Research Paper—HonorsEnglish II
Fahrenheit 451: Social Criticism
Option 1: This paper will cover aspects of our society that Ray Bradbury is criticizing in his book
Fahrenheit 451. Choose key parts or ideas in the novel that provide social criticism. Keep these ideas
organized and focused around central themes. Throughout this paper, identify a social criticism present in
the novel. Explain and show how Bradbury criticizes society. What character says what? Examine how
what is being criticized in Bradbury’s future is actually very similar to what exists in our world today.
Then argue why this is bad, or at least why Bradbury thinks this is bad. Your paper will draw upon the
text of Fahrenheit 451 in coordination with credible resources that support your argument.
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Option 2: Identify, evaluate, and argue how certain technologies in our current society have enhanced or
degraded the quality of life.
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Option 3:
 Choose a controversial topic that interests you (you are not limited to the selections below)
- carcinogens in the cosmetic industry
- inaccurate labeling in the food industry
- harmful effects of chemicals used at water treatment facilities
- the argument for or against video games and their effects on children
- dangers of tanning beds/salons
- the argument for or against certain rules & regulations in sports
- the type of impact certain technologies are having on people (emotionally, physically, mentally,
socially)
- a different topic not listed here
 Your topic must be OK’d by Mr. Mayr, and you are very much encouraged to ask questions about your
topic, vocabulary that confuses you, or anything else regarding your topic.
*** When choosing a topic, consider the following points:
- Is my topic researchable? Are there existing bodies of research available?
- Is my topic controversial where some people will agree with me and some will disagree with me?
- Are there authoritative sources on my topic?
Research Paper: Basic Requirements
LENGTH
- Minimum of four (4) pages of text (NOT INCLUDING TITLE PAGE OR REFERENCE PAGE)
- Maximum of six (6) pages of text
APA STYLE
* The entire paper must be 12-pt font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, w/ 1 inch margins
REFERENCES
- A minimum of three (3) different types of resources must be used  Example: book, encyclopedia,
newspaper, magazine (and/or online versions of these resources)
- A minimum of five (5) total resources must be used
PLAGIARISM
- Evidence of plagiarism will result in a grade of zero, a loss of participation points, and disciplinary action.
ASSESSMENTS
- The entire research project will count as TWO test grades. You will receive a deadline test grade
and a Final Draft test grade.
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DEADLINES:
o To assist you with time management, you will be required to meet a deadline for four (4) different
parts of your paper.
o Meeting these 4 deadlines successfully will earn you a test grade of 100%.
o Deadlines handed in one (1) day late will lose 5 points.
o Deadlines handed in two (2) days late will not count.
o These deadlines may be adjusted during the research paper unit.
FINAL DRAFT: The following criteria will be used to assess the FINAL DRAFT
o Content
o Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics
o Format
o A Scoring Rubric will be handed out that outlines what specific components will make up
your grade on your Final Draft.
DEADLINES (25 pts each)
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4/20/12 Friday Deadline 1 Note Cards (22 min) Source Cards (3 min) OR Outline & Thesis
4/27/12 Friday Deadline 2 Note Cards (22 min) Source Cards (3 min) OR Outline & Thesis
5/3/12 Thursday Deadline 3
Rough Draft
Deadline 4  The Final Draft will be due 1 week after you receive your Rough Drafts back
HELPFUL HINTS
Do not use you, your, or any other form of the second person. Stay away from such phrases as in my opinion, I
think, I feel, to me, and so forth. Do not use I, me, or my at all. You need a title that tells the reader what your paper
is going to be about. Remember that novels are italicized. Do not refer to quotes as quotes. Refer to quotes as
passages, excerpts, words, or nothing.
I. Opening (Introduction):
Your introduction paragraph is the first paragraph for your paper. It is best to start with something general. You
want to grab your reader's attention. Then you want to inform your reader about what you are arguing. You want
to finish the introduction paragraph with the argument for the paper—the thesis. When writing an introduction,
follow ANT.
Attention getter – The following techniques are commonly used in successful openings:
• relevant quote from an outside source
• relevant quote from the story
• fact or statistic
• description of initial response to the work
Example: When readers first read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, they might think that he is criticizing a possible
future society. On a closer reading, readers will see that Bradbury is actually using a future setting to ridicule our
world today.
Whichever method you decide to use, make sure the attention-getter is relevant to the topic of your paper.
Necessary information:
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Author’s full name – Ray Bradbury (Use the author’s full name the first time only. After that, use only the
author’s last name).
Title of story – Fahrenheit 451
Brief plot summary – In two to five sentences briefly remind your readers what happened in the story.
Highlight the major action of the story, especially those parts that are relevant to your paper.
