Project 4: Academic Researched Paper

For your final project of the semester, you will incorporate five to eight of the sources that you annotated
for your annotated bibliography (at least four must be scholarly, peer reviewed) and write a researched essay
that uses these sources (and more, if you choose, though additional sources do not need to be academic, just
reputable) as supporting evidence.

This essay should argue a specific point regarding the topic you researched. This is not a persuasive essay, in
the sense that you have to make an original argument about the topic, as academics do, but it does need to
have an argument. The argument is the message you are trying to convey, and so, for this project, you need
to find something very specific you want to convey to your audience about this topic and use your sources
to help you convey that point. However, you should keep in mind, that sources are used as evidence to
support YOUR argument. This means your voice and stance should be present in the paper and the voices
of the sources should not over take it. We will discuss how to do this in class.

The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the kinds of writing youll be expected to do in a
typical undergraduate research project. In this assignment, we will focus primarily on learning how to
synthesize and analyze outside sources in order to articulate your own perspective on an issue.

For this essay, you will write a 5-6 page (Times New Roman, 12-pt. font, double-spaced, 1-margins) essay
in which you articulate your own perspective on the issue that youve chosen. Youll note that you may
disagree with one or more of the sources youve chosen or find you dont believe certain parts of their
arguments, and thats actually a good thing. You will want to address the reasons that you disagree with this
author(s) and demonstrate why you see their argument as flawed. You may also want to explain the multiple
perspectives on an issue, using the other sources to establish that there isnt necessarily consensus.
Remember how this work assisted you at the beginning of the semester when you were developing
arguments during your mock trial.

As you write your essay, you are to write it for an academic audience with an undergraduate level of
education who is NOT an expert in your topic area. You will also need to introduce your sources (dont
write as if your audience already knows the articles in your packet) and situate these sources for your
audience. Situating your source means introducing the source (i.e. the author) to the reader. Who is the
author, why should the reader trust them? What expertise do they have? This doesnt always need to be an
elaborate paragraph of explanation. Often, a simple Joe Smith, a cultural researcher at San Jose State
University, has shown that college students who watch a video of penguin mating habits tend to adopt these
practices in their own courtship rituals (55). As you can see in this example, Ive quickly introduced Dr.
Smith (and notice I didnt call him Dr.), given a brief overview of what his relevance is to this, and then
spent the majority of my time quoting the relevant portion of his research. What you dont want to do is just
drop in a quote without introducing the person youre quoting simply having something in quotes isnt
enough to make your readers trust the source. (And, in fact, may make them trust it even less what if
youre quoting somebody totally unreliable, like Charlie Sheen?)
The essay will include a short proposal, annotated bibliography (which you have already completed, rough
draft, and final draft)

Heres the schedule of how this project will play out:

Week 11: November 13 17

Tuesday: Turn in Annotated Bibliography | Begin Researched Paper Project
Bring two copies of your annotated bibliography (one to turn in, one to use in class)
Thursday: Planning an Essay
Due: One paragraph proposal for essay Read: EW: Chapters 3, 4, & 5