Research Paper Assignment

**This paper must be uploaded with all drafts & peer reviews to the Blackboard forum by 6pm on 4/19.

The goals of this assignment are to help you:

• become more knowledgeable about finding and using varied research sources in your major;
• further develop your critical thinking skills and back up your points with evidence;
• become more adept at synthesizing information and developing informed views;
• discipline yourself to follow a scholarly research format to document in-text sources and a reference page (bibliography); and
• compose a well organized, clear, concise, research paper to expand your knowledge on a chosen subject.

Topic: Your research paper project begins with a fact finding search on some current issue in your major to advance your knowledge. After you brainstorm about possible subjects and then select one, narrow your topic down to a manageable issue. Investigate possible approaches to your chosen topic and map out your strategy. Much of this was completed in your research proposal. Your final product will be judged on how well you succeed in producing a well thought out, clear paper which shows you can interpret and intelligently discuss the issue and how well you can back up your findings with evidence.

Approach: Your paper does not have a chance to be substantive unless you have substantive sources. Find 7 to 10 scholarly sources – including professional journal articles and professional publications, Internet sources, and possibly (but not required) an interview. It is a balancing act to find sources that you can understand – that relate to your level of study in your discipline, and, at the same time, challenge you intellectually. In this paper, what I am looking for is evidence that you can gather a body of knowledge on a particular subject, narrow it down to a particular focus and show that you can synthesize the information and make some intelligent, insightful observations about the subject. What I do not want is a regurgitation of information strung together. A significant part of the paper should be your interpretation of the information and how your knowledge about the subject has been enriched.

Your paper should contain these parts:

Introduction/Background: Your introductory material should set up your topic for your audience. Briefly summarize your findings on the subject. If the sources disagree about the value of or perspective on the subject, point out the areas of disagreement. Your introduction should not meander around the point of your paper. It may be more than one paragraph in length, but at some point, very early in the paper you then need to start the substance of the paper. Your thesis should come at the end of your introductory material. State your thesis in the form of a sentence or two. It should not be in the form of a question. Your thesis should be a brief statement, in your own words, that points out major issues of the topic that you discovered in your research. If you cannot articulate in a sentence or two what your main point is, then you probably do not have a solid grasp of what direction you wish your paper to take.

Body of Paper: Use subheadings, where appropriate, to separate different aspects of your paper which support your controlling idea (your thesis). The body of your paper should provide supporting evidence to support your thesis, in a logical, fully developed manner. For each new topic which supports your overall thesis, provide a topic sentence or two which is, in effect, the thesis for that sub-topic. If you do not use subheadings, you need to provide transition sentences to move your reader from one paragraph to the next. Your supporting sub-topics should address these issues: How will this knowledge advance science/technology/society – not in broad, abstract ways, but in concrete ways? What is the major impact of these findings? How will they affect people? What are the benefits to people? Are there any disadvantages? For example, if you are a nursing major, you might summarize findings on various treatment options or recent research findings for a particular medical condition. A computer science major might address a particular technology breakthrough with its plusses and minuses in application.

A writer of a research paper should synthesize the information gained from sources and weave them into a well ordered discourse, using the sources as evidence to support key points. A paper which is a string of quotes shows that the author made no attempt to come to grips with the subject and is relying on the sources to speak for her or him.

Conclusion: Your conclusion should make some “wrap up” statements about what you learned about your chosen topic and the possible impact of your findings on people and perhaps society in general. Also, address any issues that remain unresolved for you. Don’t be reluctant to address issues that aren’t easily resolved or have negative or ambiguous outcomes. I am not necessarily looking for a neatly wrapped up conclusion with no loose ends. I am looking for a conscientious, thoughtful look at some topic in your field, sharing of the major significance of this issue, and any unanswered questions, if any, you are still dealing with.

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Audience: Your paper should be understood by a broader audience than scholars in your field – for example, your classmates. You will have to explain concepts and not expect your audience to understand in-house jargon. If you are working on a paper in your major for another class this semester or on the job, we can negotiate the focus of your paper and the audience requirements. Have a target audience in mind. Who would be interested in and benefit from your treatment of the subject? By anticipating your audience, you can anticipate the kinds of questions that may arise.

FORMAT:

Length – 8 to 10 double spaced pages of text (not including graphics, cover page, appendices, or reference page). Ten “rambling” pages is not better than 8 clear, fully developed pages.

Margins – 1 inch top, bottom, left, right

Sources:  Use a minimum of  7 scholarly sources. (Books – often outdated by the time they get published – are generally poor sources for scientific subjects except for background info. Trade magazines or special interest group sources have built in biases, but can have some valuable information. For example, if you are writing about the value of advertising on the internet, a company whose product is internet advertisements would probably not be an objective source, but might be a good source for showing what is being done with Internet advertising. But you would have to point out the possible biased interest of the source. What biases of your own may you have to be aware of to produce a scholarly look at this subject?

Documentation: Follow the APA or MLA  Style Guide for documenting the sources in your text and your Reference/Works Cited Page.

Use parenthetical citations (citation information in text between parentheses) for information that is someone’s opinion and is not common knowledge. Give parenthetical citation information for quotations and paraphrases.

Beginning a paragraph or sentence with a quotation is poor form – letting the source speak for you instead of incorporating the source into your text. For example, here is an example of poor form, showing no input from the paper’s writer. He or she is just writing what the original author said, without paraphrasing the information or setting up the quote in context:

“The proliferation of multiple births in this country speaks to the need to formulate ethics guidelines to regulate the fertility clinics” (Jones, 1997, p. 82).

An example of a more graceful form of setting up a quote is:

Because of significant number of multiple births in the United States, Jones points out that this country needs to “formulate ethics guidelines to regulate the fertility clinics” (1997, p. 82-84).

All sources in your research paper, like the examples above, are not only documented in the body of your paper, but must also be listed in the proper format on the References page.

Use quotes judiciously. Use them only when paraphrasing will make the statement unclear or a kernel of an idea is so perfectly stated that trying to paraphrase in your own words will ruin the impact of the statement. See the MLA or APA Style Guides for how to handle long quotes.

Appendices: Graphics or charts should only be used if they can clarify some concept in your paper. If you include large graphics or charts, include each on a separate appendix page and label each one A, B, and so on. Refer to such appendices in the text where you discuss that issue. Graphs, charts, and appendices are not included as pages of text. They must be in addition to the 8 to 10 pages.