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ELA 8

English Language Arts 8 · Worksheets

Research and organization

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Research. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Research and organization

English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Use the space to note the evidence or reasoning that decided it.

  1. You are writing a report on how to stay safe around black bears in Alberta's parks. Which source is most reliable?

    1. a) a video of a hiker who once scared off a bear by yelling
    2. b) a bear safety guide published by Alberta Parks
    3. c) an ad for bear spray written by the company that makes it
    4. d) a hiking forum post from a user called TrailKing

  2. Source: “Some studies suggest that teenagers who read a paper book before bed may fall asleep faster.” Which is the fairest paraphrase?

    1. a) Teenagers should read a paper book before bed so that they can fall asleep faster.
    2. b) Some studies suggest that teens who read a paper book before bed may fall asleep more quickly.
    3. c) Studies prove that reading a paper book before bed makes teenagers fall asleep faster.
    4. d) Some research hints that reading a printed book at bedtime might help teens fall asleep sooner.

  3. A student's research question is “Why did the river flood our town in June?” Her notes: heavy mountain snow in spring; three days of heavy rain; ground already soaked; river rose four metres. Which organization will answer her question best?

    1. a) comparison, setting this flood beside earlier floods
    2. b) chronology, listing each day's weather in order
    3. c) description, picturing the town under the water
    4. d) cause and effect, linking each condition to the flood

  4. A student is writing about how her grandmother's family came to Alberta: leaving the Netherlands in 1952, a winter in a rented room in Lethbridge, then buying a farm near Taber. Which organization fits best?

    1. a) cause and effect, starting with why farmland was so cheap
    2. b) problem and solution, starting with the small rented room
    3. c) comparison, setting life in the Netherlands beside Alberta
    4. d) chronology, telling the events in the order they happened

  5. Source: “Burrowing owls, which are endangered in Canada, nest in old ground squirrel and badger holes on the open prairie.” Which is the best point-form note?

    1. a) owls: live on the prairie
    2. b) burrowing owls: endangered in Can.; nest in old squirrel/badger holes
    3. c) burrowing owls: very cute, should be protected
    4. d) Burrowing owls, which are endangered in Canada, nest in old ground squirrel and badger holes on the open prairie.

  6. Your research question is “How do beavers build their dams?” Which source is most useful?

    1. a) a biologist's step-by-step article on how beavers build a dam
    2. b) a photo of a huge beaver dam posted with the caption “Amazing!”
    3. c) a history textbook's chapter on the beaver fur trade in early Canada
    4. d) a well-known encyclopedia's list of the largest rodents in the world

  7. Read: “Calgary and Edmonton are both Alberta cities of more than a million people. Calgary sits closer to the mountains and gets more chinooks. Edmonton is farther north, so its summer days are longer, and it is the provincial capital.” How is this paragraph organized?

    1. a) problem and solution
    2. b) comparison
    3. c) cause and effect
    4. d) chronology

  8. Half of Ravi's report on wildfires is long quotations from websites, joined by phrases like “Another source says.” What is the best advice for Ravi?

    1. a) Paraphrase most of it, and quote only the few words that must be exact.
    2. b) Add even more quotations, so every point has an expert behind it.
    3. c) Take out the quotation marks so that the report reads more smoothly.
    4. d) Keep all of the quotations, since quoting experts is always more reliable.

  9. For which research question does the date of a source matter most?

    1. a) How do beavers choose where to build their dams and lodges?
    2. b) What happened to the town of Frank during the rock slide of 1903?
    3. c) How did glaciers carve out the shape of the Bow Valley long ago?
    4. d) What does it cost to camp in Alberta's provincial parks this summer?

  10. You are writing a report on Elk Island National Park. Which of these must you give credit for?

    1. a) last year's visitor count, from a Parks Canada web page
    2. b) what you saw and heard on your own hike in the park
    3. c) the fact that Edmonton is Alberta's capital city
    4. d) your own opinion that the park needs more picnic tables

Answer key · Research and organization

English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

  1. b) a bear safety guide published by Alberta Parks — Alberta Parks has staff who study bears and nothing to sell, and its guide is written for people using those parks. The bear spray ad may be accurate, but it was written to sell a product, and one hiker's story shows what happened once, not what is safe.
  2. d) Some research hints that reading a printed book at bedtime might help teens fall asleep sooner. — A fair paraphrase changes the words but keeps the meaning, including how sure the source is: “some studies suggest” and “may” are careful, and “prove” and “makes” are not. The version that swaps only a word or two is still the writer's sentence, so it would need quotation marks.
  3. d) cause and effect, linking each condition to the flood — The question asks why, so the answer has to show how each condition led to the flood, and that is cause and effect. The notes happen to fall in time order, which makes chronology tempting, but a list of what happened next does not explain why it happened.
  4. d) chronology, telling the events in the order they happened — The piece is a series of events over several years, so telling them in time order lets the reader follow the journey. Comparing the two countries could be interesting, but it would organize the piece around places instead of what happened, and what happened is what she is telling.
  5. b) burrowing owls: endangered in Can.; nest in old squirrel/badger holes — Point-form notes keep the key facts in a few of your own words, which also makes them easier to paraphrase later. Copying the whole sentence saves no time and tempts you to copy it into the report, and “live on the prairie” loses both facts that matter.
  6. a) a biologist's step-by-step article on how beavers build a dam — A useful source answers your actual question, and only the biologist's article is about how dams are built. The fur-trade chapter may be completely reliable, which is why it tempts, but reliability does not help if the source is about something else.
  7. b) comparison — The paragraph sets two cities side by side, first what they share and then how they differ, which is comparison. The word “so” marks one cause-and-effect link inside a sentence, but a paragraph's organization comes from how the whole thing is built, not from one linking word.
  8. a) Paraphrase most of it, and quote only the few words that must be exact. — A report should show your understanding, and a string of quotations shows only that you can copy; paraphrasing puts the ideas in your words, with credit. Taking out the quotation marks is the dangerous fix, because then copied words are passed off as your own.
  9. d) What does it cost to camp in Alberta's provincial parks this summer? — Fees can change from year to year, so a source from even two years ago could give the wrong numbers. How glaciers shaped a valley, what happened at Frank in 1903 and how beavers choose a site do not change, so an older source can still answer those questions well.
  10. a) last year's visitor count, from a Parks Canada web page — A number you found in a source is someone else's work, so you name where it came from. Your own opinions and observations are yours, and a fact nearly everyone knows, like Alberta's capital, is common knowledge that does not need a source.