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 indepth 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
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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.
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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
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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.
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Step 1: Topic Proposal and Research Plan
Below are the heuristics for the topic proposal and research plan assignment:
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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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