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English 1002-004

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MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT, AN OVERVIEW

Your Task:

The last writing assignment you will complete in this course is an inquiry project in which you begin with a question (or series of questions) and use research and writing to explore possible answers to that question.

 The 3 main components: 

1. Research Report: Compile a list of sources you plan to use and summarize each of them. Aim for 6-8 sources from a variety of perspectives and media. Each entry should have:

·    Complete bibliographic information in MLA, APA, or Chicago style. (Ex: Bozell, L. Brent III. “How Low Will Advertisers Go?” Media Research Center. 30 June 2006. 10 July 2006 <http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/entertainmentcolumn/2006/col20060630.asp>.)

·    A summary of the source. (A few sentences giving us the gist of what it’s about: what’s the argument? What’s the information?).

·    An indication of the source's credibility, along with your thoughts on what the author’s potential bias might be with evidence to support your claim (Ex: Brent Bozell writes from a conservative position; he is the founder of The Media Research Center, a research organization created to “not only prove — through sound scientific research — that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values, but also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene” (“About Media Research Center”).

·    Information in the source that you find particularly interesting or thought-provoking that will be useful to you in writing your paper. 

·    Other things: format (as we discussed in class Friday) and polish (proofread!). Click here for an example.

2. Oral Presentation: You will present the information you’ve gathered and your plan for how to organize it into an essay orally to the class. You’ll have about 8-10 minutes to talk, and then about 5 minutes for feedback from the rest of the class. The requirements are:

·    That you have information to share with us (it should be clear that you’ve done your research).

·    Some sort of visual aid (Power Point, outline, etc.) that contains an outline of the points you hope to make in your essay, any interesting quotes or statistics you’d like to share, and questions for your classmates to answer. Click here for an example.

·    That you come and participate in everyone else’s presentation (being there—in body and in mind--each day will count a certain number of points towards your grade on this part of the assignment).

3. Final Essay: You will create an essay of 6-8 pages, in which you explore through research a question of your choosing. We’ll talk in more detail about the criteria for this essay after you turn in your research report.