Research Essay Assignment

Produce a well-developed, 12-20 page document investigating a research question of your choice. Your topic itself, the research question, and the final product should have to do with something “everyday”(35%).

Research Process

The final product is a research essay; but the course also involves learning about the “process” of research writing through a series of milestone assignments in the development of your research, such as the: Topic Statement, Research Proposal, Field Report, and Literature Review. These will be collected on the dates listed in the syllabus; paper-copies must also be turned in at the close of the semester, in a folder accompanying the research essay.

The "Everyday" as a Theme (Reminder #1 from the syllabus)

Our shared readings (handouts, two texts, film) should help to establish a "zone of interest" and basic vocabulary for our class discussions and your individual research projects. Avoiding the usual "research topics" that send too many students first to Google and then WorldBook, you should start closer to home--scanning your daily lives for what at first seems too ordinary, normal, unproblematic to research. Think about the systems, routines, institutions, habits, and games that we play each day. Dorm life, intramural sports, text-messaging, deer season, summer jobs, rushing. As you brainstorm topics, remember that your research will include fieldwork as well as traditional library and database searches.

Evaluation and Expectations (Reminder #2 from the syllabus)

The specific topic and purpose of this project will be yours to decide as you work through the research process. However, it may help you to consider that I will grade essays holistically on the basis of four broad categories: 1) Content - degree of thoughtfullness, richness of information provided or strength of claims made; 2) Organization - effective presentation, including thesis, detail or support, paragraph form, transitions, and coherence; 3) Mechanics - essay format and such sentence-level elements as punctuation, spelling, and word choice; and 4) Revision - evidence of effort and quality of changes made to preliminary drafts, especially in response to peer-critique.

I will collect your rough drafts several weeks in andvance and quickly rate the four areas above on a 10-point scale to give students an idea of those areas in which I judge the paper to be stronger/weaker. Generally, an "A" paper should be strong in all four areas; a "B" paper is strong in at least three areas and not poor in any; a "C" paper should be adequate in at least three areas; a "D" paper is inadequate in two areas; and "F" paper is inadequate in three or more areas.