English 102 Cullinan
Research Paper Instructions & Projects
All the work you do in this class is important, but the research paper is the creme de la creme, a culmination of what you have learned and how well you present and integrate your research on the topics we have been discussing all semester long.
The research paper is not simply a lengthy paper that regurgitates research; rather, a research paper uses research to prove something. Like your other papers, it still calls for a thesis, logical sequences of paragraphs, well-developed evidence, summary and critique, synthesis—in other words, skills you have been practicing throughout this course. By citing sources, you show your readers that you have investigated your ideas and found support for them.
In a 7-10-page paper, write an essay that deals with one or more of our course themes (race, class, and/or gender). I have provided over twenty examples of research projects (scroll down to view) from which you may choose. Of course, you may choose a topic of your own or modify one of the examples below; if you do, however, you must have my approval.
The research paper is worth 40% of your course grade. The paper will be graded based on the evaluation criteria provided below and at the end of this document (you can also find the evaluation criteria in the handouts module at the bottom of our Canvas course page). Be sure to review the evaluation grading criteria here and in the grading rubric included in the assignment link. Take this assignment seriously, and follow MLA guidelines for formatting and documenting your sources (in-text citations and a works cited page are required!). Papers submitted without in-text citations or works cited page will receive a 0: no exceptions, no excuses. You are required to include at least six (6) sources (at least 2 from our course text or films), no more than eight (8).
I am also requiring you to submit a draft of your research paper to Smarthinking for tutor feedback. Be sure to save the response because you will submit it to me along with your research paper on August 8. See syllabus for how to submit a paper to Smarthinking.
Highly Suggested:
- Keep a thorough working and annotated bibliography throughout the semester (you will turn them in for a grade later in the semester).
Summary of Requirements:
- A developed 7-10-page essay
- A claim-driven and organized essay with a beginning, middle, and end
- A thesis (placed at the end of the intro.) that reflects the writer’s claim
- 6 sources (no more than 8): avoid Wikipedia & dictionary definitions
- In-text citations and works cited page (MLA)
- MLA Style (pp. 119-169 in The Little Seagull)
Deadlines:
- Draft due to Smarthinking by August 5
- Smarthinking (ST) Response due by August 8: 100pts
- Research Paper due August 8: 100pts
Grading Criteria:
Content:
- Thesis
- Essay Development & Organization
- Use of Summary, Critique, Synthesis, and Analysis
- Original ideas (paper is not heavily quoted) 40pts
Research:
- Evidence & Sources
(variety of print, multimedia, interview and
electronic sources: 2 or more must come from course text or
course documentaries)
- Integration of Sources 20pts
Style & Standard Usage:
- Grammar & Mechanics
- Communication & Style 20pts
MLA Formatting
- Paper Format
- Proper In-text Citations
- Works Cited page 20pts
=100pts
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A detailed rubric is available on our Canvas course page and after the research paper topics at the end of this assignment sheet.
Submission Requirements:
Submit your research paper and Smarthinking response via their separate links located in Week 2 module. Note: a paper submitted without sources, in-text citations, and a works cited page will receive a 0: no exceptions, no excuses.
Example Research Projects:
Example #1:
Using Mickey Mouse Monopoly and essays from Race, Class, and Gender (RCG) as the foundation for this research project, watch a Disney movie(s) (aimed mainly at a younger audience) and analyze the social constructions of either femininity or masculinity (or both). How does the film socialize us? How is femininity defined? How is masculinity defined? What are the implications? What do we learn or gain (positive or negative) from the images and representations of gender codes?
Example #2:
While reading Lorber’s essay (p. 38), pay close attention to her discussion of sports. You might also take a look at Kimmel’s piece (p. 59). See relevant videos at in the Kanopy or at mediaed.org, such as Playing Unfair. How do male and female athletes compare? How are they depicted in the media? To do this project, you might survey several issues of sports magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, and watch several days of ESPN, Fox Sports, and the like. Think about how women athletes were shown during the 2012 Summer Olympics. What do these mass-mediated outlets do in their constructions of femininity and masculinity? Of sexuality? Of race and ethnicity?
