Research Essay
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RessearchEssay.rtf
ENC 1101: UNIT 11
UNIT 11
THE RESEARCH ESSAY
This week you will begin the Research essay.
Learning the proper use of research is an essential skill in college, one that is required in most courses. Most students have written a number of “research papers” during their school careers, but, unfortunately, most of those same students have never been taught the proper way to write a research paper. With little or no instruction and, often, poor assignments, student writers have fallen back on a cut-and-paste form of writing research papers.
Frequently, the fault is not the student’s; instead, it is the instructor’s, who will give this type of assignment: “Write a research essay on Benjamin Franklin.” What the student will then do is go to a research source, such as Google; collect a number of biographical facts; assemble (cut and paste) them together; and then submit that collected material as a finished research essay. This is not a research essay! It is a collection of plagiarized facts.
But whose fault is this? The student’s, who has “borrowed” source material? Or the instructor’s, who has given a poor assignment which essentially orders the student to go out and do the “borrowing”? Probably a bit of both. What is needed is a proper assignment from the instructor followed by a bit of solid source material collection and usage by the student.
A better assignment from the instructor would have been something like this: “Which of Benjamin Franklin’s inventions has most dramatically affected the world we live in today?” This type of topic demands the one thing that is essential before a research essay can be started: an opinion . Once you have an opinion about a subject or issue, then you can draft an essay in which researched information can be inserted to support and enhance your opinion. And those are the only two purposes for research in an essay: Support and Enhancement . Never should research material be used to replace your own ideas.
What we will work on in this project will be writing a research essay following these steps in this order:
* Form an opinion about a topic;
* Create a draft that comprises your own thinking, but without any research included;
* Determine what research you should try to find in the library or other on-line databases (facts, statistics, and/or quotes from experts);
* Put the research material into proper form for insertion into your draft;
* Document the researched material.
Assignment: Think about the topic, “ One form of technology that has changed our lives, making them either better or worse; and why .” Next, perform some brainstorming activities – such as listing or clustering – to come up with possible essay ideas.
Try to break down your topic ideas into specific areas, such as “communication” or “transportation” or “health” or “recreation”. In this manner, you can cluster together your ideas, which may lead to other ideas, and/or which may help an idea crystallize in your mind.
But be sure to focus on potential topics that interest you, about which you have something to say, and which could, ultimately, lead to a viable research essay topic.
Next, from your brainstorming activity, decide upon one specific topic idea, one form of technology which you believe has impacted our lives, either positively or negatively. Remember, it will ultimately be a research paper, so remember that requirement in your final decision.
Then, begin crafting a draft about your topic using the following format. At this point, there should be NO inclusion of research material in your essay.
Organizational Format:
I. Introductory paragraph – Should not refer to the assigned essay topic. Instead, it should focus generally on the issue that you will raise in the body of your essay. You may use as your introduction one of the following: an anecdote, either personal or 3rd-person, that you can relate to the subject to be discussed; a statistic that you can relate to the subject; a fact that you can relate to the subject; a quote, from either a famous person or someone non-famous, that you can relate to the subject; or a question that functions as a lead-in to your discussion of the essay. You may also use some other form of introductory device, such as a metaphor, comparison/contrast example, cause-and-effect example, etc.
Consider this example of a personal anecdote used as an introduction, which identifies the topic of “cars”:
There I was, sixteen, at the Division of Motor V ehicles office . I just had to pass my test, get my driver’s license, and the open road would be mine. My thoughts stopped abruptly when my mother informed me that she could not afford to get me a car, and even if she could, she would not allow me to have one because she thought it was far too dangerous for me to be driving. And just like that, m y hopes and dreams of being a driver disappeared.
II. Essay Topic Identification paragraph – This paragraph should identify the issue you will discuss throughout your essay, generally establishing what you see as the form of technology that has affected our lives, for better or worse. For example:
Since Henry Ford developed mass production of the automobile in the early 1900s, making cars affordable for the almost everyone, the auto industry has grown at such a rapid pace that in the 21 st century, most families own at least one car, and sometimes many more. Whether it is a car, truck, van or sport utility vehicle, automotive technology comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. People generally use a vehicle in their everyday lives, out of either necessity or convenience, as cars transport us to work and school, the mall and grocery store . . . just about anywhere. The car is the modern-day horse, a steed that allows us to reach faraway places in a short time and with more comfort, and even though it is possible to live without a car, most Americans feel as if life is too hard to get by without one. The question is, is this piece of technology a blessing or curse of life?
Develop this paragraph with about four or five long, flowing, well-written sentences that establish clearly the issue that will be the controlling idea for your entire essay.
III. Body section #1: In this section (multiple paragraphs), you will offer one way in which this form of technology has made our lives either better or worse. Be sure to use examples and details to illustrate for your audience – or “show” – what you want it to see. You will insert research later to further elaborate upon and enhance this paragraph.
IV. Body section #2: In this section (multiple paragraphs), you will offer a second way in which this form of technology has made our lives either better or worse. Be sure to use examples and details to illustrate for your audience – or “show” – what you want it to see. You will insert research later to further elaborate upon and enhance this paragraph.
V. Body section #3 (optional): In this section (multiple paragraphs), you will offer a third way in which this form of technology has made our lives either better or worse. Be sure to use examples and details to illustrate for your audience – or “show” – what you want it to see. You will insert research later to further elaborate upon and enhance this paragraph. (If you do not have a strong third reason to support your thesis, then omit this paragraph. However, if you omit a clearly necessary and apparent third reason just to save time, your essay will suffer.)
Summary/Conclusion: In this form of writing, the conclusion becomes a summary of your overall thesis , of which, by now, your reader already has a grasp, since you have lead him there through careful construction of your body sections. This paragraph, then, should sum up/restate, in three or four well-crafted sentences, the impact – either positive or negative – that the specific form or technology has had upon our lives. You should not raise any new ideas, but neither should you simply re-list the items listed in your body sections. Instead, recap without repeating.
