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[Dino and Coop singing]

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You know what one of our favorite feelings is?

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That happy glow we get when we turn in a paper to our teacher! [Student starts to glow as he puts the paper on the teacher's desk]

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After all, behind every paper is hours and hours of hard work, researching, revising, [Student asleep at different desks]

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and editing…

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All culminating in that one glorious, beautiful moment [Student printing his paper]

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where we can finally say we're officially done!

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NO MORE PAPERS!

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Take that schooo... [Student dancing with confetti in the background]

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Oh.

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Great.

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Another paper.

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Such is life, huh? [Student sheds a tear as he starts to write another paper]

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Starting a paper sure can be scary, especially because the first step in writing one – that

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whole pesky “research” thing – can be pretty difficult. [A mountain of books]

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But if you know how to research smartly, you'll save yourself oodles and oodles of time.

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So let's get crackin'! [Egg cracks]

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When you're starting your research, you'll probably begin with the internet. [Students laptop appears]

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After all, it's fast, easy to use, and always right at your fingertips.

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And we're all for it – hey, we love the internet. [Girl has love hearts in her eyes while she uses her laptop]

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Where else would we find all our favorite cat videos…?

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But when it comes to research, you need to know the right places to look.

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Good places to look include...

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Databases, library websites, historical archives, government websites, academic and school websites [Pictures of the places to look]

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that end in “dot e-d-u,” and anything else that's more or less “official.”

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There are also plenty of ways to find old newspapers and sections of non-fiction books [Websites of old newspapers and non-fiction library books]

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online, and those tend to be pretty safe, too.

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Bad places to look include... well, anything that isn't what we've just said. [List of bad places]

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It's really hard to say exactly what isn't a good source.

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But if the website looks at all fishy, ask a nearby adult to check it out for you. [Suspicious looking website saying dinosaurs discovered the moon]

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After all, anyone can put information out there onto the internet, which means you can [Guy wearing a cap sideways using a laptop and laughing]

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find some pretty whacky stuff if you look hard enough.

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Of course, you don't have to use the internet. [Hand flicks away a computer]

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And in fact, it's often easier to just head straight to the library's non-fiction section,

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because almost everything there will be a-okay to use in your paper! [Student with thumbs up in the non-fiction section]

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Another nice thing about books is that they have all these super-useful text features

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to help you locate exactly what it is you're looking for, including...

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…a table of contents at the beginning…

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…subtitles and topic sentences for each paragraph, which you can read to get an idea [An example of the text features is shown]

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about what information is in that paragraph, and if it's worth reading or not…

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…and even illustrations, captions and charts to help to better explain anything that might

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otherwise be a little bit confusing.

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And whether you're using the internet, books, or any other kind of source, it's super important [Pictures of the sources]

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to take proper notes.

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That means jotting down the important information as you find it, and taking specific note of

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each page number or website URL so you can come back to it later if you need to.

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The trick here is to only take note of the important stuff, otherwise your notes may [Post-it note saying only to write down the important stuff]

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end up longer than your paper, and what good is that?

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Once you've collected enough information on the topic, it's time to write your first draft. [Notebook next to blank page]

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It can be useful to write an outline first, which includes your main idea, and the point [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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you want to make in each paragraph.

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Once you've done that, it's time to start writing!

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Start first with your introductory paragraph. [The paragraph is highlighted]

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You'll use this paragraph to get the reader hooked before launching straight into your [Penguins gathered round a paper]

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body paragraphs that dive deep into all that juicy information you dug up. [Student with a treasure chest that has information inside]

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And remember: each paragraph should have a solid topic sentence that outlines exactly

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what each paragraph is about. [Example topic sentences]

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This will help the reader keep track of your ideas – and keep you on track when you're

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writing, too.

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Close it out with a nice concluding paragraph, and there's your first draft, done and done. [Tick appears]

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And since this is the first draft, don't be afraid to really get wild.

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Feel free to include every zany and outrageous idea you might have, because you can always

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edit out anything that doesn't quite fit later. [Sentence is crossed out in red]

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Oh, and one more thing:

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When you're including specific ideas from all that research you did in your own paper,

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you need to make sure to cite the information correctly.

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You can get in big trouble for pretending that someone else's ideas are your own, so [Teacher looking angry at the student]

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it's important to get this part right.

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And when it comes to citing another author's words, you've got two options: [Finger pointing to writing in a book]

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The first is to paraphrase.

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This is when you use your own words to summarize what someone else said.

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The other option is to quote them.

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This is when you put quotation marks around the exact words that they said, so that we

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know which words are yours and which words are theirs.

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Oh, and also make sure to mention their name as well.

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You wouldn't like it if someone told one of your jokes, but didn't give you credit, right? [Boy who's joke was stolen looks annoyed]

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Same idea applies here.

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And that's it!

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Phew!

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We sure just covered a whole lot of research material in one video, huh? [Boy looking confused with swirls over his eyes]

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Good thing we've got plenty more resources on Shmoop that go into specific detail about

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all the different topics we just covered.

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So, uh…why not exercise some of those great research skills of yours and find them? [Kid doesn't look enthusiastic]

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