Research Essay

EN 101

Prof. Della Fera

RESEARCH PAPER

What it is: The research paper is a typed written work which sets out to argue an opinion you have on a certain topic. Like a lawyer trying to win his/her case in court, you must build a strong argument with much evidence. If your proof is weak, that is, you don’t find many sources that agree with you and back you up, then your ultimate argument will be a weak one. Therefore, you are trying to argue an educated opinion on a topic, and strengthen it with words from reliable experts who and sources that provide additional facts, information, theories and opinions that agree with your point of view.

Topic: In our case, your topic has already been established. To specify, you are asserting whether technological advances are worth the privacy loss to people or not.

You will be supporting and bolstering your ideas/comments/opinions from credible outside sources, and we will spend time researching this topic from our databases, Youtube, and other resource avenues found in the library and on the Internet.

You cannot write this paper using any 1st person pronouns (I, we, us, my, mine, our) and/or 2nd person pronouns (you, your). Additionally, you need to avoid any personal stories and examples, though you may use examples of those you read from articles and other outside sources. Since a research paper is the most formal writing you will ever do, the tone must be academic and not in the least bit conversational (hence the removal of 1st and 2nd person pronouns).

Since a research paper can be a daunting assignment, one way to approach it is to think of this paper first as a five paragraph essay that you are used to doing. After you have written a draft which establishes your opinions and ideas, you will then add outside support.

· You will add outside information to already existing paragraphs if the information is relevant to the paragraph’s main point.

· Or you will add NEW and ADDITIONAL paragraphs to new information you have found. That is, whenever you find new points to build your case, you will add them to your essay #1.

· This research paper will ultimately build upon your essay #1 assignment since you have already laid the groundwork for this topic with that first essay.

You will be working hard outside of class on this paper during the next few weeks including the upcoming spring break. This is in addition to the remaining work (other essays) that must be written. From now on, you will always be working on several projects at the same time!

Purpose: The ultimate academic purpose of the research paper is two-fold:

1. The research paper teaches a student how to be an informed individual with concrete and founded opinions.

2. This kind of project teaches how to sift through countless information and decipher what is reliable and what is not. You must learn to rely on both, common sense and some detective work. Sometimes you need to go out and verify a fact that you are not sure is true. Ultimately, as educated citizens in society, we need to learn that we cannot believe everything we read or hear.

Criteria:

1. The paper must be between 4-6 typed pages not counting the last works cited page. It will be in Times New Roman 12 point font and everything is double spaced.

2. It is due on Tuesday, April 21 for Tues/Thursday classes and Friday, April 24 for my Friday class.

3. YOU MAY NOT EMAIL YOUR RESEARCH PAPER TO ME. If you don’t have your paper in on the assigned due date, then you will have to hand it in the following class. Please take into account that “Murphy’s Law” always prevails; what can go wrong, will go wrong. To avoid technical, academic, or personal difficulties, make sure your paper is finished a couple of days before the due date. You will breathe a lot easier!

4. You must pass this paper with a “C” or better.

5. You must have at least 5 sources for this research paper. You can use the article by Deanna Paul as one of the sources. You may also use articles from our library’s databases or Google, (also try Google Scholar) and possibly YouTube if you find reliable sources.