershey.ca (December 1, 2011)