Task Type: Individual Project Deliverable Length: 5 to 7 paragraphs
Points Possible: 100 Due Date: 1/19/2015 11:59:59 PM CT

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

For the next 4 weeks, you will be working on a single essay. In this essay, you will select an important issue or problem, research this issue, and then propose a solution. Each Individual Project will take you through the writing process-from the question that first inspired your research to your final draft in Phase 5. Your Phase 2 Individual Project is the first step toward this final paper.

The first step is to choose a topic that you are interested in writing about. Choose a topic from the following list:

Gang violence
Border security
30 million uninsured Americans
The collapse of the housing market
The crisis of American education
The college football playoff system (BCS vs. playoffs)
Increasing use of medical marijuana
Low turnout of American voters

Once you have decided on your topic, formulate a research question to narrow it. Ask yourself: what is the specific problem you will be writing about, and what is the solution to that problem? Performing research will help you to narrow your topic and find outside sources that will support your proposed solution. For this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography of the outside sources that you find.

What is an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a brief list of the sources you plan to use in your research paper. This list is presented in APA format. You will present the source and then include a paragraph that explains what it is about, how it relates to your topic, and why it is important to your paper.

To create your annotated bibliography, complete the following:

Locate, review and select 5-7 sources, 4 of which must be from the CTU Library.
Create an APA-formatted reference list of these sources.
Write 1 paragraph for each source, describing the source, how it relates to your topic, and how it will help you write your paper.
Cite your sources in-text as you refer to them in your paragraph descriptions.

The following are additional APA formatting requirements:

A cover page
Headers (refer to your book for information on what to include for your headers)
Page numbers
Double-spaced using 12 point, Times New Roman font