English 102: Research WritingResearch Paper Assignment Purpose: This assignment will help you develop the research and writing skills required for organized, clear, and evidence-based argument to convince a skeptical audience within your field. You will use these skills in your future college courses and anytime you are making a case to a skeptical audience. Beyond that, you will also use the research skills whenever you are faced with a life decision when the questions are particularly important: Which medical treatment should I choose? Who should I vote for? Which colleges should I consider transferring to? How should I parent my children? What food should I consume? How much should I exercise? What is the deeper meaning behind the art, music, or TV I consume? etc. You will use the language skills, specifically, any time the situation requires written words: writing that cover letter, proposing a project to your manager, creating accurate, detailed patient notes, texting an old flame, writing your senator, etc. Description: In English 102, you will examine and refine your own writing process as you create an argument-driven research paper of 8-10 pages, using 6-10 credible, college-level sources that discuss a specific topic within the writer’s chosen Area of Study or other intellectual interest. Those students who have not formally identified an Area of Study will investigate an issue addressed by a field or profession of interest to them. The writer’s argument will address the writer’s class peers in the chosen Area of Study and future professors in the field. The writer will assume that some members of the essay’s skeptical audience will disagree with the argument presented in the essay. The essay will use the discipline-specific style guide (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago) commonly used by those writing in the chosen Area of Study or field. Skills:By completing this assignment, you will practice the following: 1. Read a variety of discipline-specific texts critically 2. Compose texts and arguments appropriate to a discipline-specific purpose and audience 3. Locate and evaluate popular and professional sources 4. Integrate original ideas with sources, using formal citation methods as appropriate to the task 5. Focus, develop, and organize ideas effectively. 6. Edit for sentence clarity, using appropriate conventions of grammar and mechanics Knowledge: This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge: 1. Important issues, problems, and discoveries in your discipline 2. Opinions, statistics, expert opinion, and stories surrounding your chosen topic in your field 3. Specific vocabulary and terminology used in your discipline 4. Credible publications discussing issues in your discipline 5. Rules and conventions for the style guide associated with your discipline 6. Grammatical conventions to communicate clearly 7. Definition of intentional and unintentional plagiarism 8. Library databa.

1. English 102: Research WritingResearch Paper Assignment
Purpose: This assignment will help you develop the research
and writing skills required for organized, clear, and evidence-
based argument to convince a skeptical audience within your
field. You will use these skills in your future college courses
and anytime you are making a case to a skeptical audience.
Beyond that, you will also use the research skills whenever you
are faced with a life decision when the questions are
particularly important: Which medical treatment should I
choose? Who should I vote for? Which colleges should I
consider transferring to? How should I parent my children?
What food should I consume? How much should I exercise?
What is the deeper meaning behind the art, music, or TV I
consume? etc. You will use the language skills, specifically,
any time the situation requires written words: writing that cover
letter, proposing a project to your manager, creating accurate,
detailed patient notes, texting an old flame, writing your
senator, etc.
Description: In English 102, you will examine and refine your
own writing process as you create an argument-driven research
paper of 8-10 pages, using 6-10 credible, college-level sources
that discuss a specific topic within the writer’s chosen Area of
Study or other intellectual interest. Those students who have not
formally identified an Area of Study will investigate an issue
addressed by a field or profession of interest to them.
The writer’s argument will address the writer’s class peers in
the chosen Area of Study and future professors in the field. The
writer will assume that some members of the essay’s skeptical
audience will disagree with the argument presented in the essay.
The essay will use the discipline-specific style guide (e.g. APA,
MLA, Chicago) commonly used by those writing in the chosen

