According to the topic in order description, you can make a title please.
Description:
Topic – Gamification: exploring the benefits and problems of a life where ‘everything’s a game’.
The topic requires that you write a Reseach Proposal of around 200 words, which should come at the beginning of your essay.
A few reminders:
Please use a minimum of 10 references (i.e., 10 different articles, books, chapters, refereed websites).
All references should be used appropriately and cited within the body of the essay and footnoted correctly (Harvard orf Oxford only please).
Your references should be listed in a separate References/Bibliography section at the end of your essay.
Assignment guidelines:
We want you to think about your assignment as a research task rather than “just another essay assignment”. At the undergraduate level of study you are generally still refining your study skills, and the emphasis should be on exploring new ideas and developing good research and writing strategies.
Getting started:
Your first task for Assignment 2a is to think about an aspect of interactive entertainment and game studies that interests you, and read a number of articles from this unit and elsewhere to get some useful information about the topic.
In your Introduction section, you should describe the topic in your own words and explain your interest in the topic. Consider what it is you want to gain from your research into the topic.
Also in the Introduction, you should aim to raise questions of your own about the topic. Consider what new information or insights you expect to gain from examining the topic.
Essentially, your Introduction works like a ‘research proposal’.
What is the purpose of a research proposal?
A research proposal typically sets out the scope (the limitations and extent) of a research task or project (such as an essay assignment).
A research proposal is also a strategy for staying focused and not going off on too many tangents. It also crystalises what it is you want to find out from your research.
A research proposal involves a thinking process that typically moves through steps something like this:
What is it that interests me about this topic? (i.e., why did you choose this topic? Why is it important to you; what’s special or intriguing about it?)
What is it I need to find out about this topic? (i.e., what do you think is the problem or issue at the heart of this topic that makes it important and interesting?
What kind of information do you need to access to explore this topic?)
What are the questions I need to ask? (i.e., how would you frame or ‘unpack’ the problem/issue as a specific question/set of questions or themes or sub-topics?)
What do I hope/expect to gain from conducting this research? (Often you don’t know beforehand, so you can keep this a bit open-ended and discuss it in your Conclusion)
A research question takes a while to work out, but the benefits include:
Defining the research task early on in the assignment process so you can get started on the core issues setting a limit to what will be included and what will be excluded from your writing clarifying your ideas and finding specific points/concepts of relevance to follow up – your thinking becomes clear to yourself (pretty handy!)
providing initial direction and focus to help structure your reading, note-taking and writing right from the beginning reinforcing the purpose and value of the research task by articulating to yourself why it’s important and relevant.
In this case, your ‘research task’ is to write an essay on a topic about game play, interactivity and the diverse cultures and technologies of entertainment and new interfaces that emerge, etc. In a nutshell, the function of a research question is to:
Tell the reader/examiner in advance what is the context, purpose, content and potential outcomes of the research.
Remind yourself what is the context, purpose, content and potential outcomes of the research so you stay on task along the way.
What does a research proposal look like?
The research proposal is a separate statement (usually around 200 words or so) that comes before the main body of the thesis/essay. For this assignment, the research proposal should be elaborated within your Introduction. This enables your introductory section to set the reader up straight away with key information and about the issues, ideas and problems to be discussed.
Your introduction, including the research proposal for this assignment, should be no more than 200 words: keeping it concise helps to get rid of waffly incidental stuff, and this helps your ideas stay clear and focused on what it is you are really researching and discussing.
Where to find examples of research proposal:
When you open up the various readings (e.g. recommended readings PDFs) you will see that each article begins with an ‘abstract’: the abstract functions the same way as the research proposal. So have a read through some abstracts and get a sense of how these function as research proposals, in terms of the questions and problems that are raised, and then addressed in the body of the articles themselves.
Here is an example of the Abstract from the article ‘Gamers Telling Stories: Understanding Narrative Practices in an Online Community’ by Anne-Mette Albrechtslund.
Abstract: In this article, I introduce a theoretical framework, based on the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, for grasping how and why members of online communities construct narratives in their communications with one another. This is exemplified through a study of how players from one particular game, World of Warcraft, make sense of their gaming experience, and how they build and uphold a community identity by telling stories online. I argue that in studying and conceptualizing these types of texts through the proposed theoretical framework, we can gain insights into the process of the formation of meaning and the building of identity and community in an online setting.
Key Words/community/fandom/gaming/identity/internet/narrative
An important reminder: In your 200 word Introduction, you must include a research proposal. Here is a quick overview of what the research proposal is:
The research proposal is a separate statement (usually around 200 words or so) that comes before the main body of the thesis/essay. For this assignment, the research proposal should be elaborated within in your Introduction. This enables your introductory section to set the reader up straight away with key information and about the issues, ideas and problems to be discussed.