Thesis:
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Your thesis should consist of a topic and limiting ideas. It should never be a question. It should be the last
sentence of the introduction paragraph, or close to the end. The thesis should make it clear what ideas you
are focusing on in the rest of the paper.
II. Body Paragraphs:
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Topic sentence—a topic sentence has a topic and a limiting idea, or a focus.
Your topic is the social criticism in Fahrenheit 451. Your focus is the specific part or parts of the book that
criticize specific parts of society.
Provide a quote or a paraphrase of a passage that deals with social criticism. Use proper APA format for
citations of quotes and paraphrases.
Make sure to introduce the quote or paraphrase. Tell your reader who is saying the quote or which
characters are involved in the passage.
Your body paragraphs should provide a topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph should provide context
for a quote or a paraphrase example. Then, you should provide that example. After you provide that
example, you should explain how it supports your thesis statement. DO NOT merely tell your reader what
the quote means; this can lead to summary. You need to analyze.
Follow TIQA:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Topic sentence
Introduce quote: put the quote into context
Quote: provide your quote
Analyze: explain to the reader the importance of the quote and how it supports your topic
sentence.
Topic Sentence:
Since a paragraph is a group of sentences that share a single idea, the topic sentence must have two parts:
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TOPIC & LIMITING IDEA
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Examples:
1. Fortunato is easily duped into his own murder because of a blinding sense of pride.
 Topic = Fortunato
 Limiting Idea = blind sense of pride (and how this makes him vulnerable).
2. Because Madame Louisel is superficial, she misses the deeper appreciation of most things
in her life.
 Topic = Madame Louisel
 Limiting Idea = superficiality
TIQA Paragraph Example:
Topic Sentence: In her school without walls, Miss Moore provides a hands-on education that forces the
students to discover new knowledge.
Introduce Quote: After sitting around for a while in the impoverished neighborhood, Miss Moore tells her
students to get into a cab, which delivers them to the classroom for the day: FAO
Schwartz. While in the cab, Miss Moore
Quote:
"hands [Sylvia] a five dollar bill and tells [her] to calculate 10 percent tip for the driver"
(Mayr, 2008, para. 7).
Analysis:
Miss Moore uses the cab ride as a teachable moment. This is a sign of a great teacher.
Miss Moore does more for Sylvia in those few moments than probably most of Sylvia's
math teachers at school. Typically, American education assumes that knowledge can be
jammed into a student's mind. Miss Moore provides a practical basis for the knowledge
and allows the student to come to it on her own.
Transition:
Using teachable moments and hands-on education works for Miss Moore more
effectively when she applies these teaching strategies to greater life lessons, such as the
lesson on dispelling the American dream.
Transition sentence: transition from the first example to your second example.
1.
2.
3.
Introduce quote: introduce your second piece of evidence.
Quote: provide your second quote.
Analyze: analyze your second quote, and, if possible, tie the two pieces of evidence together to
make a larger argument.
*** Make sure that you have different limiting ideas.
In her school without walls, Miss Moore provides a hands-on education that forces the students to
discover new knowledge. After sitting around for a while in the impoverished neighborhood, Miss Moore
tells her students to get into a cab, which delivers them to the classroom for the day: FAO Schwartz.
While in the cab, Miss Moore "hands [Sylvia] a five dollar bill and tells [her] to calculate 10 percent tip
for the driver" (Mayr, 2008, para. 7). Miss Moore uses the cab ride as a teachable moment. This is a sign
of a great teacher. Miss Moore does more for Sylvia in those few moments than probably most of
Sylvia's math teachers at school. Typically, American education assumes that knowledge can be
jammed into a student's mind. Miss Moore provides a practical basis for the knowledge and allows the
student to come to it on her own. Using teachable moments and hands-on education works for Miss
Moore more effectively when she applies these teaching strategies to greater life lessons, such as the
lesson on dispelling the American dream.
III. Conclusion
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Your conclusion should not merely be a summary. Rather, it should restate and reemphasize
your thesis. It should show the importance of the analysis and argument that you have been
making in the paper.
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Reword your thesis. (You may want to start the rewording of your thesis with a signal word:
e.g., thus, therefore, in short, as one can see, it is obvious then.)
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Tie all your points together. Use 3 – 5 sentences (minimum) to do this. Stress why it is
important that Bradbury criticizes these things. Or, stress why it is important for people to read
the novel in order to get these criticisms. You might want to tell your readers what they should
learn from the ideas that you have brought out in the body paragraphs. (Warning: do not use
you.)
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Clincher: Try to end your paper with a sentence that reinforces your argument in the paper.
This last sentence should do one of two things. It should either include some words from your
attention getter, or it should include some words from your title, if your title is effective,
descriptive, and insightful.
*** All Deadlines and Requirements for the paper may be altered during
the actual unit. These alterations will be directly influenced by class
performance.