RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES (Palmer, ENGL 1101)
Choosing Your Topic
When people conduct research, it is almost always with the goal of answering a specific question (or questions). How can cancer be cured? What is the safest way to send a space shuttle to Mars? When did the dinosaurs go extinct? These are all questions that can best be answered with thorough research.
Because this assignment is designed to improve your marketability and expertise in your chosen major, you must settle on a specific question that interests you and is directly related to your area of study at GGC. That question is the topic for your research paper. The specific question can be related to a new technology (ex. Are cloud servers better than physical servers?), a new technique/method/procedure (ex. Should police/law enforcement be allowed to use pepper spray and non-lethal weapons on non-violent protesters?), or a current controversial issue/problem in your field.
*Note: you may not use any of the example questions.
You may NOT do a general research paper on your field or a position in your field. Questions like “What does a nurse do?” or “What is computer networking?” are far too broad for a short research paper.
If you are unsure of what topic question to select, or if you need assistance in narrowing a broad topic, first do some preliminary research using the library databases, specifically CQ Researcher. Students enrolled through a dual enrollment/MOWR program must choose a topic question related to the degree or career they will pursue in the future.
Thesis: The thesis statement for your research paper is the answer to your topic question. This automatically makes this a persuasive research paper since you must convince the reader (with credible evidence and logic) that the answer is correct.
Basic Guidelines
Please include your major or potential major next to your name in the heading.
Style: You will write your paper using Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines. For further information, you may review MLA guidelines online.
Additional factors:
Report is to be double spaced
Length should be 1000-1250 words (4-5 pages–not including Works Cited Page)
No cover or title sheet is required (based on MLA style)
Since this is an academic paper, it is typically most effective to rely on third-
person language throughout. First and second person language are not
recommended.
Sources: You must incorporate at least three credible sources. At least one of your sources must be a scholarly source from the GGC Library. Credible sources can come from either print sources or the articles, films, and ebooks found within the GGC Library and databases. Credible sources from outside the GGC Library could be non-fiction print books or websites (.gov, .edu, .org, or credible mainstream news sources). Wikipedia, blogs, and many “.com” sites are not credible sources for this assignment. Do not use outdated sources for a current topic unless you are providing vital historical background. Library (GALILEO) databases may be accessed from home viahttp://www.ggc.edu/academics/library/electronic-resources/, but you may need the GALILEO password (available in my.ggc.edu).
Incorporation of Sources: While the entirety of a source that you select does not have to support your thesis, make sure that the information that you use from the given source does directly support the thesis of your paper. While you may use block quotations, it is recommended that you employ ellipses or paraphrase long quotations instead of having them represent a significant portion of the paper. Always use quotation marks if you are using the exact words from a source.
Do not use stand-alone quotations. Use signal phrases to help introduce your direct quotations.
*In order to receive a passing grade for this assignment, outside sources (paraphrases, direct quotations, and block quotations) cannot comprise more than 40% of the paper. The best papers utilize outside sources for 10-20% of the text.
Use of Generative AI like ChatGPT
While some instructors believe the use of generative AI like ChatGPT is automatically plagiarism, I believe it may be a legitimate tool to assist in the creation of an essay IF users do not completely offload the critical thinking and thought expression to the machine. This means…
…you can use AI to assist with the pre-writing of an essay as you explore a topic and plan your outline.
…you cannot use it for the drafting phase to write out sentences and paragraphs for you. If you do this, it will be obvious to both me and the AI detector software used by Turnitin.
…you can use AI to help you in the revision phase of the writing process, but use it like a tutor and ask it to explain all the specific problems in your writing that it wants to “correct.” This will help you learn to be a better writer as opposed to simply relying on the machine to always fix your problems.
…you should never blindly trust the information and claims made a machine. Always fact check! You are responsible for the content of your essay and essays with inaccuracies, misleading statements, lies, unverifiable claims, etc. will be penalized in the support section of the rubric.
*Students who use generative AI to draft portions of essays or entire essays will receive a score of 0% for plagiarism.
10 Steps for Completing a Research Paper
Before you begin the process of writing your research paper, read the above instructions very carefully. Refer back to the instructions as necessary.
Step 1–Consider what you want to learn about your broad topic: Your broad topic is your major at GGC. [Note: If you are a Move On When Ready student, then your broad topic will be whatever major you intend to pursue when you move on to the next phase of your education.] Your broad topic will be narrowed down to something more specific in the next step of the research process, but start to consider some potential aspects of your broad topic that might be worth studying, stuff you want to learn about. In particular, new technologies, new procedures, and current controversies within your broad field make great narrowed topics. If you are unaware of the new technologies, new procedures, and current controversies within your broad field, you will learn about them in the next step.
Step 2–Conduct preliminary research: Do some basic internet searches to learn more about your broad topic. Read some articles, blogs, and web pages to see what new technologies, procedures, and controversies are being discussed in your field. If you already have a narrowed topic in mind, use that to guide your searching. For either approach, I recommend the CQ Researcher database available through GALILEO. The goal of your preliminary research is to decide upon a research question (CQ Researcher has great questions embedded in its reports). For instance, if my initial broad topic was college football, and I read some interesting articles about how much money college football brings into Universities, I might settle on a question like, “Should college football players be paid to play?”.
Step 3–Form your research question: This will be the guiding force for the research paper. It should be a question that you are truly interested in answering. It should also be specific. It should not have an answer that is simply informative. Use what you learned from your preliminary research to help you choose a research question related to your broad topic. Again, CQ Researcher is a great place to find an appropriate research question.
Step 4–Do targeted research: Seek the answer to your research question in scholarly and credible sources. (CQ Researcher counts as a credible source and provides links to other credible sources as well.) You may find that there are more than two answers (i.e. sides) to your research question. If this is the case, you will need to choose the best answer and select the proper number of sources that help support the best answer. Save or print the sources that you find; you will need all the publication info to document your sources. (Hint: this is a good time to create your works cited page.)
Step 5–Write a thesis statement: The thesis statement is simply the answer to your research question. Make sure it is persuasive, and qualify the statement if necessary.
Step 6–Create an outline: Decide how you can most logically present your argument. Order and arrange your supporting points for the thesis statement. Decide where your sources can be incorporated into the paper. The more time you spend on this step, the better your essay will be and the easier it will be to write.
Step 7–Write a draft: Use your outline as a guide and write a complete draft of the research paper that incorporates the information from your sources. Remember that completed drafts should have an introduction, body, conclusion, citations and a works cited page.
Step 8–Get feedback: Read the feedback for your paper. Decide on what feedback is helpful and what feedback can be ignored.
Step 9–Revise, edit, and proofread: Based on the feedback you received from your peers (and feedback from the instructor on prior assignments), make the appropriate corrections and revisions to your draft.
Step 10–Submit a revised draft.
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