Name ____________ Class Period _____
APLAC Research Project 2015-2016
This year you will write an argumentative research project. You will get to choose your own topic, but one of
your main sources will be a nonfiction book. Below, you will find a list of books that would be appropriate. It is
fine to pick a different book not on the list, but do pick a book that makes a clear argument. A biography,
historical account, or how-to book will NOT WORK. Look for a book that is trying to convince you of one main
overall idea. You will have to get this book approved by your teacher. Some books are very long. But please,
choose a book that is interesting to you, not based on page length. If your book is more than 400 pages, you can
talk to your APLAC teacher to get a strategy on what portion to read.
***Each book can be chosen by no more than two people per teacher. ***
Browse through the books and read a few pages before making your choice. I encourage you to buy cheap used
books at Half Priced Books or on www.amazon.com or other book websites! Note that I have read some, but
not all of the books on the list, so I can't always vouch for their content. (I did try to choose books that have
won national recognition such as the Pulitzer Prize.) Choose this book as carefully as you would choose any
other book to read. I suggest that you ask parents and friends for advice about high-quality, argumentative
nonfiction!
This project will result in a 2000+ word paper with the following sections:
Section I: Introduction and Context
Section II: The Author's Background
Section III: The Book's Argument
Section IV: Opposing Points of View
Section V: Conclusion
Section VI: Works Cited
We will talk more about what these sections mean later.
Projected Due Dates and Computer Lab Dates:
Wednesday, December 9– Book Choice DUE (ONLY TWO STUDENTS MAY READ THE SAME BOOK)
Monday, December 14– Bring your book to class- due today
Monday, January 11 – Have your book read. Turn in Research Book Questionnaire and Chart.
Monday-Wednesday, January 11-13 – In the computer lab working on Memo/Annotated Bibliography.
Friday, Jan 15– Memo and Annotated Bibliography due. –
MAJOR GRADE (submitted paper copy in class and online via turnitin.com.)
Thursday, Jan 28– In the computer lab working on Final Paper – work on formatting
Monday, Feb 1- Section II – due by Midnight (submitted by electronic copy only via turnitin.com)
Thursday, Feb 4 - In the computer lab working on Final Paper
Monday, Feb 8 – Section III – due by Midnight (submitted by electronic copy only via turnitin.com)
Thursday, Feb 11– In the computer lab working on Final Paper – work on formatting
Tuesday, Feb 16 – Section IV due by Midnight (submitted by electronic copy only via turnitin.com)
Friday, Feb 19 – FINAL PAPER Electronic Copy due via FLASH DRIVE & Turnitin.com. In the Computer Lab.
Monday, Feb 22 – FINAL PAPER DUE! –
MAJOR GRADE (paper copy submitted in class & electronically on turnitin.com)
Each day we meet in the computer lab, you will need to have your paper saved to your documents,
Google documents, or saved on a pin drive. I will quickly check your progress, review what is supposed
to be in each section, give you a short lesson on formatting, and then let you work. Some of the MLA
formatting lessons we will cover: heading, page numbers, block quotes, headings, in-text citations,
works cited page. If you want to get started formatting on the right foot, use Times New Roman 12.
Regular margins. Double space.
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Suggested Book Titles (If you find another book by one of these authors, it will generally work,
but you still need to get that approved.)
The obesity epidemic in America:
 Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser
 The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality, Ideology, by Michael Gard and Jan Wright
The plight of the working poor:
 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
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B001HCYR1I
The Other America: Poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington
The Working Poor: Invisible in America, by David Shipler
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi, Molly Crabapple
The Environment, Global warming, and pollution:
 Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains, by Mark Bowen
 Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False
Science to Scare Us to Death, by Ronald Bailey
 Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America
by Thomas L. Friedman
 This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
Free Trade:
 Trading Away our Future: How Government-Driven Trade Deficits and a Faulty Tax System
Threaten America's Industry, Savings, and Future, by Raymond Richman, Howard Richman,
and Jesse Richman
 The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power,
and Politics of World Trade, by Pietra Rivoli
The Justice System:
 Crime and Punishment in America, by Eliott Curie
Education and child-rearing:
 Freedom and Beyond, by John Holt
 The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, by Judith Rich Harris
 The End of Education, by Neil Postman
 The Big Test, by Nicholas Lehmann (about the SATs)
 The Cheating Culture by David Callahan
 Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol
 Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids---and What
We Can Do About It by: Andrew Hacker
 A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting by Hara Estroff Marano
 One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance by Christina
Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D.