Example #3:
Omi and Winant (RCG pp. 11-20) primarily discuss the social construction of African Americans as black, and what that construction has meant historically as well as currently. Take another group, such as Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and so on, and do a similar analysis. Research the group’s history in the United States. What were the early depictions of this group’s racial/ethnic attributes? How have people from several countries or regions been collapsed into one general category? (e.g., “Asians,” which stands for people who are from a wide range of places, such as China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, India, Pakistan, etc.). How does the use of one general category impact the way these people are viewed by the dominant society? How does this lumping together erase essential differences between people’s distinct cultures? What have these groups become in contemporary parlance? How are they constructed in everyday life by the media, the government, schools? Brodkin’s “How Jews Became White” (p. 27) or Buck’s “Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege” (p. 21) would be useful essays to draw on.
Example #4:
The articles in Part IV all deal with discrimination that affects the most central aspects of people’s lives: mobility, work, sexuality, education, finances, home, safety, and the like. If you were going into a helping profession such as social work, counseling, nursing, or teaching, how does being aware of the pervasive aspects of discrimination help you think about the people you will be dealing with? What insights can you glean from doing the readings in this part of the text? Make sure to cite some specific examples from the articles to support your exploration.
Example #5:
Read a real-life news story or a personal narrative from any part in the text, such as Alsultany’s piece (p. 218), in order to look at the ways McIntosh’s observations about privilege play out in someone’s life (Part II, p. 176). What have you learned from looking at things from this perspective? How do you view your own life, your own experiences? What personal experiences have you had that make you think about race and/or ethnicity? About whiteness? Make sure, however, that you tie your own experience into larger, systematic issues. You might also draw on the report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in order to structure your essay (Part IV, p. 247).
Example #6:
Read Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s “Color Blind Racism” (p. 113) carefully and write your project on a particular ethnic group. How has this group been stereotyped in American society? Why, do you think? How has it been constructed as “Other”? In your essay, be sure to research your group, so you can discuss how certain practices are misunderstood by other people in the dominant culture. What is the history of your group in America? What sorts of examples can you come up with about the ways this group has been dealt with in the popular culture, indeed, in the culture at large? How is this group perceived by other minority and/or immigrant groups? Why is this so, do you think? You might go to the U.S. Census website (www.census.gov) and look at some statistics of your group. At any rate, use several sources so you can do as thorough a job as possible for a 7-10 paper.
Example #7:
Many LGBTQ activists argue that marriage is not the most important issue in their communities. Research alternative perspectives of people who are LGBTQ and/or working in these communities who are critical of the emphasis that the mainstream LGBT rights movement has placed on marriage equality. What are other issues that they identify as priorities? What are the other types of families and relationships do they want to see protected? How are these alternative positions shaped by race, class, and gender?
Example #8:
Several of the articles in Part IV reveal rampant sexism, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination at some of the United States’ most revered businesses, such as Wal-Mart and Denny’s. These businesses often rely on low-wage workers to run their operations. What do you make of such hostile work environments? Using the articles in Part IV as a foundation for this project, write a paper in which you first outline the causes of such discriminatory practices, the practices themselves, and some possible solutions. Could the nature of the work foster such behavior? Why or why not, do you think?
Example #9:
Write a research paper in which you provide a systematic analysis of presentations of gender in one of the following areas:
- music lyrics & video images (pick a particular genre, such as rap, country, rock, etc. or compare and contrast more than one)
- a preschool book series (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstain Bears, etc.).
- a magazine series aimed at children or young adults
- children’s toys
Example #10:
Write a research paper in which you discuss and analyze the gender, race, and class differences of a particular disease, disorder, or syndrome.
Example #11:
Research the history behind a gendered behavior, such as women wearing makeup or men watching sports, as Fry does with door opening (II p. 30). Where does this behavior come from? What does it say about the construction of women and men? Can such behaviors ever just be nice, or pretty, or being entertainment? Why or why not?
Example #12:
Based on Jonathan Ned Katz’s “The Invention of Heterosexuality” (p. 47), look at a particular practice or phenomenon (homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, gendered fashions, particular words—“straight,” “queer”—or phrases, behaviors, etc.) and formulate a thesis or argument about it. How is this practice/phenomenon viewed by society? Why? What affect does this point of view have on the people who live their lives in this way? An interesting research project might be for you to look at a history of sexuality in America and examine a practice in a historical/contextual frame. If you are heterosexual, how did you come to act the way you do? What in the culture (films, ads, TV shows, books, etc.) presents a model for your way of being? In other words, contextualize a contemporary sexual role or gendered behavior in the past, and talk about the ways that the past construction impacts contemporary constructions of your topic.
