English homework help.
English 1302
RESEARCH PAPER
A. What is research?
If you’ve watched any detective movies, you’ll find the job of sleuthing that leads to finding a culprit to a crime, somewhat interesting. When investigators interview their witness, read through files and reports, piece together clues and attempt to uncover criminals, their search is exciting. The enthusiasm is often attributed to the purposeful excitement of discovering the unknown. Yet, the people who may find murder mysteries exciting may not be aware that academic research is in its essence similar in nature to all other research. Honest and inquisitive research writing demands attention to details. The research process can be tedious. However, if you see the work contributing to new knowledge and discoveries, you may find research work meaningful. As you consider what others have to say about your subject, you will become an expert on the subject in your own right. You will form an in-depth knowledge of the field that you care about, and you will be able to communicate that to your audience.
B. Why should you document your sources?
As with all good research, some amount of library work is essential. When using library research, you must be careful to keep a thorough record of all your sources. Do refer to the annotated bibliography assignment for the necessary items needed for documentation. In your process of researching, you must not only document your sources, but also analyze and evaluate your sources. You must also draw from work done by other researchers to form, support, and extend your own opinions. You must practice intellectual integrity by presenting the work others have done, accurately, and by acknowledging your sources of information. You are expected to develop a thesis for your topic, do research on it, form a position on your findings, and develop argumentations in support of your thesis.
C. What are the general requirements of this assignment?
You must make sure that this research paper is not a mere report, but a true research where you address societal concerns by exploring new ways of dealing with real life problems. The target audience must go away feeling that they’ve learned and discovered something new from your research findings. You must find a way of analyzing and studying your interest area from a fresh, new perspective. The research must allow for the readers to see a clear link between the findings and the analysis of the underlying issues, themes, values, assumptions or beliefs that control current ways of looking at the problem. You must find a way to persuade your audience to draw new meanings and new ways of seeing the world from the argumentations, analysis, and findings. The research paper should present your positioning on where you stand in the conflicting opinions of the field and how you intend to resolve it. It is extremely important that your arguments build towards a cohesive way of seeing the field of study from a new-fangled perspective.
D. How do you pick a topic?
Know that your choice of topic is very important for your research and that your topic proposal will be evaluated for research worthiness before it will be approved for the research project. Research worthiness will be evaluated on a scale of how the topic appeals to the concerns of a common audience and if it would have impact on the target audience. Obviously, topics that are more controversial are usually seen as topics that are more appealing to the masses. Having said that, what that appeals to the masses may be areas that may not completely satisfy the research worthy criterion as these may be topics that have not been addressed in scholarly research or topics that have very little impact value. Such topics would certainly be disastrous for our purpose. Therefore, I suggest that you leave such topics out. Be aware that all topics that do not meet the criterion of research worthiness, will have to be reworked for a better topic.
E. Parameters for the assignment:
For the purpose of this research, you must write an eight to twelve-page paper (excluding the references) on the topic that you have proposed. The research paper must be based on the research that was proposed, documented, and researched in this class. All papers must be double spaced and presented in Times New Roman 12pt. font, with a one-inch margin and presented in the MLA format. All papers must have at least 10 MLA style in-text citation and a minimum of 10 references in a MLA style work cited page. These references should be from those that were listed in your annotated bibliography. All research material referred to and cited in the work cited page must be presented in a research portfolio.
Your research portfolio must consist of all the materials below:
Research Process Total 2,000 points
Topic Proposal 100 points
Proposal Conference 200 points
Proposal Plan 100 points
Research Question 50 points
Thesis Development 50
Outline 100 points
Research Report 100 points
Note Cards (20) 200 points
Bibliography (20) 200 points
Draft 1 100 points
Draft 2 100 points
Draft 3 100 points
Eportfolio 100points
Powerpoint Presentation 200 points
Research Evaluation 100 points
Research Paper 1,000 points
Topic Proposal and Research Plan:
Below are the heuristics for the topic proposal and research plan assignment:
- Topic proposal must be two pages long.
- Topic proposal must clearly define the area that you are studying for the research paper.
- The topic must show be narrow enough for the length of the assignment.
- The researcher must also suggest the reasons why he/she has chosen to limit the research within the specific area. The reasons can comprise of any particular social, political, economical hardship, or problem that communities around the world are facing. It is also crucial for the researcher to stipulate how the researcher is directly or indirectly impacted by it as well.
- The purpose for the topic proposal is to convince me and your classmates that your topic is research worthy.
- After identifying the topic, it is crucial that the researcher has a research plan.
- The purpose for the plan is for the researcher to have an individualized timeline or plan for the completion of the final research paper.
- The researcher is required to incorporate all the due dates scheduled in his/her calendar into his/her plan towards the final completion of the research paper.
