File Name: LastName FirstName Unit x day month year.doc

Example: Smith John Unit 3 23 June 2012.doc

Task: Write a formal research report

Audience: An interested, professional audience

Length: ~2500 words, plus front matter and back matter like title page, abstract, and bibliography

Write a research paper on a current topic of interest in your discipline or profession.  If you are a business major, your topic must address some issue of diversity in businessfor example, gender or race issues in the workplace, or communication with people from different cultures.  All other majors are free to choose your own topic from those within your major.

Your topic does not have to be cleared with me, although for most of you I will see the topic in your proposal. You are not required to use the same topic as the proposal, but I encourage you to do so. You will save yourself time and and build a better project this way by letting your research and thinking work on a particular problem at length. If you decide on a more specific, or slightly different version of the project after your proposal, youre welcome to shift the focus of the report without clearing it with me.

You will be expected to gather information from outside sources (books, articles, personal or phone interviews, government documents, etc.).  The documentation format to follow is APA.

Format

If your major is anything other than English or history, you are to use the format specified by APA.  English and history majors are to use the format specified by MLA.

Evaluation

Grading will be complicated to reflect the complexity of a research report, so please examine the online rubric carefully to see the precise grading criteria. But generally here is what I will be looking at.

the correct format of the paper (using APA )
the accuracy and completeness of the References list or list of Works Cited at the end
the location and content of the parenthetical citations in the text itself
the accuracy, usefulness, and smoothness of insertion of quotes, paraphrases, and summaries
effective use of a logical organizational structure for the essay
a clear and effective statement of the thesis in paragraph one of the paper
effective body paragraphs that are unified, coherent, and complete.  I will choose at least one at random at look at it very carefully
research that is recent, scholarly, and relevant to your topic, and sufficient in scope to make your case.