Description
During the first module you will create a “Student Homepage” with information, specifically a list of issues, any of which you would be happy to work on with others, that will help me create groups of students who will work together. Module 1 will also see your “Research Proposal,” a one page start to your Research Paper (see below). These two projects must be entirely separate, so your list of issues may not be the same as your Research Paper topic (and Proposal). In your Research Proposal write as if you are beginning your Research Paper. Include two sources that help you initiate your argument. Read the instructions for the Research Paper (below) to see where you need to be with it, and write this one page start to your paper with those instructions in mind.Screenplay Contribution. Based upon the list of issues you will create for your “Student Homepage” I will create groups who will work on a project, a Screenplay. I will create group discussion boards where each student will contribute to the script of a Screenplay. The members of each group will be organized at random to contribute a scene. So, for example, let’s say that a group of students, Yacko, Wacko, and Dot, are set to write a Screenplay about an issue that concerns them all, Global Climate Change. At random, I will have assigned Dot to begin the play, and Yacko to finish it. Each member will have one module to do their work. I will make the deadlines clear for each group. Each contribution will be 2-3 pages of screenplay followed by two pages of explanation, always double spaced. Students will not discuss their work with one another. Instead, they will simply post their contribution. Include scene settings and stage directions as needed. The story will proceed, rather than be established from the beginning. The person who begins the screenplay should make an effort to establish a premise, and the person who ends the screenplay should make an effort to conclude the story. In our example, Dot would begin the story, Wacko would continue the story, and Yacko would conclude it. Two ground rules: 1) each writer may introduce, at most, only one new character, and must include in their contribution at least one of the characters previously introduced; and 2) let’s keep things at a “PG” rating. I would like to think that whatever you have to say can be conveyed in a manner that would interest people of all ages, from, say, 10 to 110.Research Paper. Write approximately 2000 words of text (about 6 pages). I count words, so you should, too. Your paper should begin with an indication of the substance of your paper, and then offer an organizing argument. Your research paper must use at least 10 sources, 5 of which must be academic sources, which means they must be ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLES. This is the MINIMUM expectation. More than 10 is better than fewer than 10. I expect more of a research effort than the minimum. A minimal research effort could very well earn a minimal grade. The subject of your paper is up to you, but it must be approached from the perspectives of one of the three “cultures” of inquiry, specifically, social science. Very simply, and specifically, become a particular kind of Social Scientist, and write your paper as if you were a particular kind of Social Scientist. For example, write about some problem of cognition (e.g., addiction, or education…) as a psychologist, or as an anthropologist – or write about the problem of Climate Change (effects on distribution of wealth or power) as an economist, or as a political scientist – or…??? — the list of possibilities here is endless. The choice is yours, but in this version of your Research Paper, be sure that you include at least two or three different statistics (which you’ll find in some of the sources you use in your research). This is important. As a sociologist, or as a geographer, or as an area studies specialist, you want to demonstrate, to the best of your ability, your facility in the language of that discipline