As a member of your majors discourse community, you will conduct research and produce an argumentative eight- to ten-page academic piece of writing in an appropriate format (MLA, APA, or CMS). Your research should support an original, argumentative, well-crafted thesis statement.

The Assignment:
As a member of your majors discourse community, you will conduct research and produce an argumentative eight- to ten-page academic piece of writing in an appropriate format (MLA, APA, or CMS). Your research should support an original, argumentative, well-crafted thesis statement.

Topic:
You will choose a topic within your major discipline area of study and design an appropriate research project that incorporates both primary and secondary sources. While you will definitely rely heavily on library research, field research is also encouraged.

Project:
The research project is more than writing a report from a group of books, articles, and websites. The research you conduct should involve some type of investigation using primary sources and research methods appropriate for your discipline. The format of your paper will be largely determined by your discipline area and type of research.

Sources:
You will be engaging in primary research. Some examples are:
A political scientist studies papers and speeches of a former president to understand the presidents administration.
A literary critic interviews friends and examines personal papers of a novelist to understand the authors creative process.
A sociologist observes how children interact in a classroom to understand cognitive development.

Note: If your research involves human subjects, you will need to get approval from the Human Subjects and Research Review Committee. Forms and procedures will be available in class and on Blackboard.

In addition to conducting primary research, you will also need to conduct secondary research using a variety of sources to provide evidence and support for your argument. You should use a variety of sources including books, periodicals, government documents, and websites appropriate for your discipline. You will probably cite between 8 and 10 sources depending on your topic and paper format, although you may consult considerably more during the research process.

Requirements:
Your research should support an original, argumentative, well-crafted thesis statement.
You should cite between eight and ten sources. You must use a variety of primary and secondary sources appropriate for your topic. These may include books, periodicals, websites, government documents, corporate reports, interviews, observation notes, survey or study results, lab reports, or artifacts.
The order of pages in your paper, saved as a single MS Word file, should be:
(1) Title page
(2) Outline page with title and thesis. (This page does not count in the 8-10 page limit)
(3) The body of the paper. (8-10 pages). Specifics on format will be discussed in class.
(4) You should use proper documentation (MLA, APA, CMS) appropriate for your discipline and paper topic. Failure to document as required is plagiarism and will be dealt with severely. Plagiarism will result in failure of the project and most likely failure of the class. If in doubt, consult me.
(5) A note page, if necessary.
(6) A bibliography page formatted according to the appropriate style. (Does not count toward 8-10 pages).
(7) An appendix, if necessary