research paper

Exploring a Contested Site 

due:

FINAL PAPER--11/30 (20% of total course grade)

• step one--11/2 (3% of total course grade)
• step two--11/9 (3% of total course grade)
• step three--11/14 (3% of total course grade)
• step four--11/16 (3% of total course grade)
• step five--11/21 (3% of total course grade)

WHAT TO DO:

Write a five-seven page research paper, using quotations from your own independent research, formatted and documented in MLA style. Choose your own topic, making sure you touch on a theme growing out of reading assigned for the class. Details below. Click here for a checklist of requirements. 

context

This semester, we are exploring arguments around emotionally charged subjects where logic and meaning shift dramatically depending on perspective.

• Is "bitch" necessarily a bad word?
• Can selling sex just be regular business?
• Does the U.S. owe its Black citizens a concrete material debt?

Our job is to consider the emotional depth of our chosen subject, but also to offer outside information and multiple perspectives in order to develop arguments that are more objective than emotional.

getting started

Come up with a question of your own stemming from the topics we've been studying in class and that doesn't have an easy and immediate answer. Then, research and write about this question, explaining the complexities of your question from a variety of perpectives.

EXAMPLES

Possible topics (you may choose your own topic; these are only suggestions)

from general topic to specific topic

Amsterdam's Red Light district

the use of forbidden language in the music of Biggie Smalls

a history of anti-Asian racism in the U.S.

from specific topic to research question

1. Do sex workers in Amsterdam have better lives than sex workers in a big city where prostitution is illegal?
2. What political and social purposes are served by the use of emotionally charged and potentially offensive language in Biggie Smalls "Notorious Thugs"?
3. Do racial stereotypes of Asians on popular television shows--like Rajesh Koothrapalli from The Big Bang Theory and Ling Woo from Ally McBeal--contribute to a culture of anti-Asian racism that gets in the way of how real Asian people live in the U.S.?

Requirements (click here for a checklist of requirements)

• Length: 5-7 pages (approximately 1,500-2,100 words)
• Use quotations as evidence
• The paper must connect in some way to one of the readings assigned for the course
• The paper must use one assigned course reading
• The paper must use one print book
• The paper must use one periodical (magazine, newspaper, journal)
• The paper must use one websource
• All sources above must be at the college-level
• The paper must use at least one additional source: e.g., an interview, a book chapter, a documentary, a TED talk, an essay, a poem, a short story, a performance, a work of art, or an episode of a television show
• Use as many additional sources as you like
• Credit sources by using quotation marks, in-text citations, and a list of Works Cited (MLA style)--[tutorial here]
• Typewrite and use MLA format (double-space; one inch margins)
• Hand in document printed on one side only – no electronic documents
• You may also use charts, graphs, paraphrasing, and visual illustration to help demonstrate your point