Required resources
Each student must include references to the following resources within the project:
Each project must include in-text citations of at least 2 recent (2015 or later) statistics that establish the relevance of the topic. Please note that these statistics may be obtained through any reliable source. These are not required to be additional sources—you simply must make use of recent statistics at least 2 times within your paper.
You may choose to include additional resources, such as videos or personal interviews. Regardless of the use of these additional resources, the project’s required resources must be met.
Plagiarism is unethical and will not be tolerated. Work that is plagiarized, either intentionally or unintentionally, will be assigned a zero, and the offender will be reported to the Division Dean.
Students are held accountable for learning to work with and benefit from the research of professionals. Students who are unsure about how to properly cite another person’s unique work and ideas have many resources to guide them. These include:
So, you shouldn’t have any worries about unintentional plagiarism with all of those resources available to help you figure out how to remain a responsible researcher. If you are in doubt about whether what you are doing is plagiarism, reach out for help.
TLCC Help
You may earn TLCC tutor extra credit for working on project revision. Remember, that is 3 points per session, up to four. If you use the TLCC, upload your documents with comments from the tutor to verify your participation. You may request help with:
Current Issues Research Project
Assignment Overview
Instructor, Mrs. Gaspary
Submit your Research Project electronically via Canvas by the due date provided in your Canvas course.
*Please note that research papers may NOT be submitted late *
Carefully check both this guide and the checklist to ensure that you include each item required for your project.
Research projects must include:
Final Project
As you can see from the figures above, this project is very important. 200 points for the course are earned while working on this project. There will also be exercises and writing assignments that will help you build your project.
Successful completion of this project will require you to:
AND…
Conduct, document, and present your research
This assignment requires that you successfully incorporate all of these skills.
What to do:
1. Your assignment is to conduct research on an issue that is of current national or global importance. Choose a topic discussed in CQ Researcher, an excellent source available both in print in the library and through the library’s databases.
2. You may choose from any issue of CQ Researcher appearing between 2015 and now.
3. Use the CQ Researcher article to gather a strong foundation in the topic. Then, formulate a question to help you narrow the focus of your research. You may decide that you want to learn more about the controversy surrounding “big box stores” like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
Your question might be:
“Why would anyone criticize stores that offer one-stop shopping and discount prices?”
It is important to note that the purpose of this research paper is to inform or explain something for your reader. You are not writing an argumentative paper. You are providing facts and details so that your reader will better understand the issue you have selected.
4. Use the insight and knowledge that you have gained from your CQ Researcher article to help you begin to develop a plan to answer your research question.
Your ideas about the answer will allow you to formulate a strong thesis statement. Your research will allow you to organize and develop your discussion of your thesis.
5. Type your thesis into a Word document. Type bold headings for each major point of discussion for your paper. This is the beginning of your working outline.
6. Conduct additional research to begin to answer your question. Focus on using your other required resources to build your information or explanation
7. Prepare an annotated bibliography to keep track of the sources that help you gain true insight into your topic.
8. Use your sources to begin to fill in the information needed in each section of your outline. Paste relevant material from your sources into the appropriate parts of your outline. Make note of which source the information came from so you can properly cite it in your paper.
As you continue to do this, your Working Outline starts to turn into your paper.
9. Continue to flesh out your outline to write a 3-5 page research paper in which you elaborate on at least 3 key ideas related to your subject. Make sure that you include correct documentation of your research.
10. Each paragraph of your paper, except for your conclusion, must contain at least one instance of cited support.
Working Outline—25 pts
At the minimum, your outline needs to include a working thesis and an indication of the major points of discussion of the paper.
Remember, the more you work on your outline, the more your paper will simply “write itself!”
Annotated Bibliography—25 pts each
Your annotated bibliography should contain at least five sources. Each entry in the annotated bibliography needs a properly formatted MLA citation and the required annotation of the source. See the lesson on Canvas and in this LibGuide for more details on how to create your annotated bibliography.
Works Cited Page—25 pts
I will determine your documentation test score by evaluating the Works Cited page of your research paper as it stands before you submit your paper. Be sure that you fully update your Works Cited page to reflect the content of your paper when you submit it. Your Works Cited page should only contain the sources you actually cite within your paper; therefore, it may not have as many sources listed as your annotated bibliography (You may read/review some sources but not end up citing them in your paper.)
Full Project - 125 pts
The final draft of your research project, prepared according to MLA guidelines, including a cover sheet and a fully updated Works Cited page is worth 125 points. See the Research Project Checklist for guidelines.
Your research paper must incorporate at least two of the modes of writing you’ve learned in this course. Highlight each place where you have used a particular mode in a different color using the highlighter in your word processor and add a key to the end of your paper to identify which color highlight represents each mode.