The research essay assignment is designed to build and demonstrate your ability to conduct college-level research and writing, including the ability to:
develop a strong question to guide your research and writing process;
use a combination of research, critical reading, and exploratory writing to develop your own ideas in response to a guiding research question;
develop a clear thesis statement that is appropriate to the assignment’s length requirements and rhetorical mode;
evaluate and synthesize others’ ideas, skillfully engage others’ voices in the process of making an argument and incorporate others’ ideas to support your thesis;
correctly cite and document your sources; and
effectively work with your peers and support each other’s growth as researchers and writers.
Background
While reading part 2 of Alone Together, we discussed Turkle’s concerns for our society and interpersonal relationships as we rapidly adapt to new types of technology. In this essay, you will be connecting these concerns to the realities of our modern life.
Assignment
In a 6-8 page (approximately 1,500 to 2,000 word) essay, examine a concrete researchable topic related to how people use and/or feel about technology, finding what academics have to say about this topic and explaining how what you find relates back to Turkle’s work and why it should be of significance to us.
Criteria for Success
An effective essay will:
Consult a minimum of six and no more than ten outside sources. Please use quality popular and academic sources such as reliable web sites (i.e. apa.org, the website for the American Psychological Association), books, government research studies, articles from journals, magazines, newspapers, or other periodicals. You will also need to cite Alone Together, but this will not be one of the outside sources. This essay must have a works cited page and in text citations that follow MLA format. Any paper that does not contain citations will automatically be a NP (No Pass). You must use parenthetical citations and a works cited page rather than footnotes.
Avoid unreliable and unverifiable sources such as partisan or one-sided websites, blogs, and obviously biased advocacy publications.
Include quotes and paraphrases from your outside sources, synthesizing information by using more than one source to support your point in body paragraphs and explaining how those sources relate to your thesis statement.
Organize your body paragraphs using TEA, making sure to the answer the questions “so what?” and “why is this important?” at the end of body paragraphs while also linking back to the thesis statement.
Develop your own conclusions about the evidence you find during your research.
Avoid logical fallacies and unsubstantiated claims by paying careful attention to the structure and logic of your argument.
