Outline for Research Paper

March 1, 2012

Outline for Research Paper on Zero Tolerance Policies

I. Introduction:

1. Hook: An example of zero tolerance policies gone wrong, prompting a question about whether or not zero tolerance policies are effective and just.

2. Thesis: Zero tolerance policies have certain aspects which protect the lives of students, but the effectiveness of some of their integration into schools is questionable. This paper will argue that portions of zero tolerance policies' protection to students can still be maintained without the repercussions and harshness of other aspects of the policies.

3. Implications: Do zero tolerance policies really lower the crime rate in schools as opposed to non-policy schools? Are zero tolerance policies entirely just regarding their choice of targeting former badly-behaving students or choice ethnicities? What rights can changed policies provide for students, parents, and educators to make the right decision regarding punishment?

II. A Solution for School Crime Emerges

*An explanation of what disciplines were used previous to zero tolerance, and why zero tolerance was initially seen as a good idea.

*An example talking about the Columbine shooting which prompted the creation of zero tolerance policies.

*A basic description regarding what zero tolerance policies are and what they do in schools. Other information included will be where they are instituted (how many schools in the US).

III. Kids Will Be Kids: Students and Deviance

The Cold Facts About Crime and Kids

*A brief paragraph explaining the need for discipline and how children will commit crimes under all circumstances (the need for a policy)

Does Sparing the Rod Spoil the Child?

*Reveal the personal opinions of what zero tolerance proponents say about the crime rates in schools with zero tolerance policies by presenting an informal opinion (blog) and a formal opinion (academic)

*Compare these opinions with the actual statistical amount of safety in schools with and without these policies and instituting the first foundation against policies' completely appropriate use in schools.

*Source: Billitteri, Thomas J. "Discipline in Schools: Are Zero-Tolerance Policies Fair?" CQ Researcher 18 (2008).

IV. Discipline Which is Not Colorblind

*Transitioning into the next paragraph by further questioning the validity of the policies by revealing not only what the policies don't do (compared to schools without them), but what damages they do present to children

*Analyze and reveal those in authority who control the zero tolerance policies

*Discuss examples of prejudice and stigmas of color and gender from policies, and discuss extreme examples of zero tolerance gone wrong

*End portion of paper by reiterating the faultiness of such authority figures controlling the discipline

*Source: Skiba, Russ, and Reece Peterson. "The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safer Schools?" Kappan Magazine (1999): 1-11. The Professional Association in Education.

V. Hope for a Fair Future of Policies

*Reveal parents, educators', and students' frustration briefly and provide a hopeful intro into the solution

*Provide a solution of more parental and student involvement in discipline rather than relying solely on those controlling the policies

*Summarize and re-cap the arguments and the final solution to them.

Larger Questions:

*What do parents say, as opposed to the opinion of academic sources? What counter-arguments would zero tolerance proponents use to combat those provided against it? Have there been any positive examples of zero tolerance policies succeeding?

Web Sources Cited MLA Style

Feb. 30, 2012

Web Sources Cited MLA Style;
T. B, S.S., J.B, M.L.

The following sources are cited MLA style and were all found online:

27. Entire Website:

Schultz, Sam. Kinder Kreek Farm.
Yahoo Small Business, 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

28. Work from a Website

Riley, Jim. "Morning Corn Commentary." Farms.com.
Farms.com, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

30. Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

Rice, Todd W. "Initial Trophic Vs. Full Entreal Feeding in Patients With Acute Lung Injury."
Journal of the American Medical Association. 307.8 (2012): 749-874. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

31. Article in an Online Newspaper

McWhiter, Cameron. "Georgia on Gingrich's Mind." Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones &
Company, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

33. Blog Entry

Benedict, Tabitha. "Beauty and the Beast." Smileymorning.blogspot.com. 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

*Note: This particular blog setting prevented us from tabbing in when citing sources so that they would be aligned properly.

Similarities and Differences of APA/MLA Styles

Feb. 28, 2012

Similarities and Differences of APA/MLA Styles

Writing papers for any assignment, whether it's in your career, school, or for personal use, requires one of two styles of writing and citing in the text: either MLA or APA citation.

The similarities between the citation forms begin with the in-text citation. Both require that you provide the source information within parenthesis (i.e., Bond) if it is not already provided within your text. Alternatively, both require some kind of guideline back to your works cited page even if you already quote the author in your text (i.e, in MLA you would quote the page number even if you had shared the name of the author in the text, while in APA, you would quote the year of the publication the author you already quoted had published his/her article or other document). Both include works cited pages and similar structure of always providing source information, no matter what the citation is.

The differences between the citation forms are mainly in what information each considers relevant. In MLA, page numbers (along with the author) are cited, while in APA, dates of publication (along with the author) are cited. Although APA does provide page numbers, it places more of a stress on years and dates than MLA. Another difference between the two consists within the works cited page, where information is rearranged slightly differently when providing the citation sources.

