The Start of Research Papers

Today, students of the Senior Project Seminar, you will officially start your research papers. I want you to enjoy the process instead of it feeling like root canal. The premise is simple - prove something about your project's topic and make sure the subject is not too broad nor too narrow. The final paper will be six pages long and, you guessed it, Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced font with one inch borders all around.

First thing's first. You need a thesis that will guide your research. How does one find a great thesis? Let's say we have a friend named Fred, who has a project focused on culinary arts. He just can't say, "I'm going to prove something about restaurants." The subject needs to be narrower.

Let's try him saying, "I'm going to write about Mexican restaurants," because he likes eating and preparing Mexican food, and he has visited most of the Mexican restaurants in the area. Alas, this is no good because this isn't a statement proving anything.

Suppose after more thinking, Fred recalls a magazine article he read about how Mexican restaurants started exploding onto the American scene in the 1980's. On his way to school he watches how a new Mexican restaurant is being built where a Pizza Hut once stood. Now we're onto something as he refines his thesis as follows: Mexican cuisine has become immensely popular in the United States for a variety of reasons. Fred is not sure why this is the case, but he is absolutely determined to figure out the reasons. If Fred can find more evidence - from both primary and secondary sources - to back up this claim, then he has a live one!

STUDENTS OF SENIOR PROJECT SEMINAR, YOUR TASK IS TO FIND A WORKABLE THESIS BY MONDAY'S CLASS TIME. YOU WILL PRESENT YOUR THESIS DURING OUR CIRCLE TIME. - A strong, workable thesis will be worth 20 points.

How do you know if your thesis is a good one?

- It must be neither too broad nor too narrow.

- It must be provable.

- You must be able to provide a few articles from reliable sources that back up your thesis (newspapers, magazines, trustworthy websites, etc.)

Check out an excellent web site that we will visit regularly during the process. It does a nice job defining a thesis.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

If you have questions, ask, ask, ask.

And of course, the fascinating stuff you find about your project could be fodder for blogs:)