Engl 1302: RESEARCH PAPER



English 1302

Fall 2011

RESEARCH PAPER

A. What is research?

If you’ve watched any detective movies, you’ll find that the job of researching that leads to detecting a culprit can be exciting. When an investigator interviews his witness, reads through files and reports, while piecing together clues in an attempt to uncover a criminal, the whole process of searching and researching seems exciting. The enthusiasm is often attributed to the purposeful excitement of discovering the unknown. Yet, the people who may find murder mysteries exciting may not be aware that academic research is in its essence similar in nature to all other research. Honest and inquisitive research writing does demand close attention to detail, and the process may be a little tedious. However, if you see the work steadily contributing to discoveries about yourself and the world around you, you may find the research meaningful. As you consider what others have to say about your subject, you will become an expert in your own right. You will form an in-depth knowledge of the field that you care about, and you will be able to communicate that to your audience.

B. Why should you document your sources?

As with all good research, some amount of library work is essential. When using library research, you must be careful to keep a thorough record of all your sources. Do refer to the annotated bibliography assignment for the necessary items needed for documentation. In your process of researching, you must not only document your sources, but also analyze and evaluate your sources. You must also draw from work done by other researchers to form, support, and extend your own opinions. You must practice intellectual integrity by presenting the work others have done, accurately and by acknowledging your sources of information. You are expected to develop a thesis for your topic, do research on it, form a position on your findings, and develop argumentations in support of your thesis.

C. What are the general requirements of this assignment?

You must make sure that this research paper is not a mere report, but a true research where you address societal concerns by exploring new ways of dealing with problems pertaining to society. The target audience must go away feeling that they’ve learned and discovered something new from your research findings. You must find a way of analyzing and studying your interest area in an attempt to observe your area of study from a fresh, new perspective or angle. The research must allow for the readers to see a clear link between the findings and the analysis of the underlying issues, themes, values, assumptions or beliefs that controls current ways of looking at the problem. You must find a way to persuade your audience to draw new meanings and new ways of seeing the world from the argumentations, analysis, and findings. The research paper should present your positioning on where you stand in the conflicting opinions of the field and how you intend to resolve it. It is extremely important that your arguments build towards a cohesive way of seeing the field of study from a new-fangled perspective.

D. How do you pick a topic?

Please know that your choice of topic is very important for your research and that your topic proposal will be evaluated for research worthiness before it will be approved for research. Research worthiness will be evaluated on a scale of how the topic appeals to the concerns of a common audience and if it would have impact on the target audience. Obviously, topics that are more controversial are usually seen as topics that are more appealing to the masses. Having said that, what that appeals to the masses may be areas that may not completely satisfy the research worthy criterion as these may be topics that have not been addressed in scholarly research or topics that have very little impact value. Such topics would certainly be disastrous for our purpose. Therefore, I suggest that you leave such topics out. Be aware that all topics that do not meet the criterion of research worthiness, will have to be reworked for a better topic.

E. Parameters for the assignment:

For the purpose of this research, you must write an eight to twelve page paper (excluding the references) on the topic that you have proposed. The research paper must be based on the research that was proposed, documented, and researched in this class. All papers must be double spaced and presented in Times New Roman 12pt. font, with a one inch margin and presented in the MLA format. All papers must have at least 10 MLA style in-text citation and a minimum of 10 references in a MLA style work cited page. These references should be from those that were listed in your annotated bibliography. All research material referred to and cited in the work cited page must be presented in a research portfolio.

Your portfolio must consist of all the materials below:

1. Research Plan

2. Topic Proposal (2 pages)

3. Survey/ Interview (Primary Source)

4. One page summary of the findings from the Survey/ Interviews

5. Bibliographic assignment (min of 20 bibliographic entries)

4. A one page summary of your secondary research findings.

5. 8-12 page research paper (Minimum of 2 drafts)

6. 10 minutes final power point presentation and 5 minutes Q&A

7. 10 references in your work cited page.

8. 10 in-text citations.

9. A copy of all the materials cited in your work cited page.

10. Citations highlighted in the copied material.

11. A two-page critical evaluation of your research.

You may submit all this in a eportfolio format that you like. You are strongly advised to use Folioteks eportfolio for this purpose. However, you may choose the manner of presenting this portfolio in any other electronic format you are comfortable with.

Step 1: Topic Proposal and Research Plan

Below are the heuristics for the topic proposal and research plan assignment:

• Topic proposal must be two pages long.

• Topic proposal must clearly define the area that you are studying for the research paper.

• The topic must show be narrow enough for the length of the assignment.

• The researcher must also suggest the reasons why he/she has chosen to limit the research within the specific area. The reasons can comprise of any particular social, political, economical hardship, or problem that communities around the world are facing. It is also crucial for the researcher to stipulate how the researcher is directly or indirectly impacted by it as well.

• The purpose for the topic proposal is to convince me and your classmates that your topic is research worthy.

• After identifying the topic, it is crucial that the researcher has a research plan.

• The purpose for the plan is for the researcher to have an individualized time line or plan for the completion of the final research paper.

• The researcher is required to incorporate all the due dates scheduled in his/her calendar into his/her plan towards the final completion of the research paper.

Due dates:

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