Project Overview
As a research project during your junior year, you will be choosing an issue to research from all available perspectives. Ultimately, you will examine multiple perspectives on a single current issue. Your writing assignment will be a “Position Paper” where over the course of the 6 weeks you will write a paper that explains:
As part of this project you will
- the background, situation, and importance of a current issue (what 3 things do I need to know about your topic to understand the rest of your paper)
- the perspectives of one side
- the perspectives of another side
- and a conclusion where you explain your own educated opinion of the ideas brought up in the paper.
As part of this project you will
- Complete and get approved a research proposal
- Find, read, and take notes on credible and cited sources: 2 must be from general web searches (like Google) and two must be from EBSCOHost or Issues and Controversies (Issues and Controversies sources count as 2)
- Create an Annotated Works Cited
- Create an outline for a 4 part paper (sections listed below)
- Write a 4-8 page research paper using MLA format and a formal writing style
Pick An Issue
To begin this project, you will need to choose an issue that you are passionate about. This is a very wide-open field to choose from, ranging from open range laws to school schedules the influence to taxes to emancipation and beyond. The only three stipulations of the topic are as follows:
To help you find ideas for current issues and topics, I suggest you check out some of the following sites
- It has to have multiple perspectives. This means you can’t pick something like geckos or longboarding just because you think they’re cool. Everyone thinks geckos are cool. End of story. No argument. Next topic. See the common topic list below if you're struggling.
- Both sides have to be researchable. This means you can find information about the topic in an academic research database on both sides. So, if you wanted to do a research paper on Tom Brady being the greatest quarterback of all time, it wouldn’t work. The topic is arguable, but not researchable in an academic way. This also means you can’t research a general topic like ‘racism.’ You’d have a hard time coming up with support for the part of the paper that would say, “Hey kids! Racism is a good thing!” But, we’ll get into research questions in class.
- You can't research the topics gun control, alcohol/drugs, or abortion. To write on a topic involving any other controlled substance, like marijuana, you must get signed parental permission and Mr. Restad's approval about an interesting take on these topics.
To help you find ideas for current issues and topics, I suggest you check out some of the following sites
- Issues and Controversies (user: senior, password: student)
- Washington Post
- The New York Times
- The Los Angeles Times
- The Guardian
- Fox News
- Al Jazeera
- National Public Radio
- The BBC
- The Week
Common Topics
You may need to refine your approach to the issue, but here are some good ideas that might get you started.
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