Welcome!

Are you a budding scholar who may need some step-by-step guidance on how to go from having an idea, to gathering research, to getting the words on paper? If so, this toolkit is just for you. As two early career librarians Narcissa Haskins and Jazzlynn Boyd realized many students’ entering college often struggled with this very thing. As librarians we would go into classes to guest lecture and see that even though we would provide information on how to gather sources, students still struggled with synthesizing that information later in the semester. We thought it would be good to provide a “cheat sheet” on writing an English paper by providing guidance alongside a paper we produced.

Within this toolkit, we will show you how to kick start your research by brainstorming, evaluating sources, and gathering key terms. We then guide you through the synthesis process by showing you how creating annotated bibliographies and utilizing targeted free writing with in-depth outlines will help yield a paper that can be easily edited using style manuals. It is important to note that alongside our paper example, you will find literature, videos, and quizzes that will help you though the research and writing process.