As in your first research paper, I am looking for an essay that poses an interesting, debatable and researchable question and that explores that question using logic and outside sources, to answer or partially answer your question.
— This paper will be 4 to 6 pages long, not including a title page, an abstract and a references page.
— It will be in APA format. APA stands for American Psychological Association and this style is used in social sciences. Your textbook, “The Curious Researcher,” is the resource for this. I will also provides some resource, but I especially recommend the comparison, in your book, between MLA and APA formatting. Comparing and contrasting is a high impact learning strategy.
— You will have instructions for the abstract before you write it. APA no longer requires an abstract for a student paper, but this assignment does. (Don’t worry if you don’t know what I am referring to. You will.)
— You will use 6 sources in your paper.
— These 6 sources must include 3 peer-reviewed articles from academic or professional journals.
— The rest of your sources must be reasonably reliable and appropriate for college work. Advertising sites are not appropriate. Wikipedia is not appropriate. If you have a question about whether you can use a particular source, ask me. You may use any articles you want to from Blackboard. If you have questions about how to cite any of these, let me know and I’ll supply information.
What to include in your abstract for Research paper #2:
An abstract is a brief summary of the content of a paper. Yours needs to be only 4 to7 sentences long, and here is what to include for this particular assignment.
1. One sentence that explains the situation in the world that gave rise to your research question
Example: Universities in the United States almost all have student sports teams that often provide students with scholarships while demanding participation in rigorous and time-consuming practices, study-interrupting away games and, often, added community activities.
2. One sentence that tells us your research question
Example: How do the pressures and responsibilities of athletics affect the academic work of college athletes?
3. One sentence about how you researched your question
Example: To answer this question, I reviewed recent studies of college athlete time expenditures and grades and augmented this information with anecdotal evidence from interviews with two student athletes at Utica College.
4. One sentence telling what your paper concludes about your question
Example: My search led to the surprising conclusion that student athletics demands and teaches the discipline students need to excel in academic work.
Extra: You can add a sentence about what new ideas or perspective your research adds to the conversation, but you don’t need to.
You can modified my research question if you think it’s not good enough.