English 102
Exploratory Research Essay
Andelora
Because this final essay isn’t out of the book, there’s no discussion about structure, so I’d
like to offer some guidelines.
First, in light of what we’ve done to introduce the previous essays, there are some
conventions that we can draw on for this essay: you’ll want to get your readers’ attention and
establish a context for what’s to follow. So, one strategy is to write an introduction that
presents your reader with an anecdote that helps situate your topic, presents the question that
is driving your research, and explain why this matters. Remember that the previous essays
were thesis-driven. Because this isn’t a thesis-driven essay like the other two, this final
exploratory essay won’t have a thesis. However, you’ll still want to establish a controlling
idea and let your reader know where you’ll be taking them.
Second, the body of the paper, if you’ll recall from the assignment, chronicles the research
process. You’ll want to be careful here. As you can imagine, this could get pretty boring.
Remember that all-important phrase from the assignment? Let me repeat it here for
emphasis: “Make your exploratory essay an interesting intellectual detective story—
something your readers will enjoy.” So, while you do want to chronicle the outward journey
(research process) and the inward journey (the evolution of your thought), you’ll want to
choose your details carefully.
Additionally, this is a research paper and, as such, it must make use of sources and include a
works cited page. So, you’ll want to draw from your sources and both summarize and
evaluate them in the context of your exploration. How did these various books, articles, and
websites challenge or reinforce your thinking? How did the different sources compare?
Were there points on which they agreed? Disagreed? Which seemed most reliable to you?
Why? You’ll want to provide a synthesis that shows you are conversant with the sources
you’ve worked with.
Finally, you’ll want to conclude your essay by returning to your research question. You
don’t need to answer it, but you should summarize what you have learned from your
research. What did you find? Was your question good? Are you able to “answer” it based
on your research? Did it give rise to new questions? How would you summarize the way
your thinking has changed? You might also comment on the research process itself—what
you found to be particularly helpful in this situation and what wasn’t.
The following prompts should help you begin writing:
1. What was your starting research question and why did you choose it? Explain why it is
appropriate for a college-level research project. (Remember, this should be a topic that
requires a combination of library research and your own analytical skills to answer.)
Ultimately, when writing your essay, you’ll want to make this topic interesting and
relevant to your audience. How might you do that?
2. How did you begin searching? What was your initial search strategy? What did it
reveal? (Did you find good sources? Did you have to work with different search terms?)
3. How did you address the challenge of finding a variety of sources (not all web pages)?
4. Describe your process for reading and taking notes. As you did this, what other questions
came up? Did you find gaps or holes that made you search again? Explain.
5. On what points did your sources tend to agree? On what points did they disagree? Did
you choose sources that represent a variety of viewpoints?
6. Reflect on the process you went through to search for information. What specific points
can you make about the research process? What worked particularly well? What kinds
of things would you not do again?
7. Now that you’ve worked with a number of sources, how has your thinking about your
research question changed?