Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide (Paperback)

I've written both MLA and APA research papers, and now I teach research writing. THIS IS THE ONE. I use a textbook (usually focusing on Argument/Rhetoric) and Lester's as the reference. It provides a wealth of solid advice, examples, outlines, guides, visuals and Web site addresses. Even though this as an English course, practically none of my students are English majors... so why teach MLA only when they'll have to use APA (social sciences) or CBE (science majors) in the not too distant future? This book addresses that and includes CMS (Humanities, Fine Arts). The appendix is EXCELLENT with the locations of sources for multiple disciplines ranging from Anthropology to Women's Studies.If your not an English major (and most aren't) and you want to learn research writing from source material to presentation style, this is the reference book.

"Writing Research Papers: A complete Guide" is essential to those who write these papers often. The first 130 pages serve as a basic review of Information and rot Data collection mixed with organizational schemes, parallelism and whatnot. The last 250 pages discuss in detail Modern language Association (MLA) format and American Psychological Association (APA) format research papers. I personally recommend that you buy the tabbed book, while it is more expensive; it provides easy access to the very difficult APA Reference page material and data. In all honesty, the only real importance to this book is the APA materials, as MLA is intrinsically easy, and most people who pick up this book have already dealt with the basic material, which is at the front of the book. This book offers some use to the more experienced research paper writers, and exponentially more to those with less experience.

I have used Lester's works in an accelerated High School Class on Research and Writing. With very few exceptions, this book will prepare the High School Senior for Writing College Papers. It especially hones in on the MLA and APA methods of formatting papers and gives a brief description for each of the following: Chicago Turabian, Numbers and CBE forms for writing. This is a MUST book for highly motivated seniors who have a firm direction.

I used this book for a research paper in an english writing class. The instructor recommended the book and used it extensively. This was probaly the best class I had ever had. By using this book I learned the fine points of research as well as how to write a very good paper in APA style. I look at other students in my classes that have not been as luckly as me to have such a good reference book, and they wonder why I always get the best grades.

I have been teaching research papers to high school students for six years. Three years ago I was introduced to James Lester's book. I can not believe how it has changed the way I teach and what my students learn. In one book I can go from selecting a topic and gathering data to organizing ideas, writing notes and an outline, and formatting the paper. It includes lenghthy sections on both the MLA and APA styles as well as the footnote, number (endnote), and name and year systems. My students have gone to college and returned to tell me that, according to their professors, their papers were "by far the best one[s] in the class in knowledge of citing sources." I can't give this book any higher praise than that.