Research Essay: Choose ONE of two topics

Purpose: As opposed to a standard research paper where the writer usually assumes a detached and objective stance, Assignment #3 will allow you to practice and refine your research skills and to record your search process. Although Assignment #3 emphasizes metacognition and reflection, it is an academic, college research essay, so it cannot be a simplistic report that provides only summary.

 

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TOPIC: Choose ONE of two topics below:

  • The relevance of happiness research to your current or future career/ profession

or

  • The relevance of happiness research to your success as a community college student / transfer college student

 

FORMAT: Your paper should have four distinct sections as noted below. The four parts of this paper can be organized explicitly (for example, set off with subheadings) or implicitly (as a seamless essay that uses transitional words and sentences).

 

By now, we all know that defining happiness is difficult. So, in order to answer the question, you will need to first do the following:

 

PART I: DEFINING HAPPINESS

 

  • Provide an overview of the different ways in which happiness has been defined.

Use at least two of our readings from Pursuing Happiness in your overview.

  • Provide your definition of happiness.
  • Provide a direct respond to the prompt: To what extent can happiness research help you to choose a future that optimizes your chances for happiness (either in terms of a career or as a student)?

 

PART II: WHAT I KNOW, ASSUME, AND IMAGINE:

Write a section in which you explain to the reader what you think you know, what you assume, or what you imagine about your chosen topic. (For example, if you choose to explore the relevance of happiness to your future career has a community college professor, you would write about what you think you know about the career based on your experiences with and observations of .community college instructors. You might think about other sources that have informed your thinking about what you assume community college instructors do and how they live (representations on television, in film, on social media, etc.). You would also want to imagine the day-to-day routine of a community college professor. How many hours do they work? Do they have a social life? Are they paid well? Do they have children? Do they have leisure time to pursue non-work related activities and hobbies? What do career satisfaction and well being studies suggest about the happiness of community college professors? Do community colleges have environments that support the happiness of faculty? Are instructors happy?

Approximate length: 1-2 typed pages

 

 

 

PART III: THE SEARCH:

Test your knowledge and assumptions by researching your topic thoroughly. Consult useful books, magazines, newspapers, films, and library databases for information. Be careful using websites or sources that do not have credible sponsors or authors. If possible, interview people who are authorities on your selected career or on student success. If you were pursuing a search on how to be a successful transfer student at a community college, you might want to check out a book on the subject, read several education research journals, and make an appointment to visit one of the deans or your favorite professor at LAVC. You might also ask several of your peers who share your  goal of transferring to a four-year university who are from different social, racial, and economic backgrounds about the topic.

 

After collecting information, write about your search in a narrative form (chronologically with specific details) to record the steps of the research process. Do not feel obligated to include everything but be sure to highlight the information and facts you uncovered that were crucial to your research process and contributed to your understanding of the topic. When quoting directly from outside sources, remember that you must document sources of information using MLA citations.

Approximate length: 3-4 typed pages

 

PART IV: WHAT I DISCOVERED:

After concluding your search, compare what you thought you knew, assumed, and imagined with the research you discovered and offer some personal commentary and/or draw some conclusions. For instance, after completing your search on community college teaching as a career, you might learn that the full-time, tenure track job market for this field is poor and most instructors are adjuncts. You may have assumed that there were an abundance of jobs available for anyone who met the minimum qualifications. Consequently, you may think how your happiness would potentially be impacted by the instability of the profession. What do specific happiness studies we have read say about ways in which individual happiness is impacted by economics? You may want to propose some happiness strategies for dealing with this uncertainty, which if not addressed could impact your well being in other areas of your life.

Approximate length: 2-3 typed pages 

 

REQUIREMENTS

  • 6-8 pages in length. This requirement does not include the MLA Works Cited page.
  • Typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins on all sides.
  • Times New Roman 12 point font
  • Follow the MLA format guidelines for the first page of your essay.
  • Follow the MLA guidelines for your essay’s page numbers.
  • Provide a separate Works Cited list that conforms to the MLA format style.
  • Use at least six documented library sources. Scholarly sources (book, encyclopedia, or scholarly journal) are the most credible. No more than one can be a documented (and legitimate) Internet source (exceptions with instructor’s approval). There should be variety in the type of sources you choose (for

example, books, articles, electronic journals, credible web sources/sites)

  • Organize essay (Part I: Introduction, Parts II-III: body paragraphs, and Part IV: a conclusion).
  • Follow MLA guidelines for integration of quotes and paraphrases. Introduce direct quotations and paraphrases with a Signal Phrase.
  • Support your clearly stated thesis with relevant, ample evidence. All evidence must be analyzed.
  • Correct all grammatical and spelling errors.
  • Submit research paper with Works Cited page

 

 

RESEARCH PROCESS:

  1. To begin your research, consult the library’s databases “Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context” and “CQ Researcher.” Other useful library databases include Academic Source Complete (EBSCO), JSTOR, and LexisNexis Academic. You may also want to try using Google Scholar for preliminary information on your topic.

 

  1. Manage and take notes on information: Keep a working bibliography, which you will turn into your Works Cited list for the final draft. Take notes about your responses to the information you find. Print out necessary pages from books and articles and highlight

portions you may use as evidence. You will need to bring printed copies of two outside academic or popular sources for evaluating sources workshop on 11/19.

 

  1. Organize your evidence/examples under individual body paragraphs. Remember one supporting idea per body paragraph.

 

  1. Long Quotations: “When a quote passage takes up more than four typed lines of prose, set it off from the text by indenting the entire quotation one inch (ten spaces) from the

left margin.  [Keep the right margin unchanged.]  Double-space the indented quotation,

and don’t add extra space above or below it” (Hacker 445). Do not put quotation

marks around long quotations. Your essay may have only one long quotation.

 

  1. Write the Works Cited list. See LAVC library handout on MLA Format. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is also a great resource for MLA format guidelines and examples.

 

  1. Proofread and revise the research paper for grammatical, spelling, and format errors.