This document provides guidance for writing a series of research papers. It outlines a 3-paper process to: inform yourself and your audience on your topic in paper 1; conduct a literature review to identify aspects for further research in paper 2; and write an original research article based on your findings in paper 3. Each paper builds upon the last with the goal of producing a final research article. The document provides details on the parts, sources, and content to include in each paper such as introducing your topic, conducting background research, narrowing your focus, and identifying relevant debates.

1. Rooney - English 127

2. What & How

3. Paper 1:
Background
Essay
Paper 2:
Literature
Review
Paper 3:
Original
Research
Article
The Final
Research
Article

4. To Inform
• Yourself
• Your
audience
To Identify
• Aspects for
research
• Areas of
interest
To Explore
• Background
relevance
• Possible
connections

5. Parts of the Paper

6. Context
• Give contextual information
• Introduce information and issues
presented
Overview
• Close with an overview statement

7. Historical
Background
Statistics
Laws or
Policies
Stakeholders
Debates and
Conflicts

8. Not Found
• Indicate any info you couldn’t find
Narrowed
Topic
• How will you narrow further – what aspects will you
continue to research?
Proposed
Question
• Propose one research question that you would like to
answer about your narrowed topic. Explain the
significance.

9. Online or print
reference
Magazine
Articles
Books or Book
Chapters
• One quotation from each source
(must be cited)
• All must be in APA format
• No journal articles

11. • Come up with a historical timeline with the dates for at least 3-5 major
events, laws, or other developments.
• Briefly explain the significance of each date; perhaps write a mini-narrative.

12. • As you go through various sources, identify at least one or two statistics that
are relevant for your research topic/question.
• Why are these statistics relevant?
• Would everyone agree on what they mean, or are they the subject of
disagreement and controversy?

13. • List as many different groups or parties that are involved or affected by your
research topic/question (do not say "society," which is too general a
category) as you can think of.
• List at least five different types of groups/parties.
• Ideally, you should be able to identify their distinct interests, perspectives
and relative power, which may motivate you to look for even more diverse
sources. For example, in researching the criminal justice system, how
might you go about researching the experiences and points of view of
prisoners themselves?

14. • Describe and explain at least two major debates or disagreements that are
relevant to your topic.
• Who disagrees with whom and why?
• Do they disagree because of conflicting evidence, interests, values and/or
assumptions?
• These disagreements might be found in the mainstream media or in some
other sources.

15. • Why and when did it become a problem?
• Why hasn’t it been solved?
• How has it evolved over time?
• What efforts have been to solve the problem?
• What has or hasn’t been effective about those proposed solutions?
• Who is (most) to blame for the problem?
• What are the main disagreements about causes and solutions?
• Who has the power to do something about the problem?
• What is a financial analysis of the problem?
• Who gains something from the problem remaining a problem?