Writing Project 3: Research Paper

Writing Project 3's initial due date is: for MWF classes, Wednesday, April 20 and for Tu-Thu classes, Thursday, April 21 at the start of class.


The "project" of Writing Project 3 will be to write a thoroughly researched, meticulously documented research paper that demonstrates a superior vetting of your sources. In writing this final research paper, you should touch upon the three main aspects of the course--establish a concrete, main argument that revolves around a CREW-like structure; demonstrate an understanding and use of the four rhetorical appeals; and provide some ethos driving "proof" of your conspiracy theory.


As this is an individual research paper, you are asked to write a four page paper that demonstrates knowledge and time given to the 4Cs of writing discussed in class: clear writing that has been proofread for errors and content; concise writing that has no fluff and is based in a good understanding of word choice and sentence structure; concrete writing that has evidence and supporting reasons to back your main research claim; and finally, writing that has some current/flow, which ensures that each subsequent paragraph leads into the other.  
 
These research papers should be double-spaced using 12 point Times-New Roman font and have 1.0" margins. Your annotated bibliographies, previously known as Writing Project 2, should be at the end of the document. 

Structure: there should be a title page, which is followed by an abstract presenting an overview or main point of your research paper--this can be treated as this research paper's extended "thesis statement." This abstract should be 4-7 sentences long and be in italics and single-spaced. Then, your individual four page research papers should follow. Rounding out the document will be the annotated bibliography.

Regarding sources: in your four page paper, you will need to CITE--use either APA, MLA, IEEE, or Chicago-Turabian; and in-text citation style should match the annotated bibliography's format--at least six different sources. Of these six sources, at least three sources need to be primary sources, meaning something obtained from an on-line archive, an autobiography, newspaper article of the time, similar repository, or an oral history interview. Also, your individual paper must have at least three different types of sources, an example: you may use a book, vetted web site (.gov, .edu, .org--as a primary source), scholarly journal, oral history, and image. Lastly, your four page paper may contain only one, appropriately sized image that should have a caption and source.


And lastly: be sure to remember to use sound rhetorical principles in the paper, identify your audience; make a strong, but balanced and supported argument, if you write with bias be sure to make that bias transparent and include a counterargument; include the four rhetorical appeals: ethos, lexos, logos, and pathos in your writing. Also, be sure to employ the 4 Cs (clear, concise, concrete, current/flow) in the writing, while using some of the techniques we discussed in class to make your writing more readable.