Download Final Paper Assignment Sheet | Academic Writing | ENGL 101 and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! English 101 Lyons Paper 4: Final Research Paper Length: 9-10 pages, double-spaced Draft Due: May 2 Style Workshop (bring newest draft): May 4 Final Due: May 9 Overview In your academic career, you will write many research papers. In these papers, you’re expected to have a thesis and support it with research and insights you develop both from your research and from your own familiarity with the subject. Such papers will require you to understand a topic in depth, be able to offer background on what is at issue in the topic, put the topic and issues in context, and both support your own position and take at least one other position into account, either by refuting, conceding, or bridging those arguments. Research You have, of course, been working toward this paper for weeks, gathering research and considering your position in the topic. For this final paper, you are required to have a bibliography of at least twenty sources, including books, articles, news reports, etc. At least ten of these sources should come from academic sources, not from .com (or even in many cases .org) websites or newspapers. On this final paper, you will be evaluated on how well you employ and include your research; that is, you’ll be expected to have good research (timely, appropriate to your topic), to use it effectively, and to have mastered the mechanics of including the words and ideas of others in your text (that is, the use and correct formatting of your in-text and bibliographic citations will “count” when your paper is evaluated). As you build your bibliography, you might find that some of your earlier sources are no longer particularly useful. They can—and should—still be on your bibliography, since they helped to inform you on this topic (if they didn’t, they never should have been there to begin with), but you may also find that you need more than twenty sources to really build a body of good research. Audience As with all your other papers, you will conceptualize your audience for this paper. When you do so, remember the genre of the paper: this is an academic argument. This should not be too limiting—it’s not only academics who read academic arguments, and academic arguments are often published in widely read publications—but it should help you determine a realistic notion of audience. Consider their position on the issue. Do they need convincing? How much convincing? Do they completely disagree with your premise, or are they undecided or neutral on the issue? Arguing with people who disagree with you can be a challenging, exciting rhetorical situation, but it isn’t the most common. Arrangement You need to give an overview, offer evidence, refute evidence—how will you put it all together? One of the central questions about organization will be how to distribute the confirmation (support of your point) and the refutation (where you
