For this assignment, you will write a cogent and well-developed essay of 5-7 pages in length that fulfills the following requirements. Essays must make a clear, substantiated argument and evince extensive research:
Please write an academic research paper on a topic of your choosing. In addition to surveying the current state of an academic or cultural debate, your paper must perform at least two argumentative tasks. First, you must use research in order to make an argument about your topic. It’s not enough to critique or analyze, you must suggest and defend a specific proposal with regard to your topic. Second, your paper must be critical and argumentative with regard to that research: What are the current scholarly debates about your topic? In what ways is the current scholarship incomplete? Draw out points of contention or disagreement between researchers, and make clear how your own work—the essay you are writing—is contributing to some of those debates or lines of thinking.
You must have at least four sources. However, only half of your sources may come from non-peer-reviewed sources; the rest (2) must be peer-reviewed journals or books. Remember, as always, to be careful, critical, and skeptical in your evaluation of the scholarship. Don’t simply quote Researcher X and assume she is all-knowing; critically analyze her work. Place it in a larger context (what do researchers Y and Z think about X’s work?), and don’t be afraid to critique it. A bibliography is required; please use whatever citation method is used in your discipline.
Write this essay for an educated audience. The goal here is to practice writing academic research essays, so if you’re working with a kinesiology topic, write the essay using a tone and format your kinesiology professors would find appropriate.
