Themes for exploration in Critical Reasoning and Writing the Research Paper: Below are some of the “sociopolitical” themes and related questions I will ask you to explore throughout our course; our course readings are a reflection of these themes: - Privilege: ​What is privilege? Is contemporary Western and U.S. culture organized in a way that privileges some and not others, or some more than others? Why and how? Is this something that can or should be solved by government intervention, individual and group initiative, or public shaming? What can or should be done? - Wealth Disparity: ​What is meant by the “wealth gap”? Is this a serious problem in U.S., Wester, and/or Global society? Are laborers the world over exploited by employers to varying degrees? How so? What are the results of exaggerated wealth disparity? Is this something that can or should be solved by government intervention, individual and group initiative, or public shaming? What can or should be done? - Justice and Equality:​ What do we mean by “justice” and “equality”? Is equal criminal, social, and economic justice a worthy goal for Western and U.S. society? Are we all, in Western/U.S. society, treated equally where it concerns the criminal justice system, local, state and federal governments, and employers? If not, is this something that can or should be solved by legislation or individual and group initiative? What can or should be done? - Health and Wellness:​ What are the best ways to “take care” of oneself physically, mentally and spiritually? Is there a health and wellness crisis in the U.S. and/or Western society? A mental health crisis? An obesity “epidemic”? How serious are these problems and what are the results? What can and should be done by individuals, groups, the public at large, the government, to improve the situation? - Success and Personal Improvement:​ Is it possible to improve on one’s natural intelligence and abilities or is the individual “stuck” with what they’re given? If improvement is possible, what must be done? What is the “growth mindset”? Are we in U.S/Western society influenced more to adopt a “growth” or “fixed” mindset? What are the individual and societal effects of these separate mindsets? What can or should be done by individuals, groups, the public at large, the government, to promote a growth mindset? What would the improvement be to individuals and society if more of us adopted a growth mindset? - Power: ​Who wields “power” in U.S./Western culture, and who has wielded it throughout the history of Western civilization? How has power been wielded by the powerful, over whom have they wielded it, and to what effects has it be wielded? Do past injustices and cruelties matter in the now? Why or why not? Is there an imbalance of power in contemporary U.S. and Western society? If so, what are the effects of this imbalance and what can or should be done by government intervention and/or individual o.

1. Themes for exploration in Critical Reasoning and Writing the
Research Paper:
Below are some of the “sociopolitical” themes and related
questions I will ask you to explore
throughout our course; our course readings are a reflection of
these themes:
- Privilege: What is privilege? Is contemporary Western and
U.S. culture organized in a
way that privileges some and not others, or some more than
others? Why and how? Is
this something that can or should be solved by government
intervention, individual and
group initiative, or public shaming? What can or should be
done?
- Wealth Disparity: What is meant by the “wealth gap”? Is this a
serious problem in U.S.,
Wester, and/or Global society? Are laborers the world over
exploited by employers to
varying degrees? How so? What are the results of exaggerated
wealth disparity? Is this
something that can or should be solved by government
intervention, individual and group
initiative, or public shaming? What can or should be done?
- Justice and Equality: What do we mean by “justice” and
“equality”? Is equal criminal,
social, and economic justice a worthy goal for Western and U.S.
society? Are we all, in

2. Western/U.S. society, treated equally where it concerns the
criminal justice system,
local, state and federal governments, and employers? If not, is
this something that can or
should be solved by legislation or individual and group
initiative? What can or should be
done?
- Health and Wellness: What are the best ways to “take care” of
oneself physically,
mentally and spiritually? Is there a health and wellness crisis in
the U.S. and/or Western
society? A mental health crisis? An obesity “epidemic”? How
serious are these problems
and what are the results? What can and should be done by
individuals, groups, the
public at large, the government, to improve the situation?
- Success and Personal Improvement: Is it possible to improve
on one’s natural
intelligence and abilities or is the individual “stuck” with what
they’re given? If
improvement is possible, what must be done? What is the
“growth mindset”? Are we in
U.S/Western society influenced more to adopt a “growth” or
“fixed” mindset? What are
the individual and societal effects of these separate mindsets?
What can or should be
done by individuals, groups, the public at large, the
government, to promote a growth
mindset? What would the improvement be to individuals and
society if more of us
adopted a growth mindset?
- Power: Who wields “power” in U.S./Western culture, and who
has wielded it throughout

3. the history of Western civilization? How has power been
wielded by the powerful, over
whom have they wielded it, and to what effects has it be
wielded? Do past injustices and
cruelties matter in the now? Why or why not? Is there an
imbalance of power in
contemporary U.S. and Western society? If so, what are the
effects of this imbalance
and what can or should be done by government intervention
and/or individual or group
initiative to improve the situation? What would the results be of
a more reasonable
balance of power?
1. Correlation
a.
b. I am using a two-tailed test because the critical region is
going to have two parts. The Ho: no correlation against Ha:
correlation. This all leads to needing a two-tailed test.
c. Testing the correlation between student extroversion and
lecture extroversion showed a positive weak correlation. The
factoring for this comes to r (428) =0.181, p<0.05. This means
that as there is an increase in student extroversion there is an
increase in students wanting extroversion in lecturers.
Testing the correlation between student agreeableness and
lecture agreeableness showed a moderate correlation. The
factoring for this comes to r (428) =0.312, p<0.05. This means
that as there is an increase in student agreeableness leads to
students wanting agreeableness in lecturers.
Part B
1. Research area of interest
My area of interest is in serial killers. There are multiple areas
that I would like to look into ranging from killing being an
actual addiction, such as smoking cigarettes is an addiction, to

