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Instructions
ILR260: Final Paper
Purpose
The most common assignment in college classes is the research paper. Research papers tend to fall into two categories—the argumentative and the informational. In this class, we will practice putting together a research paper that is more informational in nature. Its main goal is to practice assembling sources in a way that adequately explores a research question from various sides but does not (necessarily) take a strong stance on the “correct” answer. The paper can lean in certain directions if that is where the scholarly conversation leans, but it is not necessarily trying to persuade the audience of one specific point of view. The point of the paper is to assemble a scholarly conversation around a research question and then synthesize possible answers to the research question.
The ILR course itself takes you through the necessary steps to create this final paper.
In summary, the steps you will have gone through are as follows:
Identify and narrow a research question.
Find and evaluate sources.
Summarize sources in an annotated bibliography.
Write a rough draft.
Revise a rough draft and proofread.
Task
Compose a 1000-word essay in APA citation style (you may use MLA if you are an English major) that presents and then attempts to answer your research question.
You must use a minimum of five cited sources. Three must be from peer-reviewed academic journals. Popular sources, including magazine articles, newspapers, secondary scholarly summaries of topics, or government or institutional literature may be allowed if deemed appropriate as per the lessons on source evaluation and rhetorical needs of the paper.
Cite your sources on a standard format APA reference page. If you are an English major, MLA will be allowed with permission from instructor.
Submit your essay as a Word document, .pdf file, or a .rtf only. Please do not use Pages or any type of image file.
Topic
You will have the freedom to choose your own topic for this research essay. There are, however, some topics that are not allowed.
Any of the topics from ENG102. To remind you, the current topics from ENG102 are Bail Reform, Homework, Communication in Relationships, Ocean Pollution, The War in Ukraine, Homework (is it necessary), Nursing Burnout, and Self-Driving Cars. Under no circumstances may you choose one of these subjects.
Whatever subject you wrote on for ENG240.
Any paper you wrote for another class at NU or another university.
See a pattern? We want a new paper. It is important to note that the papers you wrote in ENG102 and ENG240 are argumentative in nature, so they would not fit this assignment anyway.
Important Note
Do not use generative AI programs (Chat GPT, Bard, Bing, Blenderbot, etc.) to write this paper. It will be considered academic dishonesty and the paper will receive a failing grade. We have software to detect use of AI programs to generate papers.
My Research question is: How would allowing cannabis use in the military could influence recruitment, retention, job performance, and is it potential for a shift government policy?
