Research story

Assignment Guide: Research Story

Assignment Overview

What is a Research Story?

 Research stories share an inquiry process you have conducted; in story form, it discusses how you went about researching a topic, and ultimately, what you learned by conducting the inquiry. The research story should be highly understandable to anyone reading about your experience, regardless if they have read your Research Essay.

What is meant by a research “story?”

In this assignment, you can see yourself as a scholar who embarked on a journey to learn, and ultimately, to prove something about your chosen topic.  You certainly faced many challenges, with perhaps the most important one being convincing your  audience  that your  claim  is worth considering. Like any personal narrative, you can share this journey in  first person , as you are the protagonist—the main hero.  Telling the story of your research process and then reflecting on it should not only provide closure to your research experience, but also to enlighten any  reader  who wants to learn about your encounter with a research project.

 

In what format do I share my Research Story?

Your Research Story will be divided into three sections—each with a noted header: An  introduction , the research process, and a discussion. Each section entails the following:

1. The  Introduction : Your  introduction  should begin with a “ hook ” to engage the  reader  in your initial research question and the topic you explored. The  introduction  will also establish the importance and relevance of the conducted research.

2. The Research Process: This is where you take the  audience  on a narrative journey sharing with them “the story” of how your research began—all the twists, turns, ups, downs—and how it ended. Be descriptive,  exploratory , and detailed. 

3. The Discussion: This section asks you to draw a  conclusion  about the research journey. The discussion allows you to share with your  audience  what you learned (or didn’t learn) from conducting the research. You might also discuss why the  audience  should care about something you have written—what you find relevant about the topic and the inquiry you conducted.

 

What should the  tone  of my Research Story be?

Unlike other academic essays, the Research Story’s  tone  can look, sound and feel like many things. Most importantly,  tone  can have an important effect on your  audience ’s experience with and  interpretation  of your  voice  and story. Consider the following types of  tone :

· Inspiring

· Humorous

· Passionate 

· Emotional

· Boastful

· Technical

· Conversational

· Academic

 

Who is my  audience ?

A research story is written for a general  audience —not a community of experts on your chosen research topic. Thus, you may need to explain things a little more than you would to a group of individuals well-versed on your topic.  First and foremost, do not assume that your  audience  has read your Research Essay.  You’ll want to be extremely explicit as you introduce, illustrate, and discuss your research process.

Assignment Prompt: Research Story

Overview 

For this assignment, you are going to compose a narrative of your research experience. You will draw a  conclusion  from your experience and communicate to your  audience  why what you said was important. That is, what is the importance of the research journey for you or for others?  Focus  on a take away from your research journey and  focus  on the events that led you to draw this  conclusion .

Expectations

This assignment allows you to reflect upon and narrate the experience and the value of the research process. It is open form, and as such, the expectations for how to approach the topic itself is largely dependent on your own personal experience. The  thesis , or  conclusion , you have made about the research process can be featured as a sentence in the  introduction  or it can be delayed until the last paragraph where you discuss the larger implications of your experience.

Requirements

Length: a minimum of 750 words

Document Formatting:   MLA  formatting: Heading (name, assignment name, course name, date), original title, header (page numbers), line-spacing (double-spaced), 1”margins, and 12-point font size, Times New Roman or sans-serif font. Underlined  thesis statement .

Include a subheading for each section of this story: (1)  Introduction  (2) Research Process (3) Journey

Genre / Style : Reflection,  exploratory , and narrative. This is a  genre  of writing that is hybrid and borrows from several genres listed above.  Tone  can be informal or formal with a  focus  on being reflective, introspective, and thoughtful. There should be an  introduction  to the background of what led you to the project, a body that maps your experiences, and a discussion that suggests the importance of the journey to you and others. You may use "I" or a  first-person   pronoun .

Sources: No sources are required; however, if part of your  narration  reflects upon how one piece of research changed your initial opinion, that source should be mentioned in text and cited properly at the end of the assignment.  MLA  formatting is required if any source is introduced.

Organization

Your paper should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

You may find it easy to start with giving some background on why you chose your research question, moving to the experience you had, and ending with a discussion of the importance of your experience for yourself and others. Consider following the template below:

Your Research Story will be divided into three sections—each with a noted heading.

1. The  Introduction  (one or two paragraphs): 

This is where you introduce your  reader  to the context of your inquiry. Begin with a “ hook ” to invest your readers in your story. In this section, you will discuss what led you to the topic, any experience or background you feel your readers need to understand your journey, which research question guided your inquiry, and possibly a  conclusion  you have drawn from the research process.  That  conclusion  ( thesis ) can be explicitly stated in the  introduction  or delayed until the final discussion section.

