This project was inspired by Ilona Leki’s article on sequenced writing assignments:
Leki, I. (1991). Building expertise through sequenced writing assignments. TESOL Journal,
1(2), 12-23.
It’s meant to guide students through the process of gathering information on a research topic of
personal importance to them. I was motivated to try it to help students become ‘experts’ on their
topics, and also to get them started researching early in the semester, rather than saving all the
work till the end. I introduced this project in the second or third week of the semester.
ELI 100 (2)
Fall 2004
Semester Research Project
Purpose: The purpose of this project is for you to develop your understanding of a research topic
that is interesting and important to you. The goal of this project is for you to gradually build up
your knowledge on your topic and to write about it from a variety of perspectives. It is hoped
that by the end of the project, you will be a class expert on your topic. Also, as you complete the
different stages of the project, you will become familiar with writing processes, research
strategies, and academic writing conventions.
This research project will consist of a series of four papers:
1. A research proposal (2-3 pages) in which you introduce your topic, explain your research
questions, and describe why you chose this topic, including your personal
experience/background knowledge about it.
2. A summary and review (3-4 pages) in which you summarize three research sources (books,
articles, and/or web sites) that relate to your topic, explaining and evaluating what they say about
your topic.
3. A field research paper (4-5 pages) in which you explain the results of your field research
(conducted through interviews, surveys, and/or observations) about your topic.
4. A final research paper (8-10 pages) that brings together all of the reading, writing, and
research you have done on your topic. In the final paper, you should explain your own
perspective on your topic, supporting your views with evidence from you field research and
library research.
CHOOSING YOUR TOPIC
By the time you write your research proposal, you should have a clear idea of your topic and the
reasons why you chose it. Choose your topic carefully, since you will spend the rest of the
semester reading and writing about it. After you submit your research proposal, I will read it and
approve it, or ask you to modify it as necessary.
A Good Topic Is…
Relevant to your life.
Choose a topic that you have somehow experienced personally. This does not mean that the
topic must be closely related to your personal life, but it should be something that you are
familiar with through your background knowledge and experience.
Researchable.
Will you be able to find information in the library about this topic? You may want to ask a
librarian or go to the library’s web site: http://libweb.hawaii.edu/uhmlib/ and search for books to
see whether your topic is researchable.
Not too broad, and not too narrow.
Very broad topics can be difficult to research and write about because there is so much
information to include, whereas very narrow topics are tough because there is not enough
information to address the topic in-depth.
Interesting and important to you.
A topic that you have a lot to say about will be much easier to read and write about. If you
choose a topic that is important to you, you may very well find yourself wanting to read and
write more about it. Make sure it’s not only interesting, but also meaningful: the topic of how
pickles are made may be interesting to you, but if it’s not very important to you, then it will be
hard to sustain for a semester.
BRAINSTORMING POSSIBLE TOPICS
The questions below are meant to help you discover possible research topics through freewriting
about issues and experiences that are important to you. At this stage, let yourself consider all the
ideas that may come into your head—don’t limit yourself, no matter how bizarre they may seem.
Then you can review all the possible topics you have generated and find the one that best fits the
criteria mentioned above.
Freewrite in response to these questions on another sheet of paper.
1. Think of a time when you were really angry or frustrated about something. What caused this
frustration? Were there any bigger issues at stake?
2. What values or experiences have affected you the most?
3. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
4. What issues/ideas bother you, excite you, concern you, or inspire you the most?
Read your freewrite. What did you come up with? Can you generalize from any of the ideas and
experiences you wrote about in order to create a research topic? For instance, if you wrote about
the frustration you feel when you see people being wasteful or disrespectful of the environment,
you could form a potential research topic about the need to persuade people to preserve natural
resources. Look at what you wrote from another perspective: how can you shape your
experiences and ideas into a research topic?
NARROWING IT DOWN
After you have brainstormed several potential topics, you can then begin to narrow them down to
find one or two that would work best for this project. Look back at the criteria above; which of
your topics is relevant, researchable, not too broad/narrow, interesting, and important to you?
Which one do you think you could read and write about for a whole semester? Also consider the
questions below before deciding on a final topic:
1. What personal experience have you had with this topic? Why is it important to you?
2. If you had to interview or survey someone about this topic, what would you ask? Who would
you ask?
3. Have other people researched this topic before? Will you be able to find books, articles,
and/or web sites that give you more information about this topic?