Paper 4 Research Paper

Purpose:

An academicresearch paper can be informational or it can be argumentative. An informational paper presents the latest credible research about a topic while an argumentative paper uses credible research to argue for a position.

A researchpaper is based on only credible sources. You need three sources for this paper (you may have more). At least one source must come from the Academic Search Complete or Academic One File databases. Other sources may include official US government data and reputable news sources.

Parameters:You must use a style guide for this paper, either APA or MLA. The paper should be between 800 and 1,000 words and must include a bibliography. A research paper is always written in third person and has a formal tone.

Due Date:This paper is due the last day of class at midnight.

Selecting a Topic:Because the research paper is an academic paper, the topic selected must be selected based on facts and knowledge, not speculation. The topic must be important contemporaneously, not a settled issue. For an argumentative paper, the issue should be controversial, i.e. educated people can disagree intelligently, based on actual data and prior research.

It is difficult to select a good paper topic when you do not know what topics are important right now, so it is easy to fall back on anemic lists from essay writing websites. Do not use these lists. Their topics are boring and puerile (childish). Instead, you will go to web links on our Blackboard page and look at the various news sites to find something that is relevant and interesting right now. This will also help you find a narrow enough topic for such a short paper.