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Communication: Written English | 265

It should place routine items at the beginning. It should be followed by
matters arising from the previous meeting(s).
The new items for consideration are placed next. An agenda, thus,
maintains a proper order for a meeting, minimizes discussion, and pre-
serves continuity in the proceeding of the meeting. In brief, it professionally
prepares the staff for the issue under discussion. For instance, a good agenda
makes taking down minutes very easy.

Technicalities of Writing a Research Paper

A research paper essentially requires collating material, taking notes,
compiling a bibliography, and documenting the sources to analyse a given
topic.
It, thus, helps to select a subject that interests you and does not extend
too much the time and space limitations.
Write a precise theme statement. Arrange the collated material into a
structured argument that consists of definition, classification, analysis, com-
parison, and contrast. Your detailed outline with thus emerge.
Then try a first draft with a clear beginning-body-conclusion structure.
Evaluate it critically and improve on it though self-check editing.
You would say, ‘all these points do not differ from the earlier forms of
written communication.’ What differentiates a research paper is its docu-
menting of the secondary material.
Given the spatial constraints, here let us quickly remind ourselves to use
reference cards for note-making and note-taking, whatever our source may
be- dictionaries, encyclopedias, yearbooks, microfiche or vertical files, and/
or dissertation abstracts.
While compiling a bibliography, follow the basic format given below:

Box 10.4: Format for Referencing
Author’s surname, name. The title of the book (underlined). Place of
publication: Publication house, Year of publication.

Look up the MLA Style Sheet for further, finer details. The Chicago
Manual, mostly used for social science research, is another source
book,
Since websites are often used these days as a reference source, here we
give the technicalities of quoting from a website in Box 10.4:

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