Academic Paper Overview

Description

The Academic Paper will identify a coherent research question within a defined subject, forward a thesis that answers it, and provide supporting evidence for its assertion. The paper will draw from course discussions of sources, methods, and publication venues, and it will situate itself within an ongoing scholarly conversation through references to other material. The paper should be approximately 2,000 words long and in MLA format. It should incorporate no fewer than four scholarly sources (additional sources, including non-scholarly ones, also may be appropriate). You may incorporate sources that you used in other coursework, but you are not required to do so.

You will choose your topic for the Academic Paper. You might consider one related to the topic you covered in your Narrative Piece or Technical Report, but this is not required. The key is to identify a subject, formulate a research question about it, and go through a structured process to answer it.
 

Structure

No specific paper structure is required, but you might consider the following options:

  • IMRaD
    1. Introduction : Orients your reader to the subject, surveys relevant literature to identify a knowledge gap, identifies the research question that the paper investigates, and forwards the thesis that provides a response to it
      • (sometimes a separate Literature Review section comes between the Introduction and Methods section, especially if there is a significant amount of material to address)
    2. Methods: Articulates how you answered your research question, such that another researcher could replicate or extend the process
    3. Results: Presents what you discovered by applying your methods to your research question
    4. Discussion:  Interprets what the results reveal
    5. Conclusion: Discusses how the paper contributes to its subject's research discourse and outlines where future studies could go from here

  • Ciceronian
    1. Exordium: the paper's subject and purpose, including its claim
    2. Narratio: the current situation, including what others have said about the topic
    3. Partitio: the division of parts that the rest of the paper will follow
    4. Confirmatio: the evidence in support of the paper's claim
    5. Refutatio: the refutation of arguments against the paper's claim
    6. Peroratio: the conclusion that sums up the paper

Processes

This assignment (and the corresponding grade) encompasses multiple steps:

  1. Generating ideas and identifying productive possible venues
  2. Identifying sources
  3. Discussing methods
  4. Drafting
  5. Composing the final piece
  6. Completing a Material Analysis
  7. Completing a Postmortem
     

Parameters

The final piece has the following parameters:

  • Approximately 2,000 words
  • At least four scholarly sources
  • MLA format (including a Works Cited section)
  • Submitted as a .pdf file

Resources

These tools may be useful:

Examples

These commented examples from previous students may be useful.