The Underground Railroad Research Process
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The protagonist of our story is Cora, a slave born on the Randall plantation in Georgia.
The first sentence of the novel reads: “The first time Caesar approached Cora about
running North, she said no” which sets up the entire novel.
By the end of the first chapter
we have the story of Cora’s grandmother Ajarry, who was captured in Africa and was sold
for the last time to the Randall. By the end of “Georgia” Cora has changed her mind: she
will run for the North via the Underground Railroad.
Ajarry’s story has many of the key words that the reader associates with slavery: dungeons,
chains, slave ships, slave auctions, branding, rape, many husbands and many children.
The transport of slaves is filled with all the horrors that you may be aware of and that lead
Ajarry to two failed suicide attempts and a bout of madness.
Ajarry calls the Randall plantation her home. She never entertains the idea of running.
Ajarry finds that “In America the quirk was that people were things” as she tries to
establish family and keep them close.
The next chapter Georgia is life on the plantation for Cora, Ajarry’s granddaughter and
daughter of Mabel. We will learn some of Mabel’s story, but we know that she is the only
slave to have successfully escaped from the Randall plantation and has not been caught
much to Ridgeway’s shame. Ridgeway’s anger has been further ignited as he sets out to
capture Cora, the daughter of Mabel.
Do note that Mabel’s chapter is near the end of the
novel. There must be reasons for this that we will discover.
In The Underground Railroad for each chapter you are reading take notes on the following:
1. Look for the major events that happen. (Start with Georgia.)
2. Help figure out how Cora is represented in each section. How is her character developing in
each section? Cora is a round and dynamic character throughout the novel.
3. Help figure out Cora’s relationships with the minor characters in the chapter.
4. Find your favorite sentence in each chapter and explain its importance to you
for understanding the story.
5. At the end of each chapter, help describe about the place as presented in this chapter. (i.e., the Randall plantation, the Hob,
etc.)
6. We need to find objects that you should associate with Cora. How is each important to her?
7. We are looking at each of these runaway slave advertisements that start each chapter.
1. You are not writing a research paper.
2. You will be finding the sources on the Research Project on The Underground Railroad. The Research Project is in this week’s module.
3. For each of these sources, you will write the MLA citation for the source as it appears on a Works Cited page. Use the OWL at Purdue for the correct and current MLA citation for this type of source.
I am giving you enough information so that you can find the source online. You will have to include all the pieces of information for the correct citation for the source. Use the OWL at Purdue to check that you have correctly written the Works Cited citation.
For some of the sources, you only write the correct works citation, but for others you have a task for the source. Do the task as asked.
Pace yourself and you will easily finish the research project within the two weeks. You will see how each of these sources connects with our historical novel.
Review
In- text citations- As you work on these sources, keep these basic research principles in mind.
In a research paper after the text, the paper concludes with the Works Cited page(s) which is an alphabetical listing of those sources the writer has used in writing the paper. The format for each citation is MLA and depends on the type of source: a book with one author; a magazine article; a journal article online; a newspaper article online; a web site link within a website; an essay within an anthology; an interview, a TV program; etc. For finding the correct format we are using the OWL at Purdue that shows the current and correct form for sources in MLA.
Within your paper you will have an in-text citation at the end of the each sentence that has directly quoted material and for each sentence that has paraphrased information from a source. Directly quoted material is inside quotation marks. If the reader sees an in-text citation of (Hernandez 52), then the reader will go directly to the Works Cited page and look for the Hernandez source. Then if the reader were to go to the Hernandez source on page 52, the reader would find the exact words as those quoted in the paper. If the information has been paraphrased, then the writer has found information, an opinion, a point to include in the paper, but the writer has written this information, opinion, or point in his/her words. Paraphrasing is writing the information that you want to use in your words, but not in the author’s/ source’s words. Paraphrasing takes the major part of one’s time when writing research. The in-text citation would still be the same of (Hernandez 52), but when looking at the original source the reader would see how the writer has read this information and written it in his or her words.
If you have quoted material in a sentence as shown by the quotation marks, but there is no in-text citation at the end of the sentence; this is plagiarism.
If you have paraphrased material in a sentence, but there is no in-text citation at the end of the sentence; this is plagiarism.
Misconceptions: You will not have an in-text citation at the end of every sentence.
You do not necessarily end each paragraph with an in-text citation.
You may have too many in-text citations in your paper, but you can always take some out, but if you do not have in-text citations when needed, then you have plagiarism.
The majority of your paper is paraphrased information. As a rule, you do not cite a fact, and you do not cite information that is found in three or more sources. So you would not cite someone’s birthday which is a fact, but you would cite the number of people who died in the Holocaust at concentration camps because in one source you may find 6,000 people, in another source you may find 8,250 people, and in a third source you found 12,500 people. Although these numbers seem facts, the different sources show there is no agreement, so you would have to cite whichever number you used in your writing.
The first time that you cite a source in your paper you will show the in-text citation as (author’s last name page number). If the source is online and has no actual pages, only hyperpages, then you will show only the author’s last name in the in-text citation (author’s last name). Or you may show an in-text citation with hyperpages as (author’s last name para. 14).
If the next in-text citation in the paper is from the same source as the last citation (there have been no intervening sources), then you will only show the page number in the citation (page number).
Any time that you have quoted material in a sentence then you must have an in-text citation at the end of the sentence.
How to write quoted material in your sentence:
a. your words “quoted words” (Nazario 67).
b. “quoted words” your words (Nazario 82).
c. your words “quoted words” your words (Nazario 125).
No- “only quoted words” (Nazario 64). a dropped quotation
In sentences with quoted words, there must be your words as well. A quoted sentence that is standing by itself without any of your words in the sentence is known as a dropped quotation. You don’t want any dropped quotations.
If you will be paraphrasing for several sentences, you can start by saying Nazario points out how gangs would prey upon children riding atop the trains. Then in the next three sentences, you are paraphrasing the information, details about the gangs. You will place the in-text citation at the end of the last sentence that has been paraphrasing gangs (78- 80). 1. Because you introduced the paraphrase with the author’s last name, you will show only the page number (s) in the in-text citation. 2. If within your paraphrase, you directly quote, then you will have an in-text citation at the end of that sentence. A direct quotation breaks the paraphrase and requires an in-text citation at the end of that sentence.
The Underground Railroad Research Process ESSAY
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