Assignment: Narrowing the Focus and Organizing Ideas

Step 1

In this step, use the University Library to find at least two scholarly reviewed articles that are related to your broad topic, narrowed idea, and research question you selected in Week 1. You will also give a short explanation why the articles you selected will be useful for your Expository Essay due in Week 5.

Article 1 -

How is this article related to your broad topic, narrowed idea, and research question you selected in Week 1?

Article 2 -

How is this article related to your broad topic, narrowed idea, and research question you selected in Week 1?

Step 2

You chose a topic and you narrowed this topic to a specific area of discussion that interests you academically or personally. Using that information, we will now narrow that focus even more by organizing our ideas.

In this step, you identify three ways in which you can support your main idea. Below is an example of the tasks you are to complete in this step of the assignment.

Example:

Narrowed Idea: Video games

Research Question: What are three ways video games can help young players develop some important skills?

Three Reasons of Support:

1. Develop academic skills in literacy and math.
2. Help young players develop decision-making and logic skills.
3. Help young players develop social skills.

Now it's your turn. Fill in the main idea and research question that you selected in Week 1.

Narrowed Idea:

Research Question:

Using critical thinking, the Generating Ideas assignment from Week 1, and research from the articles in Step 1 of this assignment, identify three reasons of support for your research question. Enter them in the chart below:

Three Reasons of Support

1.
2.
3.

Step 3

In this step, you create a thesis statement by answering your research question with your three reasons of support. When listing reasons of support, be sure to use commas, colons, semicolons, and quotations appropriately which will help make your meaning clear. You can get help using these items of punctuation correctly by reviewing this week's Learning Activity: Grammar Tutorials and Quizzes.

Below is an example of a properly written thesis statement using the video game topic from Step 2:

Example Thesis Statement:

Video games help young players develop academic, thinking, and social skills.

Now it's your turn. Fill in your thesis in the box below:

Thesis Statement:

Step 4

In this step, you use the work from Steps 2 and 3 to develop three topic sentences. You need to develop one topic sentence for each of your three reasons of support from Step 2. When creating your topic sentences, be sure to use commas, colons, semicolons, and quotations appropriately, which will help make your meaning clear. You can get help using these items of punctuation correctly by reviewing this week's Learning Activity: Grammar Tutorials and Quizzes.

Below is an example of three topic sentences using the video game thesis statement and three reasons for support:

Example of three Topic Sentences:

1. One way video games can help young players is through the development of academic skills.
2. Video games can also aid in developing thinking skills in younger players.
3. Finally, video games can assist younger players in developing social skills.

Now it's your turn. Fill in your three topic sentences in the chart below:

Step 5

In this step, you dive deeper into the research from the articles you listed in Step 1 by filling out a form for each article.

In any of our academic databases available in our online library, source information for any given article is listed in the indexing details located towards the bottom of the article. The following is an example of the indexing details for one article. The six pieces of source information you need from the articles in the library are numbered and boxed in red in the image below:

Example of the necessary information from an article in the library:

Now it's your turn. Complete the following forms for your two scholarly reviewed articles from Step 1. You need to look up the articles in the University Library and locate the indexing details at the bottom of the articles. You also need to provide a 3- or 4-sentence description of the article and how it relates to your topic at the bottom of each form.

Fill out the following form for Article #1 from Step 1:

Author(s) names:
Article title:
Date written or published:
Journal or publication title:
Issue number and/or volume number (if provided):
Database name:
URL (web address) or doi number:
Provide a 3- or 4-sentence description of the article and how it relates to your topic.

Fill out the following form for Article #2 from Step 1:
Author(s) names:
Article title:
Date written or published:
Journal or publication title:
Issue number and/or volume number (if provided):
Database name:
URL (web address) or doi number:
Provide a 3- or 4-sentence description of the article and how it relates to your topic.