Research papers...

from http://www.lvcsd.k12.ny.us/uploaded/Library_Media/Research_Guide_2007-2008_ed_7_formatted.pdf

The Research Project: What It Is and Is Not
What a Research Project Is
1. A research project synthesizes your discoveries about a topic and your evaluation of those discoveries. The discoveries consist in large part of the ideas, knowledge and actual words of experts in the field you have investigated. But all that would be without value in a research project unless you weighed the discoveries you made and drew conclusions from them. A research project reflects your own ideas as much as anyone else who has written on the subject. Selecting information to use is a personal process; deciding how to approach this information, developing a point of view toward it, and, finally, choosing your own words to present it, are all highly personal activities.
2. A research project shows your originality. The product resulting from your studies, evaluation and synthesis will be a totally new creation, something that has originated with you.
3. A research project acknowledges all sources that have been used. Although your research is a new and original work, you will have consulted a number of sources in preparing it, and you must acknowledge these sources. In a research paper, you will use parenthetical citations and a WORKS CITED page. For other forms of presentation, a WORKS CONSULTED list is necessary. It is important to note that the failure to provide proper acknowledgement and documentation of sources can lead to intentional or unintentional plagiarism.

What a Research Project Is Not
1. A summary of an article or a book is not research. A single source does not permit you to be selective of materials and does not lead you to exercise judgment. Furthermore, since summaries usually follow the order of the original content, not even the organization can be your own.
2. The ideas of others, repeated uncritically, are not research. If you are satisfied simply to repeat the conclusions of other people without weighing them against what you have learned, you will perhaps end up presenting a satisfactory "report" of those findings, but you will not have done the kind of research this guide is about.