Research Paper Assignment Guidelines
Overview:
• For your final WIP project, you will research a topic related to the fields of Communication, Media, or Theatre. Based on this research, you will compose a well-supported, thoughtfully organized, and carefully written argumentative essay that contributes to the scholarly discussion.
• This will not be a paper slapped together over the course of an evening or a weekend. Rather, you will work on your project one piece at a time over the final six weeks of this course, brainstorming, gathering research, analyzing these findings, building and refininga solid argument, planning out the structure of your essay, composing an initial draft, and, finally,revising and polishing.
• The class topics and activities for these six weeks, along with the Annotated Bibliography, Paper Proposal, and Outline assignments, are all designed to facilitate your work on this final project, so please do take advantage of this.
Directions:
• Your paper must examine a topic related to Communication, Media, or Theatre.
• Your paper must contain a clearly articulated thesis statement that advances a central claim/argument.
• Your paper must directly quote at least five different sources, two of which must be peer-reviewed scholarly sources.
• Your paper may incorporate a theory that informs your methodology and analysis, but this is not a requirement.
• Your paper may incorporate primary research (including observation, interviews, surveys, or textual analysis), but this is not a requirement.
• Your paper must be well-organized, effectively argued, supported with credible research, and thoroughly edited, proofread, and polished.
• Along with the paper itself, please also submit a 2-3 pagereflection that discusses:
o The thought process you followed in developing this project from initial idea to final product
o What aspects of this project you found challenging (and what you did to address these challenges)
o What aspects of this project you are most pleased with (and why)
o How you feel about your skills and knowledge as a young scholar in our field today compared to how you felt upon starting this course 16 weeks ago.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.