The Research Paper – due by midnight Sunday night, May 12 2024 in Blackboard> Assignments> Research Paper
8-10 pages total, not counting the Works Cited list and Appendix
· 6 sections: Introduction/Background, Methodology, Analysis or Argument, Conclusion, Works Cited (Not Annotated), Appendix
· Proper MLA documentation for in-text citations and the Works Cited page
· Minimum 8 research sources on the Works Cited page, NOT annotated, with at least:
o 1 primary source (interview or survey – only questionnaire needed, no transcript necessary)
o 1 book (online or print)
o 1 periodical (online or print)
o 1 academic/scholarly/professional journal (online or print)
o All sources should be legitimate research sources – it’s OK to use non-research sources like a tweet or YouTube video, but they don’t count as these research sources.
o Both in-text citations and Works Cited list citations need to be properly formatted in MLA format. This is a critical component of the final Research Paper. Here’s a guide for electronic sources, which most of your sources will be: MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources – Purdue OWL® – Purdue University
This final paper combines elements from your first two papers and culminates with your argument or analysis with conclusions, including all of the research you have accumulated throughout the semester in order to answer your research questions. You may use the sources you found earlier in the semester for the other papers. There may even be passages in the final paper that were taken right from your earlier essays. Due to the differing natures of Essays 1 and 2 as well as the expected progress and evolution of your research project throughout the semester, your final research paper should be substantially different from your earlier essays.
Essay 1 was about reflecting, questioning, exploring, discovering. You figured out what you were interested in and what you needed to learn in order to ask and answer general research questions. It was generally in 1st person POV. In Essay 2, you focused the research inquiries that you wrote about in Essay 1 and formulated a game plan, decided on an analysis or an argument, designed your primary research questionnaire, and considered your methodology, all while building your Works Cited list, all in 3rd person POV (except for the 1st POV in the Methodology section). Now, for the Research Paper, you are to synthesize all your research together into a coherent point of view, whether you are analyzing an issue to reveal something important or you are arguing a stance based upon interesting developments relating to your topic. Your conclusions will become as important as your argument/analysis section.
The Research Paper should have 6 main sections, just like we had for Essay 2. Just consider this list below as an overview of what kinds of components you will include in your paper. Obviously, the bulk of the paper is in the Argument or Analysis section in which you consider issues, problems, challenges, solutions, resolutions, progress, developments. I’ve included approximations of each section’s percentage of the whole paper, just as general guidance, not a mandate.
Introduction/Background (10-20% of the research paper)
o Introduce general issues and your specific research topic in a couple of paragraphs although the thesis statement is always at the end of the first paragraph, even if the introduction section is more than one paragraph long. You can view this intro/background section as two paragraphs, one intro and one background.
o Introduce the reader to the larger context of your research. What field? What history is relevant? Why does the topic matter? A problem? A dilemma? An emergent technology?
o What does the reader need to know to understand not only your topic but also why it’s important to research this topic?
o Establish any necessary background information for the reader to demonstrate the need for your analysis or argument.
Methodology (5-10% of the research paper)
o Identify methods, challenges, biases, problems in researching the topic.
o Demonstrate that you’ve identified and accounted for biases, challenges, misinformation, etc. Show your information literacy here in evaluating sources.
o Explain especially useful sources and why.
o Explain the design of your primary research instrument.
o This is the only section of the research paper that will be in 1st person POV.
o Earlier in the semester, we read a study by Emily Vogels et al. Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment | Pew Research Center. You don’t need to link there, but in the middle of the article, there is a drop-down box called “How we did this” – it looks like this:
If you click on through with a link to the methodology, you get to the article’s formal and full methodology, not just a summary paragraph like this. You’re only required to do a paragraph like this, not a methodology the size of an essay. You can see why there really isn’t a more respected research organization than Pew – their methodology is clear and transparent and always unbiased. Click here to take a look at what a real research methodology looks like (yours only needs to be a paragraph): Methodology for Vogels et al. | Pew Research Center.
Argument or Analysis (50-60% of the research paper)
o State your position clearly if it’s an argument or examine the issue in depth if it’s an analysis. Sufficient, relevant, and specific support is always the key to bolstering an argument or analysis.
o This argument or analysis is the most important aspect of your research and ties in with your thesis. Demonstrate why your stance is logical and convincing (without using 1st person) or why your analysis is significant to understanding or reforming the larger issue. This section is essentially the “body” of the essay, spanning several paragraphs. Aim for at least three body paragraphs.
Conclusion (10-20% of the research paper)
o Update the reader on the current state of the issues – look to the future after presenting your argument or analysis.
o If it’s an analysis, you can but don’t have to present conclusions from a point of view or stance – evaluation or judgment does not imply bias. Bias is an irrational influence on an evaluation or judgment. If it’s an argument, your point of view should be apparent from the thesis in the introduction and consistently until the end of the paper, but importantly while addressing the opposing points of view respectfully and demonstrating logically why the point of view you’re arguing is more compelling.
o In the conclusion, which can be multiple paragraphs just like the introduction can be, you should be stating the conclusions from the research and the analysis/argument, interpreting when necessary, explaining the implications and the importance of the findings.
Works Cited (one page approximately)
o Your Works Cited list should come after the Conclusion but before the Appendix. Here’s a sample Works Cited page that is properly formatted: MLA Sample Works Cited Page // Purdue Writing Lab
o Your Works Cited list will NOT be annotated. Annotations were for Essays 1 and 2, essentially draft versions of your final research paper.
Appendix (one page approximately)
o Your required Appendix is your primary research instrument (interview or survey). Your Appendix page should have the title Personal Interview or Survey centered.
o If it’s an interview, your Appendix will have your questions, but you won’t need to have a full transcript of the interview. Your questionnaire should have some notes and quotes from the interview for each question that you quote from in your research paper. That’s the point of this after all – to generate your own research and then quote it in an in-text citation within your essay. For any question that you draw an in-text quotation from, provide the transcript of their answer for that question though so that I can see where you quoted and in response to which question.
o If it’s a survey, your Appendix will have the questions, but you’ll collect all the individual responses and present the statistical data after each question. In other words, don’t include 50 completed survey questionnaires – instead, provide one questionnaire with the tabulated results. You can provide data graphically in a simple table or chart or even a list. This is the link to the survey questionnaire data from the Vogel et al. article on cancel culture I mentioned in the Methodology section: Survey Questionnaire Data for Vogels et al. | Pew Research Center.
You can just center the word Appendix and then underneath that, give the name of the interviewee (their position and organization too) and the date and the mode of the interview (phone, email, in-person, etc.). If it’s a survey, give the subject of the survey, the audience (random computer users or a hand-selected audience, etc.), date, and mode of the survey (Survey Monkey, a series of Facebook poll questions, email, etc.).
