Instructions
Sometime in your academic or professional career, you will be required to write a research paper that uses the thoughts and labor of others. These research papers must be properly formatted and adequately documented. In this exam, you will work through the drafting activities to write a research paper that adheres to MLA guidelines.
In this assignment, you will submit:
Draft activities (topic selection, brainstorming, and clustering)
Outline
Research questions
Definitions of key terms
First draft of research paper
Note: Any submitted paper that shows evidence of plagiarism will not be accepted. Review the Portage Professionalism Policy if you have questions about plagiarism.
Step 1: Choose a topic for your research paper.
Choose an objective topic. An objective topic does not include any personal bias. It presents information and facts from an objective viewpoint. Remember, a subjective topic would have a personal bias; for example, writing about your personal experience at a physical rehab facility would be subjective. However, if you wrote about the equipment and services provided by a particular physical rehab center, you would be writing objectively.
Choose a topic that presents various viewpoints. For example, a topic dealing with the rising costs of college tuition would involve researching various responses from the viewpoints of the administration, teachers, students, and parents.
Limit your topic. If a topic is too broad, you will have difficulty writing your paper. Remember, you may use the material and topic you utilized in Module 1: The Writing Process.
Step 2: Submit your draft materials for your research paper.
The Final Exam Draft will include the following items:
Limited topic
Brainstorming and clustering of your ideas in response to the research that you have gathered
Outline of your writing plan for this research paper; the outline should include a thesis statement in the introduction.
Four research questions that pertain to your topic
Your first draft (introduction, body, conclusion, parenthetical citations, and Works Cited page)
Please review Module 1 as you work through each of the steps above. Your first draft should not be heavily edited, and you shouldn’t be focused on formatting, etc. You should save and submit your first draft prior to making any changes so that your instructor can see the improvements made during editing and proofreading.
Step 3: Give your instructor time to review your work.
After your first draft is complete, submit it below. Wait for your instructor to grade it prior to editing, proofreading, and revising your final paper. Remember, if your final paper looks the same as the first draft, your instructor will deduct points from your grade.
After you receive your Final Exam Draft grade, move on to the Final Exam for instruction on submitting your final research paper.