 How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, And the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough
Foreign Policy/History/Government:
 The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq, by George Packer
 “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, by Samantha Power
 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright
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Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Kurlansky
Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity by
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
 Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah
Goldhagen
 The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills
 A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of
Repair by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
 Culture Warrior by Bill O’Reilly
 The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
 Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide by Joshua S. Goldstein
 The Twilight of the Nation State by Prem Shankar Jha
 Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise in Global Dominance—and Why They Fail by Amy
Chua
 Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy
 Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers by Nick
Offerman
 One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future by Ben Carson, Candy Carson
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Medicine:
 The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccine, Deadly Cancers, and Government Neglect
by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher
 Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A.
Offit MD
 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
 Overdiagnosed by H. Gilbert Welch
 White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine by Carl Elliott
Pop culture/television:
 Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us
Stronger, by Steven Johnson
 Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman
 The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, by Barry Glassner
 Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
 Super Freakanomics Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
 Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by
William Powers
 The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t by Nate Silver
Psychology:
 Blink , by Malcolm Gladwell
 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
 Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardiner
 War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges
 Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
 Clutch by Paul Sullivan
 Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Traleb
 A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
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Drive by David H. Pink
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How we Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves by Dan
Ariely
How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge,
and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris
Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking) by Christian Rudder
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Sociology:
 Two Nations : Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal by Andrew Hacker
 Money: Who Has How Much and Why by Andrew Hacker
 Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
 I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son by Kent Russell
Communication:
 Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology by Jonathon Keats
 You Just Don't Understand-- Women and Men in Conversation, by Deborah Tannen
 You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, by Deborah
Tannen
 The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words, by Deborah Tannen
 Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World by Nataly
Kelly and Jost Zetzsche
 Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Consumerism/Economy :
 Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, by John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H.
Naylor
 Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
 The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph E.
Stiglitz
Mathematics/Logic/Probability/Statistics:
 The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow
 Dicing with Death: Chance, Risk and Health by Stephen Senn
Science:
 The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene
 Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, by Carl Sagan
 The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
 The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values by Sam Harris
 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
by Michio Kaku
 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
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Research Book Questionnaire and Chart
As you read, you will be looking for some things that will help you later write your paper. Fill this in as you read
and turn it by Monday, March 2 when you have to have your book read. Your notes should consider the
following things:
1. MLA Citation for your book. Remember if you use two or more lines, the 2nd and 3rd, etc. lines
should be indented 5 spaces or one tab.
Format: Last, First. Book Title. City: Publication Company, Year.
2. Author's Credibility and Bias: What are the author's credentials? Is he a doctor or professor?
Where did he go to school? What is his highest level of education? Where does the author prove that he
or she has the authority to write this book? Where do you see bias? (For this section, just use what is in
the book, book jacket. Do not yet search out any information on the internet or outside sources.)
3. The Book's Argument: In one to two sentences, explain the overall argument of the book. What is
the main point the author is making?
4. Supporting Arguments: Name some supporting arguments that the author uses to support his main
argument.
5. Topics. Name 10 topics covered in this book. You might find these in the index or table of contents or
just know from reading the book. This will be used to create your annotated bibliography.
a.
f.
b.
g.
c.
h.
d.
i.
e.
j.
6. Complete the chart on the back of this page. You are going to choose 6 quotes where the author
is using SOMETHING to prove his main argument. The SOMETHING can be specific details, long
examples, questions and answers, logical arguments, persuasive words, anecdotes, stories, metaphors,
his authority, his affiliations, humor, emotional words, statistics, analogies, or whatever else you think
of. The quotes can be simple and short, or a passage a few pages long. You will write the page number,
an excerpt of the quote, name it, and analyze the effect of it (why did the author use that fact, statistic?
How did that further his argument?) This chart will be used to write your research paper.
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Page #
Quote – write the whole quote or an
excerpt. Use ellipses if needed.
