Senior Inquiry 14-15

Senior Inquiry-3rd Research Paper Assignment

Question for Inquiry Due: March 3rd

Paper Proposal with Thesis: March 17th

Annotated Source List Due: April 7th

Rough Draft Due: April 21st

Final Paper Due: May 12th

Question for Inquiry:

Your question can be almost anything that you are interested in learning more about as long as it relates to social justice. We strongly recommend that you use our discussions in class to guide you in choosing your topic. You will be graded on whether your question is specific and focused enough to be well answered in 8-10 pages.

Your question should be one that you do not know the answer to. You should not have a conclusion already in mind, but rather your question should be approached in the spirit of inquiry. Your research should thus be the process by which you attempt to discover an answer you can support with objective evidence. Your topic should be something that can be reasonably answered in a 8-10 page paper.

We strongly encourage you to connect your paper to the topics you are addressing in your TDIP/Radio inquiry and/or in your Mercy Corps Action Project

Paper Proposal with Thesis:

In one page, describe your proposed project. A (provisionary) thesis statement and research questions should be prominently featured. For models, look at the abstracts of academic journal articles.

Annotated Source List:

Your Source List will feature the correct citation for each source you are using, or considering using, for your paper. Under each citation you will write a paragraph explaining what information the source contains and how it may be used in your paper. You should have at least 4 sources, at least 3 of which MUST come from the PSU library and be of high academic integrity. Wikipedia is not a reliable source for any papers. If you cannot find the necessary information to cite a website, that is a good indication it is not reliable. College and university sites, as well as reputable newspapers, are great sources for reliable information. You will be graded on correct citations and usable summary of information.

Research Paper:

The final paper for this project will be a 8-10 page examination of your research question that proves or disproves your thesis. It should seek to answer your question in as much depth as possible while being very mindful of not overly relying on one source. You should make sure that throughout the process you are assessing the strengths and limitations of each source so that you don’t use an unreliable one for too much (or any) information. You are making an argument, not sharing your unsubstantiated opinion. Let the evidence speak. Your paper MUST be in MLA format.

Grading scale

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.8

4-I can do all the skills listed under 3 plus, I can…

-draw a compelling conclusion based on the evidence I collected that makes an important statement about social justice

-present my findings virtually without error in citation, grammar, spelling, conventions and MLA format

3-I can do all the skills listed under 2 plus I can…

-answer the question set out to address in this paper

-gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively

-assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience

-integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.

-present my findings in MLA format with few errors in spelling, grammar and conventions

2-I can…

-gather information that addresses my question from multiple sources

-cite my evidence in MLA format

-avoid plagiarism

-integrate my information into a paper that states what I found.

1- I can…

-find sources