To ensure that you are properly prepared for your Final Research Paper in this course, you must complete a rough draft of your Final Research Paper. The point of a rough draft is to allow your instructor to get a good sense of your organizational writing skills, to examine the content of the essay, to evaluate your resources, and to provide you feedback that you will incorporate into your Final Research Paper that is due in Week 5. On Rites of Passage
After you have decided upon a topic, the next step is to begin to do your research. Since you will be comparing this topic across three different cultures, it may be helpful to brainstorm a list of different cultures that you are interested in researching. Utilizing the same databases that you searched in the Week Two Assignment, conduct key word searches to locate the scholarly sources you will be using to aid in writing this paper. If you feel that you need a little help in beginning this research, please view the Generating Search Terms tutorial and/or the Finding Full Text Articles tutorial. Please keep in mind, that even though you are only required to use three scholarly sources from the library, you will initially want to find more than that to ensure that you are using the best three articles for your topic and cultures.

After completing your research, now is a good time to compile your sources in a reference page. Do not worry if you do not end up using one of the sources in your Final Research Paper; you can always remove any sources that you do not use later.

Once you have read through the sources you have located, you should now be able to prepare a thesis statement that reflects the requirements of the Final Research Paper. For help on creating the thesis statement, please visit the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center.

While not required for this assignment, it may be helpful to first outline your thoughts to aid you in organizing how you will present the information in your paper. If you are concerned about how to successfully integrate the sources that you found, please view the Incorporating Sources tutorial. As you are incorporating the information from your sources, think back on the Plagiarism Quiz and the Article Selector Quiz to make sure that you are properly citing sources. You can also view the Plagiarism Flow Chart to help ensure that you have properly incorporated sources.

Your rough draft must include:
An introductory paragraph containing a thesis statement that reflects the requirements of the Final Research Paper.
A literature review of the sources you have found in the library that you will be using in your paper
A comparison of your chosen topic across the three cultures you have selected
A concluding paragraph that reinforces your thesis and summarizes your main points
A properly formatted reference page.
The rough draft must be four to five pages in length and formatted according to APA style. You must use at least three scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library to support your claims. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.