Senior Project Research Essay Assignment
Overview: This essay begins with a question. Using your Senior Project as the source, you will
generate a series of potential research topics, eventually selecting one that interest you. The essay
that you write provide an in-depth answer to your research question.
Assignment: Write an objective, MLA-formatted research paper of 8-10 pages. The paper will
be organized around a research question related to a topic or interest. For example, What are the
effects of social media consumption in adolescents between the ages of 12-16? Notice that the
question is sufficiently specific to allow you to search for relevant information. Additionally, the
question may not have a simple answer; there may not be a simple answer, so your paper should
present relevant information and explore the issue thoroughly.
Purpose: Writing research papers is not necessarily a widely applicable task. Mostly confined
to academia, research papers rely on clarity, objectivity, and quality sources of information. They
are not personal. The thinking required to write a research paper, however, is extremely valuable
and applicable to a wide variety of undertakings, careers, and learning contexts. A few of the
learning objectives include 1.) learning to locate and identify relevant, trustworthy sources; 2.)
learning to organize and contextualize information effectively; 3.) learning how to write and
engaging and informative piece; 4.) learning to think about links between an issue, its possible
causes, and potential solutions 5.) learning to carefully document the sources of information.
Audience: Your audience includes post-secondary readers who have an interest in your topic or
in reading issue-oriented writing.
Genre: Research essay.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tips/requests for WCoM:
1.) Ask students what their research question is and how it relates to their project.
2.) Ask students what their organizational approach is, i.e. How are they tracking sources?
What are the emerging sub-topics that they will use to organize their writing? Etc.
3.) Ask students about the quantity and quality of their sources.
4.) Discuss various ways to begin the essay, e.g. anecdote, statistical analysis, brief history.
5.) Ask students what they have learned so far.
Thanks for giving us your valuable time! We are pretty excited (and probably nervous, too)!