Blog 9

Thesis/Thesis statement: is a statement that is the basis for your research. In it you should include what you intend to prove and give your readers a sense of your viewpoint on the specific topic you’re asked to write about. It should also be something that can be argued.
Research: is the process in which you look through various forms of sources to get information on a certain subject. It isn’t just looking through a book to find one piece of information. Everything you gather should be able to give you a better understanding on the subject.
Argument: an argument could be a discussion that has different point of views to it. It can be persuasive and encourage you to collect facts to back up your point and make for a good and valid argument.
Claim: a claim is more of an assertive comment on your topic of discussion. Your claim is what you want to own and hold to be true. For example, “she claimed that he was telling the truth”.
Reason: is your explanation or justification for whatever it is you’re doing/saying, etc. Your reason is based on your personal opinions and or assumptions that lead you to develop a conclusion on something else.
Evidence: is your proof. It works to prove or disprove something by providing facts and making the truth evident. For example, in a court case, the prosecutor looks for and finds evidence that the defendant is a murderer because his prints are on the gun.
MLA citation style: is the Modern Language Association style. It’s used to cite and identify the sources you researched and used. It’s the form in how you order the sources in your bibliography or works cited list, typically in alphabetical order. There is a different format for each source depending on the one you use. For example, this is a list of the sources I used for this blog in MLA format:
"argument." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 06 Apr. 2010. .

"claim." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 06 Apr. 2010. .

"evidence." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 06 Apr. 2010. .
"Handouts and links :Thesis statements." The writing center. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"reason." wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"research." wikipedia. N.p., 2 Apr 2010. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"MLA Citation Examples written by HCC Library." Honolulu Community College Library. N.p., 09/20/04. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .