Research Essay Assignment/ Power & Imagination/ Fisher Burgoyne Winter 2015

You will post your Research Journal on 2/5 & 2/26 and then present the whole journal in a single document to turn in to
D2L at the end of the term on 3/10 by 4pm (see instructions below)
Due date for Essay Topic proposal: January 25 by 9pm, posted to D2L Week 3 topic box (for proposal guidelines, see ex.
1.5, pp. 45-6 in The Curious Researcher)
Due date for Annotated Bibliography (see instructions below): February 17 before mentor session, posted to D2L Week
7 topic box
5-minute News Conference Presentations of your research will take place on February 19 & 24 in mentor session (I
will circulate instructions for this presentation well in advance of these due dates)
Bring a hard copy of your Full Draft of your essay to main session: March 10 by 4pm, posted to D2L Peer Workshop
Dropbox in Week 10 topic box
Submit Full Draft of Essay for winter term essay credit and Lydias Feedback: Hard copy March 12 at the beginning of
mentor session
Requirements
8-10 pages, double spaced, one-inch margins
References to six researched sources required (sources that you have found through your own researchso six sources beyond
any course texts you reference)
Include citations in proper form. I prefer MLA style citations, but if your declared field of study uses APA style you may use
that form instead.
Also include a Works Cited Page. Do not consider this list part of your page count, and please do not include a title page at all.
In Spring term you will turn in with your final, revised version of this essay a reflective letter in which you discuss your
research and writing process and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the essay. I will give you an assignment for
this revision and reflective letter at the beginning of Spring term.
Goals for the Research Essay Assignment
First of all, this assignment is designed to give you an opportunity to explore a topic related to our course concerns that is
especially interesting to you. It is a chance for you to get engaged with the course in an individual way. Also, one of the aims
of this course is to help you to participate effectively in academic conversationsto become a skillful practitioner of academic
discourse. Approach this assignment, then, as your contribution to an ongoing discussion about your topic; the idea is to add
something to that discussion. Do not simply repeat what has already been written by someone else; work on finding new ways
of seeing your topic and interrogating it in new ways.
Research Essay Assignment Description
Write an 8-10 page research essay that relates to our course theme of power and imagination by examining a specific
power system in some way. The essay should incorporate at least six researched sources properly cited (sources you
discovered through research). As noted above, also include a Works Cited page. You will develop your ideas for your topic in
stages, and you must receive my approval for the research topic you ultimately select. It is important to do the work to find a
topic that really engages you and that also engages fully with the course content and approach. While your options for topics
are quite open I have offered you some specific options at the end of this document to help you generate ideas. Think about
what sort of readings and discussions in the course have been most engaging for you, what questions have been raised for you
in the course that you would like to work on answering for yourself, and what power systems you are most interested in
exploring because of your personal or academic investments.
The essay should have a developed introduction that engages your reader and lays out what will be argued/analyzed in the rest
of the paper with a clearly-articulated, specific, and thorough thesis statement. It should also end with a thoughtful and
carefully-formulated conclusion that answers the question So What? (Why is this worth discussing? Why do I care?)
The essay should also include the following:
Characterize the power system: What sort of power system are you examining? Use our readings from the
beginning of Fall term to help you discuss the type power system that is the subject of your analysis.
Identify the players in this power system. Who is dominant and who is subordinate?
Discuss the breadth of this power systems reach. Is it local, national, global?
Demonstrate awareness of the historical context that has shaped this power system.
Discuss the ethical implications of this power system.
Incorporate ideas from the course. Include significant engagement with AT LEAST ONE COURSE READING
from Fall or Winter term, making it clear how course texts help you to better understand the power system you
have chosen to research. The course text(s) will not be included in your requirement of 6 researched sources.

