ENGL-135 Advanced Composition, Devry - Course Project: Research Paper

Course Project: Research Paper

Objective | Guidelines | Milestones | Best Practices

Given a thesis statement, outline, notes, and resource materials, write a well-argued and well-supported research paper that incorporates accepted format and documentation guidelines.

Please review the following information. Your final research paper is not due until Week 8, but you should start preparing for it now.

The research paper will use the topic as the one you selected for the week 3 Position Paper. One of the issues explored in The Omnivore’s Dilemma will be the basis of your Position Paper. Remember that one of the points of The Omnivore’s Dilemma is that conventional wisdom about societal issues and challenges is often incorrect; consider this in your writing. The week 3 lecture has information about topics for the Position Paper.

Your research paper will be approximately 8 to 10 pages, not including your cover and references pages. Your topic will be the same as the one you’re chosen for your Position Paper during week 3. The APA (American Psychological Association) is the style required for the cover page, citations, paraphrasing and References.

You will begin writing the research paper in Week 4 (when you will write the proposal and outline); however, you should push yourself to conduct research in your chosen area from the beginning of the course.

The Final Research Paper must include the following:

• 8-10 pages of body and a References page.
• 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
• Double spaced.
• APA-style title page.
• All pages should be numbered.
• Should contain 5 sources (minimum).

· The Research Proposal and Outline, due at end of week 4 in the Dropbox, is worth 60 points and should be 1-2 pages.

· The Annotated Bibliography, due in the Dropbox at the end of week 5, is worth 100 points. It should contain five academic and verifiable sources and a two paragraph annotation for each of these.

· The First Draft of the Research Paper is due at the end of week 6 in the Dropbox. It consists of the first three sections of the final paper: the introduction and thesis statement; the problem, first reason; and the problem, second reason. A References page will also be included. This assignment is worth 60 points and should be 3-4 pages.

· The Presentation PowerPoint is due at the end of Week 7 to the Dropbox, and is worth 50 points.

· The Second Draft of the Research Paper is due to the second Discussion thread during Week 7 for peer reviewing. It should contain the remaining three sections of the final paper: the solution, first reason; the solution, second reason; and call to action.

· The Final Research Paper including References page, due in the Dropbox week 8, is worth 150 points and should be 8-10 pages.

• You need to use at least five sources; they must be academic, meaning no blogs or Wikipedia may be used. We will discuss the credibility of sources. Please ask your instructor if you are not sure whether a source is academic and verifiable or not.
• It is strongly suggested that you use the DeVry library for the bulk of your research. You can access the online library by clicking on the Student Resources tab under Course Home.
• Make sure you understand in-text citations. After each quotation, write the author's name and the year of publication, such as (Hughes, 2004, p. 38) as this is part of the documentation process. If you are paraphrasing or summarizing from a source, no page number is required. Also, several variations exist for citations; they will be discussed later in the course.
• We do not footnote for APA. We do not use URLs in-text.
• Remember that if you use Internet sources in your References list, you will need a lot more information than just the web-site address (URL). Also, do not use URLs when citing in text.
• The list of sources in your text is titled References (no quotation marks, no bold, no italics) and is centered on the top of its own page at the end of the paper.

Helpful Research Paper Info:

In Doc Sharing, you will find helpful documents for each assignment of the research paper. Document Formats help you with organizing your paper using the correct structure and format. Checklists are reminders of all the elements needed for specific assignments. The Checklists can also be used for peer reviews. There is also a sample research paper and PowerPoint format for the research paper presentation for week 8. Here is a list of these helpful documents:

• Document Format, Research Proposal and Outline
• Checklist, Research Proposal and Outline
• Document Format, Annotated Bibliography
• Checklist, Annotated Bibliography
• Document Format, Research Draft, First Draft
• Checklist, Research Draft, First Draft
• Document Format, Research Draft, Second Draft
• Research Paper Peer Review Checklist, Second Draft
• Document Format and sample final research paper
• PowerPoint Research Presentation example
• Checklist, Final Research Paper

APA Guidelines for Citing Sources

The APA Publication Manual, 6th Edition, is available at any bookstore or library. Since APA is used in ALL DeVry courses, you should be familiar with this style. Check DocSharing for documents that will help you better understand APA style. Also, you can examine the APA section of Chapter 28 to see examples of APA style citations. Finally, you can find tutorials and information regarding the use of APA in the Writing Resources section linked from the Student Resources page.