Your Research Paper will propose and defend a solution to a debatable problem. Unless arranged otherwise with the instructor, assume that the audience of your paper is your fellow students in the class. The purpose of the essay is to persuade that audience that they should support your proposed solution. We will work towards the Final Draft of the paper by first identifying our preliminary thoughts on the topic, then identifying relevant research sources, and then producing a series of drafts of the final argument.
Schedule of Research paper assignments:
Select Topic (due Week 1 on threaded discussion): You should begin by listing as many topic ideas as you can. The more ideas you come up with for topics, the better your chances of coming up with a good one that you will enjoy working on. The best topics are ones that you have some personal interest in. Therefore, begin by trying to identify at least three problems in each of the categories listed below. Don't worry about whether they'll work (almost any idea can be made to work for this assignment); just write down all your ideas in each area.
Come up with at least three "problems" in each of the following areas:
• your job or profession
• your major field of study
• school
• your local neighborhood, community, or town
• your hobbies or interests
• news or current events
• things that "bug" you.
You must write at least one well-formed paragraph in response to each of the following sets of questions (i.e., at least 5 complete paragraphs):
1. what is the problem? why is it a problem? who is harmed by this problem?
2. what are the most important causes of the problem? who is to blame? what have they done, or failed to do, to create the situation?
3. what do you think should be done to address the problem? how would this help? what different solutions might others propose, and why do you think your idea is better?
4. what are the possible costs or drawbacks of your proposal?
5. who might object to your proposal? who might object to any of your answers to any of the preceding questions? why might they object?