Research Project - Introduction

In life, people carry out research every day as part of their careers and hobbies. In fact, every time you surf the net with a specific goal in mind, you are researching a topic. In college, the research project is a way of life. In nearly every course, students are required to submit a long essay that surveys the ideas of other writers or experts in a particular field. The goal of such research projects is usually threefold: 1) Students must demonstrate that they have located and read a body of material, and that they have gathered, interpreted, and reported ideas objectively, honestly, and clearly. 2) Students must display not only a clear understanding of the materials they’ve read. They must also show that they have judged the numerous pieces of information, deciding which to use and which to discard. 3) Students must integrate the ideas accumulated during research into their own writing, effectively communicating an understanding of the body of materials to the reader of the paper. Ultimately, all of these components are of equal importance.

Your Mission:

In this research project, students work through the research "process," which involves eight major steps: 1) Topic Formation; 2) Locating Sources; 3) Research; 4) Organizing Ideas; 5) Drafting; 6) Revising; 7) Documenting Sources; and 8) Publishing. This skills learned in going through this process are valuable in life as well as school. Because learning to use these skills is so important, the steps in the process will form a substantial portion of your grade for the project. See your project calendar for information on process grades.

Requirements:

Requirements/Guidelines specific to your class can be found by following the appropriate link:

English III

English IV

Humanities

Assessment:

Assessment for all research project formats will be based on a common set of rubrics. Please refer to the three assessment criteria below.

Criterion 1 - Ideas & Organization (20%): The student demonstrates skills in writing through development and organization of a topic and supporting ideas.

Criterion 2 - Writing Control (20%): The student demonstrates skills in writing through use of voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions.

Criterion 3 - Research (20%): The student demonstrates skills in research by locating, evaluating, and documenting a variety of print and web sources.

Criterion 4 - Integration (20%): The student demonstrates skills in research and writing by integrating sources into writing through use of summary, paraphrase, and quotation.

Criterion 5 - Technology & Presentation (20%): The student demonstrates the integration of technology in publishing and presenting the research project.