Example #13:
Research and review articles in RCG and films in the Kanopy and write an essay in which you discuss the ownership and control of the media, with a specific focus on race and/or gender issues. What are the implications of our mass media’s being operated with a narrow definition of what constitutes “normal”? Who is “normal” in the mediated world? And who isn’t? Who gets stereotyped? And who doesn’t? Why is this important to examine and understand? You might also want to consider Snyder’s (p. 541) discussion of “self-fulfilling stereotypes” and from where the negative feelings of many whites possess regarding people of color might originate. Could media representations influence at a basic level how people view each other?
Example #14:
How do the media contribute to the maintenance of inequalities? Pick a category such as race, class, gender, sexuality, etc., and analyze how television deals with it. Survey recent TV shows—sitcoms, dramas, news shows—and collect data on the ways the media represents these categories. Again, draw on some of the articles in RCG for guidance on this project.
Example #15:
After reading the articles in Part IV, you are probably becoming more aware of how pervasive discrimination of all kinds is in our society today. Taking Part IV as a jumping-off point, research and analyze a story about discrimination that happened recently. You may choose to focus on a local event or one that was reported nationally (like the shooting of Alton Sterling or the murder of Matthew Shepard years ago). In your paper, make sure to note not just what happened and what you think it means but also how the story was reported.
Example #16:
After reading the articles in Part V, consider Holly Sklar’s statement” “Imagine a country where polls show most workers would join a union if they could, but for decades, employers routinely violated workers’ rights to organize” (p. 329). She goes on to cite a 2004 article in a “leading business magazine” that noted, “While labor unions were largely responsible for creating the broad middle class after World War II…that’s not the case today.” Be sure to in your research paper to discuss what unions can and cannot do for working people. You might do some research on the history of the labor movement, on a particular industry or strike, or on a specific leader. You might look at the impetus behind the Employee Free Choice Act, for example. As the authors have asked you to do throughout this text, however, avoid easy answers and stereotyping. Why do some people view a reinvigorated labor movement as essential to economic prosperity? Why do some view it as economic Armageddon?
Example #17:
After reading Gregory Mantsios’s essays (p. 144), in particular, “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible” (p. 562), research and discuss how poor people are portrayed in contemporary culture. Survey the news media or popular culture for ways that the poor are represented. How do such portrayals affect people’s vision of the poor and of themselves? Are there any mass-media representations that do not fall into easy stereotyping?
If so, what are they and how are their representations different from the norm? You might compare and contrast a couple of different constructions of the poor or working classes to illustrate your arguments.
Example #18:
What sorts of stereotypes exist about poor women? Poor people? How do poor people view themselves, and why? Draw on Massey’s (p. 348) and Wessler’s (p. 361) essays on the economic realities of Asian Americans and Latinos/as (Part V), Burnham (p. 364) and Poo’s (p. 373) essays on the struggles of women of color workers, McMillan’s essay about hunger in the U.S, and Pilkington’s (p. 387) article about poor black trans person in the South. In your view, do poor people lack a proper “work ethic”? How does an impoverished existence make one more vulnerable to things like abuse, domestic violence, and unsafe and crowded living conditions? Can people’s fears of the urban, fear of poverty, fear of the “other” have any connection to economic conditions? What do you think? Write an essay in which you discuss these issues. You might research some particular connections, such as those between domestic violence and poverty. Or you might examine someone’s study of an area, such as Feldman’s (p. 378) on educational inequality or Reuss’s (p. 393) on poverty and health, and discuss the social implications of the study. What does it reveal about how economics determines or constructs peoples’ lives and their sense of possibility for the future or even their expectation of being healthy into their golden years? Or you can survey a week’s worth of media—TV, magazines, or newspapers—for representations of poor people. What sorts of stereotypes are perpetuated? What is the reality behind such stereotyping?
Example #19:
Consider the videos and RCG essays and Kanopy films that illustrate the role of violence as a characteristic by which masculinity is defined. Select three different and current masculine icons from popular culture (e.g., James Bond, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Jackie Chan, or other current masculine icons) and compare the visions of the masculine ideal that they portray. Is violence a crucial dimension of their masculine identity? What kind of violent acts do they engage in? What other attributes can you identify by which we know they are men? Thompson’s “A New Vision of Masculinity” (p. 623) will be helpful here.
