The Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health discusses some of the benefits of social media but details many of its dangers and harmful effects as well. For this project, you will pick a topic generated from your reading of the advisory that you want (or even need) to know more about. The more you have a personal “felt need” to know regarding this inquiry project, the better. Learning more about this topic will benefit you in some way personally. This isn’t a project to support what you already know but to investigate and discover something you don’t already know.
For this project, you will pick your own research topic. Then you will research it both through library and web sources, and perhaps from field research where you talk to people or experts. The goal will be to find out or answer whatever it is you set for your “research question.”
This is not a large research project—you aren’t writing a dissertation or report for Congress. The research paper you will write will be a 4-6 page paper that uses a minimum of five research sources. Your final project will be accompanied by an appendix in which you evaluate the sources you used and why you selected them.
. Our Final Paper Will Have These Parts
Introduction
—set up a personal connection to the topic and research question
The Story of Your Research Process
—Describe what you did to research so we can gauge your research results and appreciate them
The Results of Your Research
—Here you will detail what you found out, the answer(s) you found to your research question
My Thoughts on My Research Process and My Research Results
—What have you learned from this project about researching and about your topic of interest?
Essay Requirements:
The research paper will be 1000-1500 words and incorporate information from at least five research sources in addition to the Surgeon General’s report (= six total sources). You will likely still quote the Surgeon General’s Advisory. As a part of your total mix of sources, you must have at least one book and one peer-reviewed academic article in your mix of sources.
Personal Inquiry Project Over a Topic of Interest from The Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health
The final draft will be presented in MLA documentation format with a Works Cited page and an Appendix in which each of your sources is evaluated according to the 5Ws for Evaluating Sources Test.
Part I: Introduction 1 paragraph Part II: Story of Research Process 1 (maybe two) paragraph Part III: Finding #1 1 paragraph Finding #2 1 paragraph Finding #3 1 paragraph Finding #4? 1 paragraph Part IV: Reflection/Self-Evaluation of Research Process and Results 1 paragraph (maybe two) Part V: Conclusion 1 (short) paragraph Appendix: Authorizing Sources (listed in alphabetic order)ALL of this needs to fit within 4-6 pages (1000-1500 words). Please keep within this range! Special Guidance for Each Part of the Essay–See this Example Essay #4Links to an external site. Writing the Introduction (Part I) As a short 4-6 page paper, your introduction should be all in ONE paragraph. Following our guide on introductionsLinks to an external site., you should do these three things: Connect with the reader –seek to craft an attention-getting opener that connects your audience to the topic and to you. Clarify the Issue or Question –provide background about your personal connection to the topic and why you chose it for your inquiry project. –Then state your Research Question (The background information you provide should not be too long, but it should naturally set up the presentation of your Research Question.) Present Your Point –present a one-sentence version of the answer to your Research Question. This condensed sentence sums up what you found out from your research. (You may not be able to write this thesis in your first draft.) Writing Section II: The Story of Your Research Process You started this project picking a topic you knew little or nothing about, and now you are at a point where you know something about your topic. Knew Nothing ———————–>———————–>——————–> Know Something For this section you will recount WHAT YOU DID TO RESEARCH and WHAT YOU FOUND ALONG THE WAY (how your ideas and understanding grew). Your Research Log should prove invaluable in helping you write this section. Here an important point: You don’t have to retell every little thing you did to research! As you brainstorm on how to tell this story of your research process, start with your end point—your results and findings (what you have discovered and learned). Then backtrack to follow the steps and things you did to get to this finding or answer to your research question. When you write your draft, retell this trajectory from the start of the project to the end, highlighting the significant route you took to get to the end results. It is this “narrative of discovery” you want to tell, detailing what you did to get to this discovery. You should also recount the twists, turns, and missteps in your understanding along the way. The ultimate purpose of this section is so that the reader can understand where your results came from. The credibility of your results will be in proportion to the quality of your research process. –This section might be multiple paragraphs and 1 to 1.5 pages. WARNING: Be careful not to let this section get too long. Again, you don’t have to retell everything you did. Special Help for Parts II and IV: Use the Language of Researching In both Part II you describe your research process and then in Part IV self-evaluate it. As you do this description and evaluation of YOUR researching process, please try to use the language of research to talk about what you have done. NAME the activities you have done using this language. What is this language of research, you ask??? –it is the language used to describe The Research ProcessLinks to an external site. Writing the Results of Your Research (Part III) As you researched your Research Question, you found out many things that have helped you answer your Research Question. This section will consist of multiple paragraphs, and in it you will present the TWO to FOUR key findings from your research related to your Research Question. Note: I am using “results” and “findings” interchangeably here. Structure this section of the paper following the principle of “dividing up the proof” by presenting ONE FINDING per Body paragraph. As you compose these paragraphs, you should structure each one in this way: Transition Sentence –present a transition sentence setting up the particular finding that this paragraph will focus on Explain and Detail What You Found Out –Use quotes and possibly some paraphrasing from your multiple research sources to explain and detail what you found out and what this information means in terms of your Research Question. How much of this information and evidence do you need??? Include two to four bits of information (two quotes at least) from at least two different research sources in each Findings paragraph. The other citation(s) could be a paraphrase, and you certainly can include more than three supports from research. Signposting Your Way Through the Paper Just as in Essay #3 where we talked about “signposting” our argument, you will want to create clear signals to your reader as you move from one main part of your paper to the next. These are transition sentences to start paragraphs that communicate to the reader what the next paragraph will be about and how it fits into the overall plan for your paper. –review the guide on signposting arguments from E3 Links to an external site. Signpost as you shift to discuss your research process when you start Section II and IV Definitely signpost as you shift to discuss your Findings and as you move from Finding to Finding: –The first thing I discovered from research is that __________________ –The second finding from my research is that __________________ Writing Section IV: My Thoughts on My Research Process and My Research Results If Section II was descriptive, Section IV is evaluative: in Part II you described and narrated the story of your research process, but in Part IV you will discuss what went well and what didn’t go well. You need to self-evaluate your research process and reflect upon it. What went well and easy? What was hard and didn’t go so well? Did you make any mistakes? Talk about what you have learned about researching and about yourself as a researcher. You and your research process produced the Research Results you came up with—what do you think of these results? Make connections between your research process and your results if you can. –While this section might be multiple paragraphs, I recommend you squeeze it into one paragraph (but no more than two). Length should be .5 to 1 pages. Writing Section V: Conclusion In this last section of your paper, return to your RESEARCH QUESTION and why it is important to you. Present what you found out in a clear, single statement one more time. Then follow with two to four sentences about the implications of what you found out—what does it mean? What does it all add up to? NOTE: You still need a Works Cited page! The Works Cited page will go BEFORE the Appendix (on its own separate page). Writing Section VI: The Appendix In the Evaluating Sources Exercise, you evaluated at least three of the sources you researched. Use the 5Ws Method of Evaluating Sources for all the research sources you cite information from in your paper. For the Appendix section of Essay #4, you need to include two things about each source: The MLA citation of the source (properly formatted) The Explanation of what makes this source credible, according to the 5Ws criteria. –the explanation should identify the key factors that make this a good source to use and be –each explanation should be100-150 words