Write over whether or not technology addiction should be considered a mental illness
Description
Disallowed Research Topics:
Abortion
The death penalty
Guns
Marijuana
(There are 2 files attached to additional materials, one file containing instructions for the research essay, and another file containing instructions to write a one page paper with the purpose to detail your research process as you pinpoint your keywords and explore the library databases.
Selecting a Topic for Research
In this class, there are a few topics that will be out of bounds for the research project. These have been disallowed because there is simply too much published on these topics to narrow down your searches.
Disallowed Research Topics:
Abortion
The death penalty
Guns
Marijuana
Other than the four subjects listed above, you can research just about anything for your project. Please keep in mind that this something you will be researching and writing over for a number of weeks, so it should be something you are interested in.
Please keep in mind that, by the end of your paper, you will be making a claim. We will get into exactly what this means a bit more next week, but at its center, this means that your paper is not simply an informative paper. Rather, by the end of your paper you will try to persuade the audience or make an argument. Honestly, however, a claim can be made about almost any topic. The only topics that often provide trouble when it comes to making claims are historical topics. If you are afraid you will not be able to make a claim about your topic, please message me and I will help you out.
If you need help thinking of a topic, consider the following things:
1) Your major: Considering your major can be helpful because you can easily pick a topic that relates to your major and that can be practice for writing in your own field. A psychology major, for example, could write over whether or not technology addiction should be considered a mental illness. Someone who wanted to go into nursing could research the nursing shortage and ways to remedy it, or they could consider the lack of men in nursing and how this is changing.
2) The news: Even if you don’t watch the news or read the news online, looking at the news can be helpful when coming up with a research topic. Personally, I am a big fan of listening to 89.1 FM (NPR) in the car or reading Slate.com when I get on the internet. You might prefer to look through the Wichita Eagle site or Yahoo news. Whatever you want to look at is fine, but you won’t be able to figure out what you’re interested in if you don’t know what’s going on in the world.
3) What interests you Figuring this out can be really helpful when looking for a research topic you can get excited about. Are you interested in the effects of social media Or are you a health food nut (I am too!) Or do you like to work out and convince others to do so as well Or are you an avid TV watcher who wants to know why TV is getting so much better while movies are getting worse If you love beer, maybe you would like to consider the impact of the micro-brew (or home brew) boom on American culture If you love makeup, maybe you would like to look at how makeup trends change or what affects them. The same could be done with fashion. Or maybe you love college sports and would like to consider why college athletes are not paid. All of these are awesome topics that could easily turn into great research papers.
4) Consider some outside help. There are a number of resources offered through the library that can help you to find a topic. Please keep in mind that you must first login to the library before these links will take you directly to the databases (unless you are using a school computer).
News Bank: This resource is simply a list of research topics that are current in the news. This page also includes keywords for each topic that will help you to get started with your search.
Issues and Controversies: This resource is like a higher level Wikipedia site. It is, however, written by educated writers and the info is taken from quality sources. This site is also very helpful to picking topics. From the main page, you will see a list of suggested research topics. From there, you can see potential research topics grouped or you can search them alphabetically.
Opposing Viewpoints: This resource is very similar to Issues and Controversies. It also draws from a range of sources to give you a full picture of the issue and has topics listed on the main page. From the main page, you can navigate to further research topic pages based on subject.
All of the databases above can also be found on the Library main page. Simply click the “Databases” tab and then you will see the listed databases under the “Pick a Topic” heading.
Begin with a few topics and then do some basic research. It is always a good idea to begin with a few topic ideas and then decide on an idea after you conduct some basic research. The beginning research will help you to explore and limit the topic areas to see what your more specific thesis statements could look like. This should help to lead you to a research topic that is both interesting to you and appropriate for a college level research paper.
Assignment: Research Process Paper
Due: The end of Module 11
Length: 1 pg
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to detail your research process as you pinpoint your keywords and explore the library databases.
Paragraph #1:
In this paragraph, detail the process of narrowing and exploring your topic through basic web research. What details did you find out about on your topic What did you learn about the different debates surrounding your topic Also, you must tell at least five keywords that you devised while conducting your basic internet research (this could include sub topics, author’s names, key laws, etc.).
Paragraphs #2 and #3 (and possibly #4):
In these paragraphs, detail your searches of at least five databases. These should include at least four library databases but they might all be library databases. You can also use Google scholar.
For these paragraphs, tell the keywords that you used and tell a little bit about what you liked and didn’t like about the databases. Also, if you get too many search returns or not enough search returns, tell what you do to narrow or expand your search.
In the course of this paragraph, detail your search for the sources that will “add up” to your paper. Tell a bit about the good sources you find and the not so good sources.
Final paragraph:
Assess your experience with your topic so far. What have you found out about the topic that you didn’t know before How was your experience on the databases What have you learned about completing library research in college