Essay: Research Overview

For this essay, do the following:
Work on your research project, leading up to finding a selection of sources that you believe you could use for the paper itself. From these sources, choose the best 3 sources. You're not signing any contracts that these sources will indeed be part of the research argument essay (essay 5) ultimately, but I encourage you to approach them seriously--the more likely that they will be useful in this paper, the more likely this assignment will help you in the writing of that paper. For this assignment, construct a document in which you answer the following questions/address the following issues. You may have already found one or more sources. The surveys in Blackboard are ongoing and these can ultimately be used as sources for Essay 5, but you may not be able to rely on them for Essay 4; however, participate, and note the kinds of observations people are making (and note that the score for Essay 4 partly depends on participating).

You should have three (3) print or online sources by the time you write this essay. Choose sources that reflect differences in their origin or strategies of evidence (scholarly/expert opinion; primary sources/perspectives of average people; popular sources in print or on the web, interviews, data from surveys, etc.). Make references to each of these sources as you address the following issues. Using in-text citations (signal phrases and/or parenthetical references) and a works cited page, cite these sources when you’re using words or ideas from them. Use both (1) quotations and (2) paraphrases from these sources (not necessarily both of these from each source) in your essay. If you use quotations, remember how to edit quotations (brackets, ellipses, [sic]) and use one or more of these one time.

In the essay,
A. Explain the object you've chosen, the question or questions you wanted to ask about it, what you found curious or perplexing about the object, and how you conducted your research (what you did).
B. As you’re discussing what you’ve done or are looking for, you may want to discuss your object in a general sense: its history, the major ideas you’ve noticed about the object, possible important issues to consider about it. Use examples and ideas from your sources.
C. Be sure to show or indicate, somewhere, how these three sources, overall, seem to relate to each other or to the other sources you've found--what do they offer that others don't or why do you regard them as more important at least right now? How could they help you answer this very general set of questions that started this assignment: The Everyday Object…. (see above)
D. After conducting this research, what do you conclude about this topic? What have you learned? What should others know? What do you think others need to understand about your object? What would you like to persuade them about or argue to them about this object? (This last step is crucial for the next assignment.)

About sources

1. You cannot rely on encyclopedias or dictionaries for your sources. By their very nature, they provide too general information for a college research project. You can use them to get started, as preliminary reading, but an encyclopedia should not be a main source for these papers.
2. You cannot use the Wikipedia as a source (related to the above--it's an encyclopedia!). Along with several of my colleagues, I don't view this as a reputable source for a formal research project. I think of it as an interesting project--and you may want to post information you discover to the Wikipedia, but I cannot accept it as a source for the essays in this course. NOTE: I RESERVE THE RIGHT NOT TO ACCEPT ESSAY 4 AND ESSAY 5 IF THE WIKIPEDIA IS USED OR CITED (AND IF YOU USE IT, OF COURSE, YOU MUST CITE IT (or we're talking about … p l a g I a r I s m).
3. Academic Journals are different from magazines or other periodicals. By the end of the project, you must use at least one article obtained from a printed, peer-reviewed academic journal. NOTE: because you access these "printed" materials electronically, they may not seem "printed" to you-- but they are-- we'll look at this in class! Note: JSTOR is a wonderful tool for accessing scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. Also consider Google Scholar.
4. . By the end of the project, you must conduct some original research: conduct an experiment, interview someone about their experiences, use your observations. I actually view these kinds of sources as the most important for this paper-- they can actually make the paper a powerful product-- and make the process towards it interesting. (The Blackboard surveys count as this, but I encourage you to consider more original research.)

Sample Solution