RESEARCH PAPER DIRECTIONS: Your research paper will explore—using academic research–a specific academic subtopic related to political protest or social movements. You will write a well-developed, argumentative, evaluative, research paper of 11-12 pages (not including works cited, title, and notes).Don’t feel compelled to choose a perspective from the movements we will discuss in class. You are free to come up with your own topic. Understand, however, that whatever topic you choose, the essay must offer a compelling argument on the topic—not just a summary of information. Your paper should be thesis driven and should offer something new about the topic. Working it out:1. The first step is to choose a perspective that you find interesting, and begin researching. This preliminary research will help you initially focus your argument. 2. Collect at least three specific academic sources: one primary sourceand two secondary sources (literary criticism, academic essay, article, book or film review). 3. Submit topic for approval. 4. Compose a preliminary thesis/ argument that your paper will focus on.5. Collect more primary and secondary sources using the library databases and library holdings. 6. Compose a Proposal Paper that is informed by all this reading and research. 7. Create an Annotated Bibliography of the sources you will use in the paper.Writing the paper:1. Offer context for your paper in the introduction. Either employ one of the suggestions from Lester (200-207), or choose one of your own.2. Announce a clear thesis statement somewhere in the first page of text.3. Organize your work using well developed paragraphs led by focused thesis sentences that support the thesis directly.4. Support your argument with references to at least ten total sources.Once you have chosen a topic, and that topic is approved, you will be required to submit a short proposal paper which will explain how you plan to approach your topic.Understand that your paper should be thesis driven and should offer something new about the subject. To that end your paper should analyze, evaluate, classify, review, defend, and acknowledge opposing perspectives.
Sources:You must include 10-15 sources in your research paper. You are to evaluate and use material from quality and scholarly sources. Select a mix of primary and secondary sources from which to quote.EVALUATION: Research paper will be evaluated on five factors:1. Presentation 2. Quality of Research 3. Incorporation of research material 4. Quality of writing 5. MLA form and language usage
