Assignment Question
Drawing support from research sources, and engaging in analysis and an observation, as shown below, argue a position proposing a solution to a problem that is mentioned in one of the readings from this class so far: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, or Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi..
Note that this assignment does not use A Walk in the Woods or Flow specifically, but rather one of them serves as the starting point for a topic.
Your job here is not to explain the selected problem; your focus is almost entirely on solutions, after establishing the problem early in the paper (usually in the Introduction). This is a crucial point about this assignment.
Your thesis development will provide a philosophical or theoretical basis, findings and ideas from scholarly sources, an analysis of the efficacy of these sources toward resolution of the problem, and an observation that you conduct on your own to demonstrate your thesis and approach to its solution. The paper must be at least 2000 words in length and draw support from at least 6 different research sources, as specified on this assignment below. A series of Preparation steps will be assigned and tallied as part of your course Participation and as required assignments that affect the RP grade, too.
Chosen topic: Laughter and/or humor and happiness, health, or another selected variable and outcome. How does laughter or humor improve quality of life?
Citations: You are required to cite and use a significant body of notes from 6 or more different sources to support your thesis. These citations and uses should be more or less evenly distributed across your 6 or more sources, again not overly relying on only a few of them. As a guideline, your paper should include about 20 such citations or more. You are also required to cite these uses of sources (quotations, summaries, and paraphrases) parenthetically, according to MLA format, as taught and practiced in this course.
Your Research Paper must follow the outline format shown below, dividing the thesis development into sections: Introduction, Literature Review, Analysis, Observation, and Conclusion. Basic Outline: This paper basically follows the structure of social-science and scientific research, so please organize it in this way shown below. The review and analysis sections should be the most substantial.
In the organization of your paper, for this assignment, most of your sources will be used in the Literature Review section, but source-references in any part of the paper are appropriate and useful.
Below are the sections of the paper, which you need to follow for this assignment:
Introduction: What is the problem of focus? What background information is needed to explain it? Explain the problem as fully as you need to here, since for the rest of the paper, the focus is exclusively on solutions. What is your proposed insight or solution, the thesis of this paper? What reasons do you have for this thesis? (give only a preview of them here).
Here, invite the reader to go on: use your creativity to find ways to inspire interest and curiosity in your topic.
Literature Review: What have people found out about this topic, focusing solely on solutions, and related ideas or data, as shown in published research sources? How can the solutions or the ideas behind or accompanying them be explained most clearly and deeply, starting with fundamental concepts, theories, issues, and questions involved? What proposed solutions do these sources offer?
Analysis: Here you make your own argument for your proposed action or way of thinking to address the problem, particularly one that the research has not already covered. This section may also constitute a critique of existing research that you covered in the Literature Review, showing its strengths and weaknesses. Also show your own way of approaching, handling, and perhaps solving the problem that this paper addresses. Develop your logic and reasoning for your ideas, directly related to your thesis, as clearly as possible here, though you are not expected to provide additional sources in the Analysis. If you have source support, it should normally be developed in the Literature Review.
Observation: Conduct a poll, run an informal experiment, do an ethnographic description, conduct a direct observation, or otherwise observe and describe examples and insights from the real world and from your own perspective about your topic and/or thesis development. Observations may include pictures, sound bites, and movie clips.
This section must have three parts, one paragraph or more for each part:
Methods: Describe your methods for observing or collecting data, including why you are choosing this particular way of observation, precisely. Results: Also be precise as you present results. For example, you should include detailed descriptions of firsthand observations, interview summaries and key excerpts, and survey scores and descriptive or analytical statistics.
Discussion: Show how this new data supports or detracts from your thesis, and what this new data implies. Include mention of any limitations of your observations or experiment, or any other facts about your observation work that might influence your findings. Conclusion: What is the sum total of this paper’s treatment of the problem that the topic represents? What does your thesis development imply about the topic and/or human truths at its base? What further research on this and related issues do you suggest? What final insight can you offer that would encourage readers to think and act in the ways that you are advocating in this paper?
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