Project Assignment
Goal
In Chapter 8, you learned how to conduct research. The goal of this project is to demonstrate your understanding of the research process by responding to three imaginary text messages.
Directions
Imagine you have received the following three text messages from friends. Respond to each text with the information you learned in Chapter 8. Be sure to give your friends good advice; they are desperate!
Message 1: Help! I've been assigned a 10-page paper in my psychology class. How do you write such a long paper? I'm not even sure how to start. Luckily, it's not due for a month, so I have some time. I really want to earn a good grade. What do you think?
Message 2: I'm so confused! I'm writing an essay about the Roman empire for my Western Civilization class. I have plenty of information because the teacher gave us articles to read, but I don't know about the citations. How do you correctly cite an article in the essay? Do citations even matter?
Message 3: I don't understand! My biology teacher wants us to bring a scholarly article on photosynthesis to class to share with our lab team. Where can I find an article? Can I use anything that has been written about the topic, or do I need to choose a specific type of article? Are there articles that will not work for the assignment? Thanks for helping.
Materials
Word processing program or paper and writing tool
Checklist
Writing Assignment
Goal
The goal of this project is to combine what you've learned about writing a longer text and research by composing a well-written five-paragraph essay on an assigned topic.
Directions
Part 1
Should college students receive a free education? Many state and national legislators, as well as various not-for-profit agency leaders, recommend that students receive a four-year college education free of charge. In fact, many states already fund scholarship programs that assist college students. Conversely, others cite economic and social considerations as reasons that students should pay for a college education.
To get started, read the articles linked in the Materials section. Then, conduct your own research to find sources that support your position. Identify specific situations when state/federally funded college would or would not be beneficial.
Use a working bibliography to keep a record of the sources you find. You may use the provided articles, but you should also have two additional sources that you found on your own: four sources total.
Part 2
Write a five-paragraph essay explaining your position on the topic. The essay must have an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Remember to integrate information from your sources.
Be sure to use all stages of the writing process. You can always go back to previous stages as needed.
Format your essay using either MLA or APA style. Remember that the style you choose will affect how you format in-text citations, signal phrases, the list of sources, fonts, margins, headers, etc.
Materials
Sources
Word processing program
Checklist
Part 1
Part 2