Research paper.

RHET 1302

Essay #3: Research Paper

Submit: Online via the Submit Essays button in Blackboard

Length: 5-7 pages

Sources: FIVE: A minimum of 3 Academic/ Scholarly and 2 Popular sources. You can have more

than five sources, but five is the minimum.

** Remember, you will complete the Proposal and Annotated bibliography before you write your draft.

Purpose: All semester, we have been working on communication and analysis. The main purpose of

this final essay is to understand that where you get information from, matters. All sources are not

created equally. Being able to locate, critically examine, and synthesizing several disparate sources in

order to construct an argument is one of the primary hallmarks of independent thinking. (And, the

development of confident, independent thinking is the main purpose of college education). Now, it is

your job to find the very best sources you can in order to support an argument.

Audience: For this essay, you should assume that you are writing for people who have some

knowledge of your subject matter. Therefore, it is not necessary to cite things that are common

knowledge to you within your field of study.

Subject Matter: Choose one invention or innovation that is interesting to you and write about it. It

can be from any time period or culture, but it has to be real. Choose something specific that you can

find an abundance of research about.

Note: This is not a middle school research project. Your main task is to show that you have done

significant research and that you are able to utilize your sources in relation to one another. This

assignment is about the quality of your research sources—it is not about the history of an invention.

You are simply using an invention as a focal point for research. The paper is also not simply a

description of sources. You still have to have an argument in your paper. Your argument will not be

about rhetorical appeals—this time you have to come up with an original thesis statement.

Requirements:

1. Read the two articles posted in Blackboard about Inventions. You can find them in the Essay #3 Folder under Assignment Descriptions.

2. Choose one invention/ innovation to focus on. You may choose something listed in one of the articles posted in Blackboard if you would like to, but you certainly don’t have to.

3. Research sources: You must utilize and discuss your sources extensively throughout the entire essay. This means you need to do more than simply drop in a quote or two.

4. Thesis statement- you have to have one. Some ideas for the direction of your thesis might include arguments about: the significance of your invention in relation to other similar

products; the transformation of your invention over time; the long-term implications of the

invention; how your invention changed society at the time it was created.

Examples of successful recent student paper topics: Virtual Reality, Pacemaker, MMR Vaccine, Amazon, GPS, CRISP

Technology, Integrated Circuit, Drone, Iris Recognition Technology, Deep Brain Stimulation, Automated Fingerprint

Identification System, 3D Printing, Self-Driving Car, Motion Control Games, Prosthetic Limbs, Motion-Capture

Technology, Triptans, MRI, UNIX, IOT, Touchscreen, Voice-Recognition Technology