By Tuesday 11/12/13 at 5 PM, blog your responses to the Research-Project Worksheet, and then bring a copy of it to conference the next day.

By Sunday (10/27) at 5 PM, blog a few lines describing your topic for the research project and how you intend to handle it.

Research Project

Research Project

Length: 5-6 pages (about 1,500 words)

Due dates: see syllabus

Discuss a technologically based disaster or problem, giving a history of the event or a discussion of its causes. Analyze its implications for life on the planet and possible steps for preventing its occurrence in the future.

By the due date listed on the syllabus, complete and hand in a copy of the worksheet below.

Use at least five sources from at least three of the categories of sources (internet, books, newspapers, journals, magazines, and other reference works). Choose sources carefully to reflect the best, most reliable, and most recent information on the topic.

Narrow your topic, especially when the listed topic is a general problem rather than a specific disaster.

Create an argumentative thesis. Include at least one paragraph of refutation. 

Use evidence from the sources to support your arguments. Don’t over quote. 

No more than 20% of your essay should be direct quotation. Remember that quotation and paraphrase should be acknowledged with parenthetical citations in the text. Include a “Works Cited” page that lists all the sources cited in the text of your essay.

The following are some suggestions, but you shouldn’t feel limited to them:

The Hindenburg disaster

Three-Mile Island

Chernobyl

Love Canal

The Challenger or Columbia accident

The Exxon oil spill

The New York garbage barge

The Ferald nuclear power plant

The year 2000 computer problem

The Nimitz Freeway disaster

The energy crisis

The Amazon rain forest

International terrorism via Internet

The ozone layer

Global warming/ climate change

Acid rain

Toxic waste

Dioxin

Land fills

Genetic engineering

Electronic money laundering

Recombinant DNA technology

Biological/chemical weapons

Internet identity theft

Infrastructure failure (some aspect of it)

Nuclear power along the earthquake belt or some other specific problem with nuclear power)

Computer viruses/ spyware/ Trojan horses

Thalidomide babies

The spread of thermonuclear weapons among smaller nations

Cyber bullying

Music piracy (or some other form of piracy)

Criminality on the internet (narrow the focus to, for example, trafficking in slavery, identity theft, prostitution, child pornography, etc.)

Research Project Worksheet

Name:

Topic of your research paper:

Research questions:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Temporary thesis:

Key words:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Scratch outline:

Sources:

1.

2.

3.

4.

By Sunday, 10-13-13, blog the thesis of WA#4 and one of the body paragraphs (one that you have not written before). Bring a hard copy to conference on Monday or Tuesday. Conferences will be held in my office (Sturges 313).

WA#4 -- Response to a Single Source

Length: about 750 words

Due in class as a draft by Wednesday, 10/21

Due to be marked and graded, 10/23

Choose one of the essays we have discussed in class over the last few weeks and respond to it. Either confirm or refute its arguments but do so in a systematic way.

Start with an introductory paragraph, and then summarize the main arguments and the arguments that support the main argument. Then confirm or refute those arguments.

Here, blog some notes by Wednesday, 10/9/13.