I need a thesis paper - HELP!

I’m in a Community College because I wanted to take ONE class for FUN! Don’t give me lectures on school, I bet “your” not in school at all!

A girl

A girl,

If you need to make a statement and then support it with references, then you might try a twist like this (using the previous example):

Title: “Manufactured Boy Bands: Showcases for New Talent or Money-Grubbing Schemes?”
Statement: Despite comments from critics who say that boy band members are hired for their looks or dancing ability rather than their singing talent, I think that many are talented in their own right, and the boy band just gives them the opportunity to showcase their talents.

The rest of your paper can lay out the critics’ perspective, a little history of the phenomenon, and a discussion of individuals who gained fame as solo artists - but to be fair, you’ll have to mention the duds as well! And if you find, after doing your research, that the available info doesn’t support your statement, then adjust it to fit the facts; don’t leave out stuff intentionally because it doesn’t suit your original statement.

BTW, a reference is any source of material from which you draw a direct quote, or that you use to bolster your discussion of the topic. For a research paper, I’d imagine that your teacher would want to see a least a few “serious” sources (e.g, encyclopedias, newspapers, mainstream magazines) in addition to those that might be considered less reputable/reliable (e.g., Teen Beat or the band’s web page).

A key thing to remember - don’t make statements in your paper that can’t be supported by a source! If you’re stating an opinion or an inference, make it clear.

Girl…You wanted to take one class for fun, but you hate Freshman English? Maybe your class of choice should have been Logic. And as for your “you probably don’t even go to school!” comment, I do as it so happens, but I didn’t ask this boards help on some week-ass assignment. See what your doing to me? Do you want this to get kicked into the pit?
Occam - A Boy

Try www.cowdung.com or search the net for ‘free essays’

Ever thought maybe your teacher checks them too?

If YOU’RE just taking it for fun then just skip the assignments you don’t like and do the ones you want to. You may fail the course but if you’re not taking it for a grade or a diploma then what are you sweating it for? I’m guessing the reason this is a requirement for a creative writing class is to make sure you are able to write in a coherent format (opening, conflict, exposition, climax, denoument, etc.) For what it’s worth, research papers are even easier than creative writing because all you have to come up with is the thesis statement and all the rest of it is from sources that are already written. The only tedious thing is documenting all your sources (which can be pretty much anything, but if you use anything from the internet you may want to print out the page so your prof has something concrete to refer to – but most of what is online in a legitimate form has a hard copy in print to use as a source.)

“I don’t know…I don’t know.” – St. DooDah

WEAK-ASS WEAK-ASS!! I just want this weak to be over.

The OP has been dealt with by others (and her last reply’s illiteracies are too obvious to need pointing out), so here’s a hijack.

Ursa, how do you handle the situation that you describe? Let’s say you get a paper that clearly doesn’t fit the student’s prior work. You are 99.9% per cent sure that she copied it or had someone else do it for her. However, you don’t have a confession, can’t find the source of the plagiarism, and otherwise can’t be absolutely certain. What do you do?

I have already apologized to Nurlman elsewhere, but I thought I should add one here as well. Nurlman, I should have checked your link before including you in the line of fire. Funny stuff!!! I retract all negative comments directed at you.

A girl is still either a troll or devoid of intellectual honesty. Either case is worthy of contempt.


The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*

To folks like Occam who have had such useful things to say here :rollingeyes:, I have a question: were you born into this world knowing exactly how to do everything you’d ever be asked to do?

Yes, a girl should be in school to learn, and trying to find a ready-made essay is the wrong way of going about things. But vilifying her is not going to help her understand what she should be doing instead.

A girl, stick with this class, and do all the work yourself. Learning the proper way to write a research paper will help you to organize your thoughts and create a “trail” of information for your reader to follow. In practice, this is very much the same sort of thing you’ll need to do when you plan a story line.

Another benefit - once you understand how research ought to be done, you’ll be better able to critique others’ statements in general (and hopefully sniff out any b.s. artists in the process).

