Task: For this assignment you must develop a topic, create a thesis relevant to the topic, conduct research to support/explore your thesis, and write a 6-8 page research paper. Remember, this is a research paper, which means you’ll be employing an informational tone. If you’re exploring a controversial topic, be sure to explore both sides and remain as objective as possible.
Method:
1. First, you must choose a topic. There are links to various topic suggestions in the guidelines folder. Rely on brainstorming methods covered in class (freewriting, for example) to help you choose a topic.
2. Next, narrow your focus by developing a thesis question. For example, if your topic of choice was abortion, you could focus it by researching information about undifferentiated adult human cells, and how they are making stem-cell research unnecessary.
Topic: Abortion Thesis: Will undifferentiated cells make stem-cell research obsolete, thus making scientifically condoned abortions obsolete? 3. Conduct research as discussed in class.
4. Begin your draft, providing the audience with a short history of the topic, the specific issue you plan to address (remember to remain objective and address all sides), and the details of your issue relative to your thesis focus.
Paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown:
Intro story (optional): some students start with a short, very short, story to draw the reader in before they start their thesis topic. For example, a student who wrote a paper about ethnic profiling starting his paper by talking about a man, Amadou Diallo, walking down the street who was pulled over by cops. The cops asked him for ID, he attempted to extract his wallet and they fired 40 rounds on him.
In the next paragraph (the introductory paragraph), he began "Circumstances such as this indicate that ethnic profiling is a growing concern in our country. With the terrorist attacks of 2001, ethnic profiling is at an all