Categorize the quote.
specific details, long
examples, questions
and answers, logical
arguments, analogy,
persuasive words,
anecdotes, statistic,
metaphors, his
authority, his
affiliations, humor,
emotional words.
statistics, analogies
Explain the effect. Why did the author use that example. What
did it contribute to his overall argument? Answer in a few
sentences.
Checklist for Research Project
__ Pick a book (See list on page 3-5)
__ Buy the book
__ Get the book approved by teacher (show the teacher the physical book)
__ Read the book.
__ While reading, work on Research Book Questionnaire and Chart (page 6-7)
__ Finish book and turn in Research Book Questionnaire and Chart by January 11
__ Start researching for your annotated bibliography. You are looking for scholarly research on
whatever topics are covered in your nonfiction book. Look at your questionnaire question #5 to see
what things you might search for. Use the library databases and Google Scholar. Be sure to collect all
of the information to put in your annotated bibliography.
__ Work on Memo & Annotated Bibliography (explained on pages 7-11)
__ Double check the example (p.9) rubric (pg. 10 ) and the checklist (p.11) before turning in the
Annotated Bibliography.
__ Turn in the Annotated Bibliography & Memo by January 15.
__ Research the credibility of your author for section 2. DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA as your final
source. You CAN use that site to find other websites that discuss your author. You can use the library
databases: Britannica, Ebsco, World Book. You CAN use the book jacket of your nonfiction book. (You
would cite that as Book Jacket instead of page#) You CAN use the author’s personal website.
__Use your chart (p. 6) to help you complete Section 3.
__ Use your annotated bibliography to help you complete section 4.
__ DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. I WILL FIND OUT. YOU WILL FAIL.
Anything that you discover from some website or book MUST BE CITED. The sections where I
expect to see citations include section 2 (wherever you got the facts about your author), section
3 (quotes from your book), and section 4 (your outside research to see if the book was accurate,
what other people said about the same topics).
There is NO NEED to research what people said about YOUR book. I want to know what YOU
think about your book, not other people. But you will research about the IDEAS in your book
(section IV)
___ Section II due by Monday, Feb 1 (11:59 pm, submitted electronically)
___ Section III due by Monday, Feb 8 (11:59 pm, submitted electronically)
___ Section IV due by Tuesday, Feb 16 (11:59 pm, submitted electronically)
___ FINAL Electronic Copy due Friday, Feb 19
___ Comp. Lab dates: Thursday, Jan 28; Thursday, Feb 4; Thursday, Feb 11; Friday, Feb 19
___ Final Paper Due! Monday, Feb 22 – submitted on paper due in your class period. 200 pts.
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December 4, 2015
Dear Parents and Students:
We are now starting our research paper in AP English Language and Composition.
For this paper, students will:
 Read an argumentative nonfiction book of their choosing. (Please help them choose a book
that is of interest to them where the topics and subtopics are approved by you.)
 Analyze that book for its rhetorical strategies
 Research various concepts presented in the book
 Compose an annotated bibliography of research
 Write a research paper in MLA format
There have been some issues in the past with plagiarism. This updated packet has more information to make it
more clear where it is ok to use outside research and where it is not. There are also many reminders that it is
essential to cite anything that is not coming out of the student’s brain. That said, if the directions are not clear,
please ask for clarification. When we read the papers turned in, we will prosecute for plagiarism.
The student handbook states:
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following:

Using the ideas and/or words of another person without giving that person appropriate credit,

Representing another’s artistic or scholarly works as your own,

Submitting a paper purchased from a paper research service, including the Internet,

Using undocumented Web sources.
Consequences for a first offense on a major grade include getting a zero on the assignment and 6 hours of
detention.
Students, please take time to make sure you are following directions and not plagiarizing. Parents, please be
aware of the assignment and the consequences for plagiarism.
Sincerely,
Beth Moore
Adrienne Kingston
AP English Language and Composition Teachers
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I have read and understand the directions for the 2015-2016 research paper. If I have questions along the way, I will ask
my teacher. I understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that this is a major grade, due February 22
(both electronically via turnitin.com and via paper copy turned in in class). A late paper will not be accepted.
Student Name ________________________
Student Signature _____________________________
Parent Name _________________________
Parent Signature ______________________________
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