Assignemnt: Research Paper Prompt

For the final project of this class, you will conduct research on a topic of your choosing and write a research paper detailing your findings.

Researchers Make Claims:

For this project, you will research a topic of your choice, find sufficient and relevant information on your topic, and develop and support a claim about that topic. Your final research paper will advance a significant, specific, and complex claim about your topic. This research paper must be argumentative, analytical, or interpretive: you must make a claim for how we, as readers, should understand, think about, conceptualize, act upon, view, or question your topic. It may not be merely informational.

Two Goals:

For this research paper, you will synthesize your research materials to accomplish two goals:

One goal is to synthesize background information in order to answer the question: "what information must my readers know first in order to understand my topic in a meaningful way?"

Your research paper also takes a second step and analyzes the information in order to make an argumentative, analytical, or interpretive claim about that topic. Hence, you will also be synthesizing information in order to get readers to see that information and the topic in a new and significant way.

Research is Evidence-Based:

You may already have some ideas about your topic, either from preliminary research or from other classes or from your daily observations of the world around you. However, research is evidence-driven, which means that your final claim (your final conclusion about the topic) must come from what you learnedthrough research. The process should be

This:

Read, interpret, and analyze evidence --> come to a claim about the topic

Not this:

Already have a claim about the topic --> find evidence that supports it (this is called "cherry-picking")

Your paper will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Your paper must have an argumentative, analytical, or interpretive claim.

Your paper must be inspired by a human rights or social justice issue. This connection must be clearly stated or implied throughout the paper.

Your claim, the ideas that support it, and your analysis must be grounded in your research evidence. You cannot make claims that are not supported with research evidence.

Your topic should be defined specifically enough and narrow enough so that you can develop and support your claim significantly in 8-10 pages.

Your paper must cite at least 8 sources. These may be primary or secondary sources. Tertiary sources do not count (e.g. textbooks and encyclopedias).

At least half of your sources must be scholarly. The rest should be sources that you have rigorously evaluated for credibility and reliability.

Your paper must use academic language and reasoning, and must be well-organized.

Your paper must follow MLA guidelines for citing and documenting your sources.

All sources cited in the paper must appear in the Works Cited page and vice versa: all sources in the Works Cited page must appear in the paper itself(hence: "Works" = texts and "Cited" = referenced)

Any plagiarism on this assignment will result in a grade of 0 on the paper and a failing grade in the course.

Final draft shows revision and development based on peer and instructor feedback.

Formatting Requirements

*2600-3300 words (at least 8 double-spaced pages; max 10 pages)
8+ sources (at least half must be scholarly)
MLA in-text citations (footnotes optional)
MLA Works Cited Page (not included in the 8-10 pages)
12-pt Times New Roman font
1-in margins
Heading, upper right-hand corner, single-spaced: Name, Date, Assignment Name
An interesting title!
Name your document: "YourFirstName_RP"

See the syllabus for this class's late and missing work policy

*International or non-Microsoft versions of Word measure margins and spacing a bit differently. If you are using one of these versions, count your words to make sure you are reaching the required length.