Social Research Capstone

Description

Research is not a type of essay on its own. Research merely assists in supporting a central argument. Many of you might feel overwhelmed by information and allow it to outweigh your own ideas. However, you should not rely exclusively on quoted passages. Instead, you should develop your own ideas and reasons. Your goal is not to string information together, but rather to write a coherent, argumentative essay for your joint capstone project—one that embodies your ideas about three scholarly peer-reviewed articles you find independently to support your ideas about a women’s and gender issue. You may wish to write an initial draft before you incorporate research, and then supplement your ideas with the information you have found and synthesized. You should research a women’s and gender studies issue (i.e., suffrage, street harassment, equal pay, welfare, intimate partner violence, cyberactivism, hip hop feminism, riot grrl, trans healthcare, sex work, #Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, incarceration, immigrant concentration camps, homelessness, sweatshops, environmental racism, and the media portrayals of women, etc.) about which you wish to know more. This issue should be examined within a historical context, i.e., World II or Black Lives Matter. If you care about your topic, your essay will be easier for you to write. Your scholarly peer-reviewed articles must be valid. It should come from one of the library journals or databases. It should have an author, journal title, volume, issue, and year. It should not be a newspaper article or a magazine article. You must be able to examine scholarly journal articles and determine their relevance to your project. You must develop your own ideas and topics, follow your beliefs and passions, and strengthen your ideas with outside sources. You may pick any women’s and gender issue to research so long as you three scholarly peer-reviewed articles, make your own argument, and provide several reasons for your arguments. For instance, you may discuss intimate partner violence. You may argue about the prevalence of violence in the United States, reasons of control, and lack of prevention and put within a historical context like divorce laws and the women’s liberation movement. You should get assistance from librarians and come to me for help as you begin to work on your projects. All projects must be revised and proofread before handed in. If you plagiarize, the project will receive a failing grade. Your paper must be five to six pages. You should submit all drafts and peer reviews. It comprises 40% of your grade. Your capstone paper should be double-spaced, typed and stapled, have one inch margins all around, be 12 point Times New Roman font, and have a proper heading with your full name, both of your professors’ full names, the full titles and sections for both classes, a date, and a title.