Example #20:
After reviewing Judith Lorber’s “‘Night To His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender,” write a research paper in which you explore the literal costs of gender construction. You might collect ads (visit genderads.com as well) or fashion layouts from fashion magazines such as Glamour, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Elle, and the like, and compare the female models in them to sports figures in Sports Illustrated or male models in GQ, Details, or Maxim. You might look at what is expected of women regarding motherhood and what is expected of men regarding fatherhood. How are femininity and masculinity constructed through the media? What ideal is presented to people? How is that ideal achieved? What are the costs? At the end of your paper, discuss the implications of your findings for future generations. Are we headed down a “healthy” path? Why or why not?
Example #21:
Reread Hesse-Biber (p. 547) and Lorber (p. 38). Also look back over the essays and films discussing masculinity and men. Then, either watch commercials that appear on a “woman’s show” (soap operas, a women’s sporting event, etc.) and a “man’s show” (sports, news, an action show, etc.) or compile a selection of ads from women’s and men’s magazines for similar product lines. Compare the ways marketers target women and men. What did you find? How do advertisers construct gender differently in the commercials or ads? What assumptions do the ads seem to make about male and female consumers? How do those assumptions influence the ways women and men act? Feel? Think of themselves? Why do you think capitalism promotes gender differences in advertising? How does capitalism directly benefit from gender differences?
- You may choose a topic of your own—but you must have my approval prior to the Research Paper Progress Report due date.
Scroll Down for Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria for Research Paper
CONTENT: (40% of grade)
The topic is suitable for a 7-10 page paper (not including the works cited page). The focus is sufficiently narrowed to allow for in-depth discussion, analysis and argument. The paper engages the topic and its sub-points fully using details, examples, expert testimony, and other factual materials. The writer offers insights, interpretations, and viewpoints which clearly demonstrate a rational and informed point of view on the topic. In doing so, the writer demonstrates the use of summary, critique, synthesis, and analysis. Creative ideas, original viewpoints, and a strong commitment to the thesis are indicators of mature scholarship and intellectual ability.
RESEARCH: (20% of grade)
There should be at least six to eight sources (at least 2 from RCG or course documentaries) cited in the paper. These sources should be fairly current in the field. A variety of print, multimedia, interview and electronic sources will provide a balance for the research. Be careful not to overuse one source, using the others as a “dash of this and pinch of that.” The idea is to glean and cull from your sources information, opinion, facts, etc. that develop and illustrate the topic, that reflect your point of view, or opposition to your point of view, and that show clear, logical connections with the subject matter of the paper. How well you incorporate quotations is important as well. Be sure, however, not to over quote: 70% of the paper is of your own ideas in your own words.
STYLE AND STANDARD USAGE: (20% of grade)
The paper should be free of grammar and punctuation errors. Diction and vocabulary should be appropriate to the subject matter and audience.
Obviously neglect of editing and proofreading detract from the paper’s readability. Be sure to review the paper carefully, looking especially for run-on sentences, comma splices, fragments, slang, redundancies, misspellings, etc. Paragraphs should contain topic sentences and sufficient discussion, evidence, and information to push forward the thesis. Transitions should clearly link sentences and paragraphs, which strengthen the overall organization of the paper.
FORMAT: (20% of the grade)
Use MLA format unless you notify me in advance that you wish to use APA. Follow the guidelines in your handbook or any other handbook approved by me.
7-10 pages of text: Your writing, including use of quotes (beware of over-quoting, i.e., block quotes that fill an entire page; avoid using lots of short phrase quotes as well).
In-text citations are formatted correctly: Short quotes (quotations fewer than four lines) are double-spaced and fits normally into text of paper; Long or block quotes (over 4 lines) are double-spaced, but each line is indented 5 spaces from left margin and written out to full right margin. Consult me or your handbook for specific examples.
A Works Cited page is required and appears after the last page of the text/research paper. See your handbook for correct appearance and guidelines.
Appendix (optional): This page(s) contains material relevant to the subject matter but too long to be included in the body of the paper. For example, pictures, graphs, charts, etc
AGAIN: A paper submitted without sources, in-text citations, and a works cited page will receive a 0.