The paper may be written in either the third person or first person (I). You may use a formal voice or experiment with a more
informal voice like that used by Ballenger in his essay on theories of intelligence (see pp. 13-19). Keep in mind, though, that
regardless of the level of formality you use, your essay must be well researched and carefully supported, and scholarly in
approach and tone.
You may use your own experience in the essay, but keep in mind that this is a relatively short paper, so adjust accordingly the
amount of personal experience you include. No one source (including your experience) should dominate. You may also use
interviews, but if you do, make sure you read carefully the section in The Curious Reader on interviewing techniques (pp. 8492). Surveys and fieldwork (covered on pp. 92-100) are also a possibility if they are appropriate to your topic, but check with
me first before initiating these as part of your research.
Write the essay for a general, well-educated audience. Keep in mind that when writing for a general audience you need to
define special terms and explain complex concepts. In other words the paper should be comprehensible for someone who is
not in our class.
The full draft of this essay that you submit for feedback at the end of Winter term should be copy-edited and polished, and it
should include a useful and compelling title.
The essay will go through an exhaustive drafting and revision process, and you must turn in a full draft of this essay at the
end of Winter term to pass the class. To receive a grade for the essay you must also complete a thoughtful revision of
your initial draft in Spring term, after receiving feedback from me and from your peers (you will receive the feedback
in Spring term). You will complete a considerable amount of process work in Winter term in developing this essay, which
will help you to be conscious of the steps of the research and writing process, and will also help you to develop your ideas and
your writing gradually and with a lot of feedback and support. Some of these process assignments are explained below.
Research Journal
Once we begin preparing for the Research Essay assignment, you will post update submissions of your Research Journal
(due dates listed on the daily schedule) to D2L as Word documents or pdfs, and you will turn in a final version of your
complete Research Journal as a Word document or pdf at the end of the term. (You may type notes or scan notebook pages if
you prefer to write your notes by hand.) Ballenger discusses notetaking techniques on pp. 117-136 in The Curious Researcher.
In each of your entries from week to week you should demonstrate that you have completed the assigned reading in The
Curious Researcher and take thorough notes about the process of your thinking about and research for your research essay. So
this journal will include notes about the assigned readings in The Curious Researcher, notes about your research and thought
processes as you develop your research topic and define the limits of your exploration of the topic, and notes about all of the
sources you find through your research process.
Annotated Bibliography
To create your 6-source bibliography, follow Ballengers instructions for a working bibliography on pp. 74-5 of The Curious
Researcher, and use the example of a working bibliography (figure 2.7 on p. 74) as a model for what you will need to produce.
Your source summaries should be a brief paragraph or two, and should demonstrate the summarizing skill discussed in The
Curious Researcher.

Suggestions for Possible Essay Topics (These are not exhaustive. If you have other ideas that meet the requirements of
the assignment, by all means propose them!):
1.

Examine the power of media and imagination: Select a piece of visual art, literature, music, a film, or an
advertisement and explore its representation of or response to a specific power system. Or, alternately, explore the
media items place in a power systemthe way its dissemination is affected by specific power dynamics and the
effect those power dynamics may have on the media items audience. How does this piece of media challenge or
uphold specific belief systems? Has the nature of the power of this media item changed over time?
Some specific suggestions: Look, for example, at independent films, propaganda, activist theater, social justice art,
folk art, rock and roll (white artists) vs. rythym and blues (black artists).

2.

Explore one of the social or political issues examined in the course that can be further interrogated: Gender
inequality in the work force, policing and racial inequality, public education and government control/individual
freedom, the role of the individual or the State in a society increasingly dominated by corporations, the significance of
the history of slavery or colonialism for understanding current inequalities, etc. Offer a comprehensive analysis of the
power system that must be understood to examine the issue and characterize the conflicts that define the issue.

3.

Trace a commodity chain: Choose a commodity, product, or service available to us with an international origin
and explore the path it has taken before arriving at your door. Discuss the power relationship(s) within the production,
exchange, and consumption of a commodity and explain how the costs and benefits of trade in this commodity are
distributed, and why they are distributed in such a way.
Who is involved in the production?
Why is it produced there?
What is the historical context of this commodity, product, or service?
What are the economic, social, political, and cultural consequences of this chain from place of origin to consumption
and, where applicable, to disposal? What are the costs and benefits?