Research Analysis
As we've discussed in class, research is extremely important. It builds your ethos as an arguer, both as one who brings in relevant quotes from important people and as one who has done rigorous research and, frankly, knows what she/he is talking about. Research is also important in demonstrating that you know what other people have already said about the topic.
For this paper, you will do some library research and find at least 5 sources (which can include articles, books, and book chapters), and write 4-5 pages in which you explain what people are saying about the subject. You will then critique the arguments made in the sources, but you will not yet advance your own position.
What you will be doing in this paper is reading your 5 sources and then explaining their position. You will do this by establishing a "narrative" regarding the state of research so far, and using what you've read to establish your point. You should not do this by spending one or two paragraphs talking about one source, then one or two paragraphs talking about another, and so on. You should merge what you've read into a longer narrative, and spend each paragraph discussing a different point relative to the overall narrative. (I know this is confusing, we'll talk about it in class).
As this is for an academic paper, you must use sources that have ethos with an academic audience. This means that you must use scholarly sources- no Wikipedia, no popular magazines (including Time, Newsweek, etc.), and no dictionaries/encyclopedias! We'll spend time talking about this in class, and your librarian at Jackson Library can help you with this.
Your paper must be 4-5 pages long, typed and double-spaced in Times New Roman font, saved as a .pdf file and submitted via Blackboard by 12:30pm on 3/1. You must have a completed copy ready to bring to class on 2/25 for a Peer Review session. As with all of your out-of-class writing, I expect you to use all of the steps of the writing process: brainstorming, outlining, multiple drafts. We will do some of these steps in class, but others will be done on your own time.
A successful paper will have the following aspects:
• A clear thesis to which the entire paper coheres.
• Overarching Summary for the individual sources.
• Avoids doing "list-style" summaries
• Knowledgeable discussion.
• Appropriate Sources
• Each critique is thoroughly explained and reasoned.
• Fair treatment of the opponent
• Student engages the opponent on his/her own terms.
• Quotations that enforce students' approach, not take the place of it!
• Language that is appropriate and stimulating to your audience (me and your classmates).
• Strong organization, featuring coherent paragraphs with effective transitions.
• Mature diction, with complex and varied sentence structure.
• Proper MLA formatting.