A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

Chicago Style for Students and Researchers

By Kate L. Turabian

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2018 The University of Chicago
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-43057-7

Contents

A Note to Students,
Preface,
Part I Research and Writing Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald,
Overview of Part I,
1 What Research Is and How Researchers Think about It,
2 Defining a Project: Topic, Question, Problem, Working Hypothesis,
3 Finding Useful Sources,
4 Engaging Your Sources,
5 Constructing Your Argument,
6 Planning a First Draft,
7 Drafting Your Paper,
8 Presenting Evidence in Tables and Figures,
9 Revising Your Draft,
10 Writing Your Final Introduction and Conclusion,
11 Revising Sentences,
12 Learning from Comments on Your Paper,
13 Presenting Research in Alternative Forums,
14 On the Spirit of Research,
Part II Source Citation,
15 General Introduction to Citation Practices,
16 Notes-Bibliography Style: The Basic Form,
17 Notes-Bibliography Style: Citing Specific Types of Sources,
18 Author-Date Style: The Basic Form,
19 Author-Date Style: Citing Specific Types of Sources,
Part III Style,
20 Spelling,
21 Punctuation,
22 Names, Special Terms, and Titles of Works,
23 Numbers,
24 Abbreviations,
25 Quotations,
26 Tables and Figures,
Appendix: Paper Format and Submission,
A.1 General Format Requirements,
A.2 Format Requirements for Specific Elements,
A.3 File Preparation and Submission Requirements,
Bibliography,
Authors,
Index,

CHAPTER 1

What Research Is and How Researchers Think about It

1.1 What Research Is

1.2 How Researchers Think about Their Aims

1.3 Conversing with Your Readers

Whenever we read about a scientific breakthrough or a crisis in world affairs, we benefit from the research of others, who likewise benefited from the research of countless others before them. When we walk into a library, we are surrounded by more than twenty-five centuries of research. When we go on the internet, we can read the work of millions of researchers who have posed questions beyond number, gathered untold amounts of information from the research of others to answer them, and then shared their answers with the rest of us. We can carry on their work by asking and, we hope, answering new questions in turn. Governments spend billions on research, businesses even more. Research goes on in laboratories and libraries, in jungles and ocean depths, in caves and in outer space, in offices and, in the information age, even in our own homes. Research is in fact the world's biggest industry.

So what, exactly, is it?

1.1 What Research Is

You already have a basic understanding of research: answering a question by obtaining information. In this sense, research can be as simple as choosing a new phone or as complex as discovering the origin of life. In this book we use research in a specific way to mean a process of systematic inquiry to answer a question that not only the researcher but also others want to solve. Research thus includes the steps involved in presenting or reporting it. To be a true researcher, as we are using the term, you must share your findings and conclusions with others.

If you are new to research, you may think that your paper will add little to the world's knowledge. But done well, it will add a lot to your knowledge and to your ability to communicate that knowledge. As you learn to do your own research, you also learn to use and judge that of others. In every profession, researchers must read and evaluate the work of others before they make a decision. This is a job you will do better after you have learned how others judge yours.

This book focuses on research in the academic world, but every day we read or hear about research that affects our lives. Often we get news of research secondhand, and it can be difficult to know what reasoning and evidence support a claim. But research doesn't ask for our blind trust or that we accept something on the basis of authority. It invites readers to think critically about evidence and reasoning.

That is how research-based writing differs from other kinds of persuasive writing: it must rest on shared facts that readers accept as truths independent of your feelings and beliefs. Your readers must be able to follow your reasoning from evidence they accept to the claim you draw from it. Your success as a researcher thus depends not just on how well you gather and analyze data but also on how clearly you report your reasoning so that your readers can test and judge it before making your claims part of their knowledge and understanding.

1.2 How Researchers Think about Their Aims

All researchers collect information, what we're calling data. But researchers do not merely gather facts on a topic — stories about the Battle of the Alamo, for example. They look for specific data to test and support an answer to a question that their topic inspired them to ask, such as Why has the Alamo story become a national legend? In doing so, they also imagine a community of readers who they believe will share their interest and help them test and support an answer to that question.

Experienced researchers, however, know that they must do more than convince us that their answer is sound. They must also show us why their question was worth asking, how its answer helps us understand some bigger issue in a new way. If we can figure out why the Alamo story has become a national legend, we might then answer a larger question: how have regional myths shaped the American character?

You can judge how closely your thinking tracks that of an experienced researcher by describing your project in a sentence like this:

1. 1. Topic: I am working on X (stories about the Battle of the Alamo)

2. Question: because I want to find out Y (why its story became a national legend)

3. Significance: so that I can help others understand Z (how such regional myths have shaped the American character).

That sentence is worth a close look, because it describes not just the progress of your research but your personal growth as a researcher.

1. 1. Topic: "I am working on X ...": Those new to research often begin with a simple topic like the Battle of the Alamo. But too often they stop there, with nothing but a broad topic to guide their work. Beginning this way, they may pile up dozens or hundreds of notes but then can't decide what data to keep or discard. When it comes time to write, their papers become "data dumps" that leave readers wondering what all those data add up to.

2. Question: "... because I want to find out Y ...": More experienced researchers begin not just with a topic but with a research question, such as Why has the story of the Alamo become a national legend? They know that readers will think their data add up to something only when they serve as evidence to support an answer. Indeed, only with a question can a researcher know what information to look for and, once obtained, what to keep — and not just data that support a particular answer but also data that test or discredit it. With sufficient evidence to support an answer, a...