The Research Paper
The focus of your research paper paper will be on analyzing what factors may have influenced an otherwise ordinary, everyday individual to act out in the manner he or she did; your analysis will be a thesis-driven, in-depth, and research filled exploration of why this individual couldn’t handle the pressures placed upon him or her by civilization. To give you an idea of what I mean, click here to see what I’ve put together to help explain the kind of person I’m talking about.
Now here are the specific requirements for the assignment:
Eight or more pages, excluding the “Works Cited” page. (If your essay goes a little over eight pages, that’s fine; if it is less than eight, that isn’t.)
The paper must follow proper MLA format and include a “Works Cited” on a separate page.
The paper must incorporate a minimum of at least six diverse sources. The basic information you acquire about the individual’s past or influences should not come from more than two, valid outside sources. (Valid means a reputable news source or publication; be careful here, there are a number of internet sources that are not reputable.) Another source will be Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents because you are analyzing why this individual is in conflict with civilization; Freud has, as you should be aware of by now, quite a few insights as to why some people can’t handle the pressures of society. Your remaining three or more sources must come from the library databases at ELAC, such as ProQuest or CQResearcher, which you have access to here through Canvas (the link to the library is in the navigation bar to the left). Do not use the Heart of Darkness or Deliverance to support your argument (they’re not relevant).
In addition to the actual final draft itself, you’ll be submitting an outline – a template is available here – and a rough draft to get feedback on your argument to help you write a more thorough and effective research paper.
Include a “Works Cited” page (separate from the essay itself; a separate page at the end of the paper is fine) with all sources used listed appropriately. Refer to chapter 8, “Using Sources,” for guidelines.
A Challenged Individual
Why Did He or She Do It?
For your research paper, I want you to think about a person who has been in the news who is not famous or infamous (so no big-time criminals here), but someone who garnered some brief public attention – and news coverage – because he or she did something that society doesn’t particularly approve of. (It doesn’t necessarily mean the person is in the wrong, but there was some resistance as a result of her or his actions.) In other words, this person ran into some challenges, some conflicts. What’s more, because this individual generated enough attention, and subsequently some investigation into his/her background, you get a sense of this person’s history.
Here’s an example:
Gene Evin Atkins, who was 28 at the time of the incident, got into a feud with his grandmother, shot her twice, and then stole and fled in her car with his wounded teenage girlfriend as hostage. The police pursuit to catch him ended in a three-hour standoff with hostages – and the death of one employee caught in the crossfire – at a Trader Joe’s market in Silver Lake, a local community in Los Angeles, California.
In looking at what we know of the incident from CBS news coverageLinks to an external site., and from a news source (Heavy) citing the LA Times.Links to an external site.comLinks to an external site.Links to an external site., we can ascertain that Atkins had a challenging family – familial – history and was raised by an older (perhaps more authoritative) relative. With a father who seemingly could not provide “protection” or appropriate interactive skills, and a mother who may have been equally incapable of providing effective social guidelines, Atkins was apparently incapable of keeping himself under control, and he “snapped,” as his cousin claims.
Atkins acted out against loved ones in a fit of rage, which led to an active response by the law to stop him from causing further harm. Atkins actively regretted his actions against his grandmother, and possibly the frightened hostages under his control, which may have led to his later surrender to authorities.
He is now facing 51 charges of breaking the law, including murder, attempted murder, and various other charges. Since the incident in July of 2018, Atkins, who is now 33, has been through several court proceedings, where more specifics of his behavior and nature have been revealed. His grandmother has testified against him, divulging more details of his quick temper and mental history (LATimes.Links to an external site.comLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.). His claim to be a “prophet of Jesus” with no understanding of court proceedings has led to his plea of “not guilty by reason of insanity” (LA Times.comLinks to an external site.). A judge has ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine Atkins’ mental condition (Patch.Links to an external site.comLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.), but as of November last year, he was deemed competent enough to stand trial and even represent himself (NBCLosAngeles.comLinks to an external site.).
Get the Idea?
The focus in your paper will be on analyzing what factors may have influenced the individual to do what she or he did. (Remember, this is analysis, not judgment.) The few sources referenced above are just to give you an idea of where you can get some initial information about a person (your only two acceptable outside sources). News sources can be a launching pad, and some of these sources will repeat the same information (which means it’s public knowledge), but your real research will come when you dig more in-depth as to the motivations and the behavior of the person with more informative sources from our library databases – and Freud (the book we’re reading). So start looking for a person as your topic. Consider who or what caught your attention from all that information you get hit with through the internet. Again, don’t go for someone who’s even fairly famous – like Dylan Klebold, Adam Lanza, or Dylan Roof; you’ll drive yourself nuts trying to sift through all the information about the individual (and this leads to daunting and not terribly informative papers, trust me).
Feel free to send me any questions you may have the assignment or to run an idea by me. You can send me a link to a person you are considering, so I can check it out for you and give you some feedback to help you make a choice. due Tuesday, July 2, by 8 a.m.
The key to a good argument is to give it structure. Once you come up with a working thesis, you need to determine the right direction in which to develop and support it (with sources). Each paragraph has a focal point to connect to the thesis and both the paragraph before it and the one after it. An outline helps you do just that. I’ve included a template guideline here to give you an idea of how to formulate a working outline. Use this to develop your own outline, and, to help you get a sense of what a solid, effective outline looks like, I’ve also attached the outline of a former student of mine. The assignment was a little different from yours, but the essence of the outline is still the same. As this student told me when she returned for a visit from graduate school, “once I tweaked the outline, the essay pretty much wrote itself.” That’s the idea.
Once I have all the outlines, I will put you in groups so you can work together in developing your argument.
Note: Just because my sample of a challenged individual and the student sample from my former student are about individuals who acted out in a violent manner with an assault on others (with a gun), doesn’t mean you are required to focus on a “shooter” as well. The focus of the assignment is on an individual who acted out against society, whether he or she did so in the same manner as addressed so far or in some other way – running away from a bad situation at home, walking out on a bad job, engaging in a public protest and getting arrested for it, etc. Resources to use: book:
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its DiscontentsLinks to an external site.. TWO GOOGLE SOURCES the rest of the sources have to be from ELAC librabry. the paper is on christopher dorner