Analysis on Mckay's Essay

Feb. 23, 2012

Analysis on Joanna McKay's Organ Sales Will Save Lives

For Joanna McKay's essay, Organ Sales Will Save Lives, McKay begins her essay by supporting her opinion on whether or not governments should ban the sale of organs in a two-sentence thesis 'statement': "Governments should not ban the sale of human organs; they should regulate it. Lives should not be wasted; they should be saved."

In the body of her paper, McKay goes on to support her opinion with various paragraphs devoted to opponents of her argument, which she addresses and defeats to solidify her own reasoning. In paragraph 10, for example, she argues that proponents of the illegality of organ donation for profit are affluent and don't understand the desire poor donors have to willingly receive money for the services given through their donations. In other paragraphs, McKay argues that donors will begin disappearing if not given the incentive for money (¶11), and also that despite current bans on the poor donating organs, they continue to participate in such behavior, which translates into allowing something that will occur despite laws (¶12). In the upcoming paragraphs, McKay encourages regulation---not illegality---because this will benefit not only the patient's long wait, it will cut back on the criminality of illegal organ donors and reward donors instead of punishing them (¶13-16).

McKay breaks her essay into several different sections: First, she addresses the problem and states her thesis. Secondly, she cites some statistics dealing with the need for organ donors. Thirdly, she speaks about the facts of illegal donations of organs. Once she has set up this backdrop, she begins to discuss the protests of others against the legalization of poor donors and their main complaints. She addresses these with her own viewpoint on such matters, and finally, explains her own way of fixing the problem through regulation of legal donations of organs. She ends her paper with a thought-provoking question and paragraph.

Peer Reviews for Synthesis Papers

Feb. 23, 2012

Two Peer Reviews for Synthesis Papers

For J.'s Synthesis, Male Nurses

1. For J.'s paper, Male Nurses, J. discussed the controversial topic of male nurses in the work force. The introduction of J.'s paper properly introduced the topic and gave it a thesis for the body of the paper. The first source, a statistic, suggests that J. will handle future sources in his paper in a similar manner---statistics and website sources. I would suggest tying together the multiple unrelated sentences J. uses talking about nursing in general to a specific sentence about why those aspects tie into male nursing, instead of splitting it up.

2. A total of five or six sources were used in J.'s paper.

3. J. connects his sources with summaries of those sources in his own personal opinions; however, J. could provide further sources to support those sources instead of relying solely on his personal opinion about the quote or source.

4. Since J. does not have more than one source per paragraph, he connects them in separate paragraphs, not necessarily with one another, which could be improved. There are one or two sources provided with use paragraph.

5. The majority of J.'s statistical and informational citation appears correctly connected to his own writing. Grammatically, however, he could improve minor ways of citing websites or quotes, such as placing the period after the parenthesis, such as the website quote 'minoritynurse.com' in the second paragraph (i.e., "like him" (Bundt). In paragraph three, the quote about relationships and men seems to be too broad to relate to male nurses.

6. J. does a good job connecting his conclusion back to the problems he addressed in the body of the paper. He reiterates his thesis statement discussing the controversies in the field and then bases his conclusion around them. The question of male nursing being appropriate is clearly understood and questions/research are utilized well.

7. Each paragraph accurately addresses individual questions about male nursing. However, paragraph three seems to sidetrack with male nursing and relationships.

8. The paragraphs address problems, but they could transition more smoothly instead of jumping into topics. One way that J. could do this is by beginning each paragraph by a sentence which connects to his broad idea of male nursing being objected to, such as "Another area that male nursing is criticized about is because they are seen as effeminate..."

9. J. does an excellent job of repeating key ideas of phrases in each paragraph so that the reader understands what he's talking about.

10. The order of each of J.'s paragraphs is appropriate because he addresses each problem of male nursing in order.

11. The writer cites the majority of his sources except the beginning source (minoritynurse.com), and some of the cited information is not shown in the body of his paper, but simply provided at the end in the works cited page. However, he does provide a clear works cited page.

12. I would suggest J. works on:
* His citation within the article, citing it appropriately
* Paragraph 3 talking about men and relationships having a smoother or clearer connection to male nursing
* Some minor grammar, such as paragraph 4 and 5: "Some male nurses get criticisms, people...", "who wanna be doctors but is rejected".
*A title which catches the reader's eye and says more about the paper

For A.'s Synthesis, Inefficiencies of Green

1. It appears that A.'s topic relates to green efficiency; however, it does not seem to apply to later sources which talk mainly about cars' green efficiency as opposed to other aspects of green efficiency. I would suggest A. clarifies that the topic will be mainly about cars and green efficiency, or else change the body of the paper.

2. There appear to be five sources.

3. A. uses his sources to dwell on some of his own sentence structure about certain issues; his sources could have more summary to become clearer.

4. Since A.'s essay is only made up of three large paragraphs, it is difficult to make out transitions---rather, they seem to be relating to separate ideas in one paragraph. There are three or four sources in one paragraph and one in the last paragraph.