A girl,

Speaking as someone who enjoys writing, bite the bullet and do the essay yourself. There are a lot of reasons why I recommend this approach:

  • all writing is practice in honing your craft. Or, as a particular horror novelist once said, your first million words are shit. Why not get them out of the way?

  • the techniques you’ll learn and enforce writing a research paper will help you in your future writing. Even fantasy fiction must have some basis in reality, and the more you know - via research - the better your work will be.

  • if you’re going to do something, do it right. Find a topic that catches your interest, do the research, write the outline, fill it in, write the first draft, do the big revisions, write the second draft, do the small revisions, write the third draft, do the proofreading and small-detail editing, and then print the fourth draft up as a final edition. By the time you’re done, you’ll have something you can be proud of, rather than something you’d rather not refer to.

  • writing, as a craft, is difficult, laborous, grinding shitwork. If you can’t stand up to it now, don’t kid yourself about ever doing anything serious with your talent.

  • you might actually LEARN something!

  • you might actually learn something that you can put to use in the REAL WORLD!

My last reply’s illiteracies??

Maybe I should take English lessons from Occam… that’s what the “your” was referring to, in the post above mine! :slight_smile:

Jeez, people, lighten up! I feel like you’re all ready to give me the chair! :slight_smile: (Except for Fillet, and I do appreciate your help. Maybe it won’t be so bad after all! :wink: )

A girl

I usually just confront the student with my suspicions. Most 'fess up pretty quick. If not, I ask them to orally summarize their paper or just define one or two of the more esoteric words used. I then explain to them how they could have taken what they plagiarized and simply put it into their own words. As far as I’m concerned they can call that research.

Yes, I did try to take the lazy way out. I have since realized this is not the best way to achieve my goals, from the informative, instructional, and kind responses I have received to my OP. I appreciate the people who generously gave their time to show me that plagerism is not the best way.

I have learned. No matter what, I will do it myself.

Thank you, all.

Except the ones that were MEAN TO ME! :wink: (I’m just kidding! Chill out!)

A girl

You can worry about the spelling as soon as you find a topic.

A girl, a big thumbs up to you! This board fills its purpose once again! Fillet, Ursa Major, great advice.

In light of your decision, I hereby withdraw my offer of writing your term paper. You can still send me money if you want though.

A girl wrote:

If it’s that easy, you’re doing it badly.

My advice is not to take a creative writing course, because you don’t want to find out how badly you write or how hard it is to write well. And don’t bother responding that you don’t care what other people think of your work, because if you don’t care then you don’t need a creative writing course to begin with.

I can see that some things haven’t changed while I’ve been gone.

Do the work yourself or fail the class–your choice.

Kalél
Common ¢ for all ages…
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court

That was an admirable way to admit your mistake and change your priorities, A Girl. I just wanted to add that if you need any help, I’m glad to volunteer.

voguevixen said:

Wait, she said she wanted to take the Creative Writing course for fun, but the prerequisite is the English Comp course. Thus she HAS to pass the English Comp course, and can’t just skip assignments in it.

Everyone else, try teaching, not berating. Usually works better.

Fillet, great advice, and picking a topic of interest to A girl was smooth.

A girl, good luck to you. Sounds like you understand now. Writing a thesis really isn’t all that hard. You make a statement (assertion). Then you write down arguments that support that assertion. Then summarize. If the arguments don’t support your assertion, change the assertion.

References are just other sources that provide quotes or information that supports your assertion. Maybe there’s a Rolling Stone article out there discussing formulated Boy Bands.

Good luck.

Well hell. Since no one else has done this, I suppose I will. The following are sites that contain free essays:
http://www.cyberessays.com/ http://www.schoolsucks.com/ http://www.cheathouse.com/restricted/essays/inhouse.html
Disclaimer: A Girl, I’m not suggesting you lift a paper from any of those sites word for word. That would be wrong. Find a few that interest you, and use them as a model. Hopefully, having completed essays for reference will give you the confidence to write your own paper.

Best of luck. I hope you pass with flying colors and get into the Creative Writing class. And I hope you end up doing it on your own merit. Don’t abuse the resources I’ve provided, or else I’ll get yelled at by all the other SDMBers.
-Lanna