Dowling College
Research Paper
Principles of Writing
Walker
Consider one of the ideas in any of the essays assigned for the term.
Why is this idea interesting to you? What do you think about it? What more
would you like to know about it?
First make some tentative conclusions about this idea as you see it.
Then using research materials formulate an informed opinion about the idea
you are considering. Review pro and con evidence, current opinions, and
any other materials that would help you present your thesis. If you cannot
come up with a strong opinion, just organize your research evidence in such
a way as to show some new and diverse opinions on the subject since the
author wrote. Do not try to cover everything or every year!
Create a manageable thesis based on your own thoughts and the
research you have done. Support your thesis in a short research paper of at
least 5 double-spaced pages of text.
Use MLA style (in our handbook) for your documentation and list of
works cited. Use a minimum of five sources.
Due: December 4, 2008
FOR EXAMPLE: SAMPLE GENERAL TOPICS (not narrowed). YOU DO
NOT HAVE TO DO ONE OF THESE SUGGESTIONS.
Jefferson’s right of people “to alter or abolish” any form of
government that does not secure inalienable rights.
Douglass’s “want of utterance.” (the trial of illiteracy)
Smith’s “the town is a continual fair or market.”
Thoreau’s “refusal of allegiance” to the State.
Aristotle’s “the aim of statecraft is man’s proper good.”
Marx’s “despotic inroads on the rights of property.”
Stephen L. Carter’s “maximum freedom to the religious.”
Lao-Tzu’s “the more prohibitions you have the less virtuous people
will be.”
Arendt’s “terror enforces oblivion” (concentration camps)
Plato’s “the state where the rulers are the most reluctant to rule is
always the best.”
Montessori’s “the school must permit the free, natural manifestations
of the child.”
Howard Gardner’s “biological origin of each problem solving skill.”
Bacon’s criticism of bars to human understanding.
Darwin’s “sexual selection.”
Stephen J. Gould’s assertion of a “nonmoral nature.”
Nietzsche’s “the practice of the church is hostile to life.”
Wollstonecraft on the true “duties” of women.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness.’”
Based on preliminary research, narrow your topic down to a manageable
thesis, e.g.: Darwin’s sexual selection is considered flawed by some
scientific theorists. Howard Gardner’s theories are not accepted by some
educators. Arendt’s ideas on terror camps are still applicable in
contemporary examples. [I cannot give more specifics here.]
Write a rough draft and then revise with proper documentation for all
sources used, whether quotes, paraphrases, or summaries. You may use
research materials in your introduction and conclusion. Your paper will be
primarily your own analysis of the idea in question. The research may help
you place the idea in context, but do not depend on the research to be the
whole paper. Your thinking about the idea and your use of research to
facilitate that thinking is the paper. Remember to investigate the idea itself,
not just the author. This is not an inclusive research paper, but it is a training
project to learn how to do a research paper. I know that you do not have time
to do a complete study. See our handbook for all research paper rules.
\