2. Area of Study or field.
Skills:By completing this assignment, you will practice the
following:
1. Read a variety of discipline-specific texts critically
2. Compose texts and arguments appropriate to a discipline-
specific purpose and audience
3. Locate and evaluate popular and professional sources
4. Integrate original ideas with sources, using formal citation
methods as appropriate to the task
5. Focus, develop, and organize ideas effectively.
6. Edit for sentence clarity, using appropriate conventions of
grammar and mechanics
Knowledge: This assignment will also help you to become
familiar with the following important content knowledge:
1. Important issues, problems, and discoveries in your discipline
2. Opinions, statistics, expert opinion, and stories surrounding
your chosen topic in your field
3. Specific vocabulary and terminology used in your discipline
4. Credible publications discussing issues in your discipline
5. Rules and conventions for the style guide associated with
your discipline
6. Grammatical conventions to communicate clearly
7. Definition of intentional and unintentional plagiarism
8. Library database navigation
9. Toulmin’s methods for effective argument
Due Date: Throughout our English 102 course, you will turn in
the step-by-step assignments required to write a successful
paper. The dues dates for those assignments are detailed in the
syllabus. The final version is due Friday, 3/6, during week 9.
Grading/Scoring
Weight: The final version of the essay is worth 50% of total
course grade, but if a student receives an F on the final version,
the student’s final grade in the course will also be an F.

3. I will use the attached grading rubric, which we will discuss in
class and use to evaluate your essay during the draft phase.
Read it now so you are familiar with the goals of the project.
Students may use more pages or sources, depending on the
rhetorical situation and if the paper is stats-heavy, with
instructor approval.
List of Common Topics to Avoid
The following is a list of topics to avoid because they are either
too well trodden, demonstrate opinions that are largely settled,
or involve non-academic personal or spiritual beliefs too
heavily:
Abortion
Child abuse
Childhood obesity
College tuition
College and/or professional athlete pay
Disney characters and gender
Eating Disorders
Evolution as subject in school
GMOs
NFL concussions
Marijuana
Social Media pro/con or popularity
Video games and violence
Any English 101 final paper topic
English 102 Assessment Rubric for Research Paper (SLOs 2, 4,
5, and 6)

4. SLO:
Description of Outcome
Exceeds ExpectationsStudent work demonstrates…
Meets ExpectationsStudent work demonstrates…
Near ExpectationsStudent work demonstrates…
Well Below ExpectationsStudent work demonstrates…
SLO 2
Compose texts and arguments appropriate to a discipline-
specific purpose and audience.
· highly effective rhetorical choices, argumentative strategies,
and conventions for appealing to a discipline-specific audience
· appropriate rhetorical choices, argumentative strategies, and
conventions for appealing to a discipline-specific audience
· limited range of rhetorical choices, argumentative strategies,
or conventions for appealing to a discipline-specific audience
· few to no rhetorical choices, argumentative strategies, or
conventions for appealing to a discipline-specific audience
SLO 4
Integrate original ideas with sources, using formal citation
methods as appropriate to the task.
· source use effectively synthesized and secondary to student’s
own thinking
· fluent and insightful integration of sources using discipline-
appropriate documentation standards
· source use somewhat synthesized and largely secondary to
student’s own thinking
· competent source integration using discipline-appropriate
documentation standards
·
· limited synthesis of sources and source use too often

5. overshadows student’s own thinking
· some integration of sources with limited competence applying
discipline-appropriate documentation standards
· no synthesis of sources and source use almost entirely
overshadows student’s own thinking
· little to no successful integration or documentation of source
material using a discipline-appropriate style guide
·
SLO 5
Focus, develop, and organize ideas effectively.
· a clear, focused central idea appropriate to the purpose and
discipline
· thorough development of the central idea
· a clear, logical organization focused around the central idea,
appropriate to the purpose and discipline
· a clear, largely focused central idea that may not entirely fit
the purpose or discipline
· adequate development of the central idea
· a somewhat logical organization focused around the central
idea, largely appropriate to the purpose and discipline
· a somewhat unfocused central idea that may not fit the
purpose or discipline
· more development of the central idea needed
· an organization that is hard to follow or is focused only
loosely around the central idea; may not be appropriate to the
purpose and discipline
· no directly stated central idea, or one stated that does not fit
the purpose or discipline
· inadequate development of a central idea
· an organization that is unrelated to a central idea or is
extremely hard to follow; not appropriate to the purpose and
discipline
SLO 6
Edit for sentence clarity, using appropriate conventions of
grammar and mechanics.
· consistent control of language and mechanics to make ideas

6. easily understood by the reader throughout the text
· sufficient control of language and mechanics to make most
ideas easily understood by the reader throughout the text
· some control of language and mechanics, making ideas
understood by the reader at most points in the text with some
areas of confusion
· insufficient control of language and mechanics, making
comprehension difficult for the reader