4. is the prison system actually trying to rehabilitate these killers
that are in a class of their own, and while they will never get
out, unless something extreme happens, they still deserve
rehabilitation but I am more interested in if the serial killer’s
personal opinion is that they are or are not being rehabilitated.
Originally set-up to reflect possible variables to be assessed…
Nominal: male or female
Ordinal: Serial killer’s urge to kill on a scale of 1-5
Interval: The # of documented kills attributed to the serial killer
as assigned by law enforcement
Ratio: Actual # of kills the serial killer has committed, or that
they are willing to admit to
For this week's Proposal (the first step in our unified, multi-step
Research Paper process, consisting also of Short Paper 2: The
Annotated Bibliography and the Research Paper itself), you are
tasked with the following:
Choose a broad sociopolitical topic, like those listed in Themes
for Exploration in Critical Writing and the Research Paper
(week 1) then, find a more specific, and singular but complex,
question at issue within that broader topic that you are
interested in researching and writing about for the next several
weeks (a "question at issue") and come up with whatever your
argumentative stance is, at the moment, on that question (your
"tentative thesis"); then, set up your document in the following
format, filling in your choices after each listed element (Topic,
Question at Issue, Thesis):
Underneath the title (and other MLA formatting of the page):
Topic:
Question at Issue:
Tentative Thesis:
Following this, compose a long paragraph which: introduces the
topic that will be discussed and gives some general information
about the question at issue such as "Who does it
involve/affect?", "How long has this been an issue?" and "Why

5. is it an issue?"; reiterates your tentative thesis and provides the
general reasoning behind your argument, such as "Why do you
think that, or why might you believe that is true?"; and answers
"What do you hope to gain from researching this topic?"
In the event that you use some "initial" research in your
Proposal in order to get a better understanding of something, or
find some quick fact, be sure to include in-text citations
wherever you are citing a source in the text of the paper as well
as works cited citations on a separate page for any sources you
use.
See Week 7 Lecture and Introduction to the Research Paper
Process lecture notes for further details and tips on how to get
started.
Proposals must be a minimum of 300 words and, in addition to
possibly containing proper MLA citations, must use proper
MLA page formatting where it concerns page numbers, student
name, instructor name, class number, date and title. Also, make
sure the document is double-spaced between lines.
Submissions must be made in either .doc, .docx, or .pdf format.
A rubric has been made available to facilitate your
understanding of how the paper will be graded; it is available
below.
NOTICE: This assignment will be submitted from Canvas to
Vericite, a web-based plagiarism checker that will test your
paper against multiple paper repositories as well as the broader
internet, so, again, do not cheat! (see the course policy about
Academic Honesty and/or the Lake Tahoe Community College
standards for student conduct for further information about
plagiarism and academic dishonesty).
Rubric
103 Proposal Rubric Wexelblatt
103 Proposal Rubric Wexelblatt

6. Criteria
Ratings
Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Mechanics
15.0 pts
Excellent
Submission is free of technical and grammatical errors;
submission correctly uses MLA in-text citations, and those
citations are properly formatted.
10.0 pts
Good
Submission has very few technical and grammatical errors;
submission correctly uses MLA in-text citation and those
citations are properly formatted.
6.0 pts
Fair
Submission has several technical and grammatical errors;
submission either fails to include all necessary citations, or
citations are present but incorrectly formatted/missing
information.
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission has many technical and grammatical errors;
submission fails to include MLA in-text citations.
15.0 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Components

7. 17.0 pts
Excellent
All required components of the Proposal (paper uses the proper
format for topic/question at issue/thesis, contains a long
paragraph which introduces and gives background information
on the topic and question at issue, reiterates the thesis and
presents the author's reasoning behind the thesis and answers
what the author hopes to gain from researching this topic ) are
present and well constructed.
13.0 pts
Good
All required components of a Proposal are present but are not
well constructed.
8.0 pts
Fair
Submission is missing required components of a Proposal,
though the components that are present are well constructed.
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission is missing required components and the components
that are present are not well constructed.
17.0 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
Insight
18.0 pts
Full Marks

8. Submission reflects a college level of critical thinking about the
chosen subject;
14.0 pts
Good
Submission reflects a college level of critical thinking about the
chosen subject;
9.0 pts
Fair
Submission does reflect some critical thinking about the chosen
subject but not at a college level;
0.0 pts
Poor
Submission does not reflect critical thinking on the chosen
subject.
18.0 pts
Total Points: 50.0
Previous
Next