2. The Research Process (the body of the essay consisting of multiple paragraphs, one paragraph per episode or event): 

This is where you take the  audience  on a narrative journey sharing with them “the story” of your research process. You may choose to follow how you tried to answer your research question, or how your initial opinion was challenged after coming into contact with a source, or how you struggled to navigate digital information. The  focus  is up to you However, there should be a  focus . We don’t need to know everything. Choose something you feel is important and select the experiences that led to that illumination. Consider narrating the twists and turns of your journey and aligning the narrative events with the  conclusion  you have drawn from the research process. Be descriptive,  exploratory , and detailed.

3. The Discussion (one to two paragraphs): 

This section asks you to process and analyze the experience you had while researching. The discussion is the place to make the  conclusion  you have drawn about your research journey crystal clear. If you didn’t mention that statement in the  introduction , it must be mentioned here. The discussion allows you to share with your  audience  what you learned (or didn’t learn) from conducting the research or what was important about having a particular experience while researching. You could also discuss the relevance of your paper to yourself or to an  audience .

Grading Guide: Research Story

ENG 102 Rubric: Research Story
Grading Requirement: 750 words and three subheadings
	0-1 Points	2 Points	3 Points
Section 1:  Introduction / Thesis /  Theme  (20%) An opening “ hook ” or sentence or two meant to engage the  reader  in the topic. Necessary  background information  about inquiry. The lesson learned ( thesis ) may not be explicitly stated in the  introduction , but the overall  theme  is clearly inferred.	The  introduction  does not inform the  reader , and does not forecast the essay with an overview and  thesis / theme .	An adequate  introduction  informs the  reader , and an attempt at an overview and  thesis / theme  is evident.	A comprehensive   introduction  engages the  reader  and forecasts the essay with an effective overview and  thesis / theme .
Section 2: The Research Process (40%) This is an  exploratory  section where the writer makes connections between stages of the research journey.  This section will describe the steps the writer undertook throughout the research journey.	The writer does not portray the narrative in a manner or format that effectively helps the  reader  to understand the point of the story, or how one event led to another illustrating a clear and coherent research story.	Overall, the writer may or may not include enough details into the narrative to clearly connect to the point of the research story, or to the progression of their process for research. As well, some details may be irrelevant to the writer’s experience.	The writer uses effective  exploratory  details to outline the point of each stage of the story. The story illustrates a certain and thoughtful research process.
Section 3: The Discussion  (30%) This section is an  analytical   reflection of the research experience. This section will include a clear  statement about the lesson learned during the research journey.	The discussion section does not explore the importance of the overall experience; the lesson learned, or  thesis , is not clearly stated or is missing completely.	The discussion section attempts to  illustrate the importance of the author’s experience. The lesson learned, or  thesis , may need to be clarified in some way; it may or may not be disconnected from the events narrated or contradictory.	The discussion section explicitly illustrates the importance or relevance of the author’s experience.  The lesson learned, or  thesis , is clear and reiterated in a meaningful way.
Language  and  Style  (10%) Sentence Structure  ( Grammar ) Word Choice /Vocabulary (Redundancy,  repetition , awkwardness)	Overall, the writer’s use of  language  and  style  lacks development.	Overall, the writer’s use of  language  and  style  is proficient.	Overall, the writer’s use of  language  and  style  is excellent.
Mechanics ,  Grammar , Punctuation (5%) Comma  errors,  comma  splices,  apostrophe  errors, capitalization errors,  semicolon  errors,  colon  errors, typos/misspellings	The work is unpolished with 4 or more  repetitive  grammatical, mechanical, and/or punctuation errors.	The work is somewhat polished with 3 or less  repetitive  grammatical, mechanical, and/or punctuation errors.	The work appears polished with 2 or less  repetitive  grammatical, mechanical, and/or punctuation errors.
Formatting  (5%) MLA  formatting: Heading (name, assignment name, course name, date), original title, header (page numbers), line-spacing (double-spaced), 1” margins, and 12-point font size. Underlined  thesis statement . 3 Sections with subheadings:(1)  Introduction , (2) Research Process, and (3) Discussion.	Meets little to none formatting requirements.	Meets most formatting requirements.	Meets all formatting requirements.  The  thesis  is underlined. If the  thesis statement  is not underlined, the essay cannot score above a 2.