A Description of the Assignment

Perhaps a better term for this research project would be a documented critical analysis. The phrase research paper sometimes conjures an image of a scavenger hunt through the library resulting in a scrapbook of background information and experts' opinions on an obscure topic assigned by a teacher. Your final paper will not be a just scrapbook of outside sources.

The Topic

You need to begin immediately to explore possibilities for good topics that relate to your chosen career. If you absolutely can not declare a major or career plans yet, conference with me about your interests, and we'll arrive at some possibilities.

The topic you choose to research should be a relatively current controversy or unsettled issue that professionals in your field are writing and talking about. Don't stop with a broad, general issue, but find a specific angle or aspect of a concrete issue that is limited in scope.

Finding and narrowing a topic as soon as possible will be facilitated by:

1. Talking with a resource person or persons,

2. Reading and watching the daily news,

3. Exploring the journals and other literature in your field,

4. Using search engines, subject indexes, and news archives on the Internet, and

5. Conferencing with me.

The Procedure

Because we are focusing on process as well as product, you will be working on this project from now until the end of the semester, but procrastination is not an option. You will begin immediately to use the strategies above for topic exploration, compiling a reading journal, and building a working bibliography. You will not only conduct secondary research (outside sources from the library and Internet), but you will conduct some primary research as well (interviews, surveys, etc.). You will be closely monitored and evaluated through every step of the process, and you will produce several drafts toward publication.

The paper you present to your classmates, your resource person(s), and me at the end of the semester should constitute YOUR critical analysis of the topic. Of course, you will document a review of pertinent literature and apply evidence from outside sources, but the main voice in the paper will be yours (Yes, you can use the pronouns, I, we, and you!). You will lead your listeners and readers through the background issues, the diverse viewpoints, and your critical thinking process to persuade them that your perspective is credible. The paper should not be a dry, lifeless account of what everybody else has to say on a subject of no interest to the average thinking person. You should find an engaging interest angle to relate the topic to the lives of real people, applying your argument to your listeners and readers and using personal experience as much as possible. Your paper should make a contribution to the discussion of this issue that no one else has made or can make.

Students always want to know, "How many pages does it have to be?" We're interested in quality, not quantity. I don't count pages or words. However, my students in the past have discovered that, if a writer demonstrates that he or she has done the necessary homework on a topic, provides the necessary background to understand the issues, outlines and analyzes the divergent thinking, and leads a reader through a critical analysis that is couched in awareness of the real world and real people's interests, it's not likely that the product will be much less than ten-fifteen pages. I have received very good eight-nine page papers, but most really good ones offer more substance. I will share some good examples from previous semesters with you.

You will receive well in advance of the due date of each major paper a handout with explicit instructions for preparing the assignment, along with a rubric of specific evaluation criteria.