5. The quotes each have separate ideas and background, but they need to have more summary and broader ideas connected to them instead of simply stating them and quickly addressing them.

6. A. uses his conclusion to make a few broad statements about hybrids and their efficiency, which despite his unclear thesis statement, tied into the body of his paper and clarified his research question. His research question---whether or not certain cars were helpful from being green---was addressed in the body rather than the introduction, which is where his conclusion showed its strongest similarity.

7. Since each paragraph is so long, several ideas are competing, especially in paragraph two. If A. broke these up his paper could become more clear.

8. The connections between paragraphs are few---the introduction, the main body paragraph, and the conclusion paragraph. Paragraphs two and three most clearly tie together because they both talk about hybrid cars and their efficiency. Transitions could be improved by making more paragraphs.

9. A. does not repeat concepts or themes, but dwells more on a specific topic briefly. He could do this more frequently in his paper.

10. The order of the paragraphs is logical in basic form, but need to be more numerous.

11. There was no works cited page currently given, but A. told us that he was still improving it.

12. The four things that A. could improve would be:
*Make individual paragraphs to bring about clearer, more specific topic ideas
*Cite his information correctly within the paper (i.e., putting cited material in parenthesis)
*Provide a more solid, accurate thesis statement and paragraph for his paper
*Dwell more on each topic he briefly touched on to broaden his paper

Summaries of Three Sources; Library Advice Gained

Feb. 16

Summaries of Three Sources for my Synthesis Report
&
Advice Gained from the Librarian

Summaries of Three Sources for my Synthesis Report

For my upcoming synthesis report tracing a controversy in my field of current study (Elementary Education), I decided to research and comment on zero-tolerance policies about discipline in schools. There is quite a fair amount of controversy and disagreements swirling around this issue, and I found several articles which interested me.

One of the first journal articles by Thomas J. Billiteri, Discipline in Schools: Are Zero-Tolerance Policies Fair?¹, interested me because of his depth of information on the subject and discussion of several different aspects of why or why not the policies are hindering school discipline. I will be using this as the main information source for my report because of credibility and strength of further resources.

A second periodical article by Judith Browne-Dianis, entitled, Stepping Back from Zero Tolerance², also provided me with some further specific stories about children who had been convicted as delinquents for breaking zero tolerance policies, which I will integrate into the paper for a more personal effect to the reader.

The last source I found was an online article published by Russ Skiba and Reece Peterson, called The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safer Schools?³. This source discusses the negative aspects of zero tolerance policies (one side of the controversy), which I will use to support my own opinion. I will then use another source for the other side of the issue.

1 Billitteri, Thomas J. "Discipline in Schools: Are Zero-Tolerance Policies Fair?" CQ Researcher 18 (2008).

2 Browne-Dianis, Judith. "Stepping Back from Zero Tolerance." Educational Leadership 69 (2011).

3 Skiba, Russ, and Reece Peterson. "The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safer Schools?" Kappan Magazine (1999): 1-11. The Professional Association in Education.

Advice Gained from the Librarian

For our recent trip to the library, I was interested in learning more research techniques which would help me with my upcoming synthesis report.

Firstly, the librarian mentioned the importance of making sure your online resources were credible. When I was browsing the internet during the time he allotted for looking up research topics, I found a lot of information regarding my topics, but the most credible were the ones the librarian and Prof. Paudel had mentioned once--- “.gov” or “.edu” sites. This helped me to understand what can be credible sources for those I choose to cite in my paper.

Secondly, the librarian advised us to utilize the EBSCO database on the University of Louisville's library catalog. He suggested narrowing down our search by using different key words for our search terms, which I found helpful when the current search words I was using weren't helping me find the correct articles relating to my topic.

Thirdly, the librarian showed us how we can use certain questions about our topic to narrow down our search. Prof. Paudel also mentioned in the previous class-time how doing this will help us to keep things precise while still giving us room to find the answers as long as we aren't too specific. I utilized this when I brainstormed questions I wanted to know about the topic I'd chosen for my synthesis report.

Discussing Citations of Johnson

Feb. 9, 2012

Discussing Citations of Johnson

In Debra Johnson's article, Balanced Reading Instruction: A Review of the Literature, Johnson includes quite a bit of citation to support her case of reading instruction and its importance. Johnson cites eight sources to cover her subject thoroughly, and when she cites, includes various aspects of the cited source to show it is credible. This includes showing the title of the article or book entry, where it originated from (book, journal, or magazine), its date, and its author. To integrate the citations properly into her text and provide an accurate flow of her words and the provided information, Johnson uses various techniques such as quoting directly from the citation to support a point she is making and referring back to a citation's ideas by putting it in parenthesis beside her own summary of the idea (i.e., Johnson 1998).

Johnson's article is supported well by outside information because of her amount of sources, their credibility, and the accuracy and ease with which she interweaves them with her own material.