Research Project

Requirements

The full paper assignment is worth 200 points and counts for 30% of your overall course grade. A running rubric that will be used for all grading is available in Blackboard for your review (in the Research Project folder within the Weekly Modules section). Your grade will be made up of the following components:

CRITERIA POINTS
Research Topic, Question, and Opinion 0 - 15
News Summary 0 - 20
Literature Review 0 - 20
Interview Guide and Consent Form 0 - 10
Interview Response Summary 0 - 20
Paper Discussion 0 - 15
Final Paper Draft 0 - 100

Each of these criteria are discussed below, including submission instructions. Additional details are provided in each assignments' folder in Blackboard. Note that for all assignments, your submissions should be typed and double-spaced using 12-point Times New Roman font and standard 1-inch margins.

Research Topic, Question, and Opinion

The first step to any research project is choosing a topic. You want to choose a topic that is broad enough that you can find relevant information to support your work, but narrow enough that you are not putting everything and the kitchen sink into a single paper. Think about it like Goldilocks - we want to find the "just right" in the middle. The following is a list of topics that you can choose from for your class project.

• Whether body worn cameras are an effective tool to hold police accountable

• Whether police should be present in schools

• The effectiveness of public defenders

• The reliability of eyewitness testimony

• Whether rehabilitation is an achievable goal for prisons

• Whether capital punishment should be used

• The relationship between immigration and crime

• Whether gun control can prevent mass shootings

• Whether felons should have their voting rights restored after completing their sentence

• The role of racism in our present-day criminal justice system

You can also propose to use a topic that is not on this list. Please just email me for approval so I can make sure that your idea is feasible for the scope of this project and the class.

Once you have your topic, you will draft your research question, which will guide the rest of the project. Given the focus of this project, it will most likely be some variation of "What do people think about ____________?" Below are two video tutorials to help you design your research question and tease out this template to be more specific to your own project.

The final part of this portion of the assignment is to write up your initial opinion on the topic. You should not do any outside research about the topic before drafting this - there is no "right" or "wrong" answer here. The goal of this step is to determine your baseline (starting) opinion on the issue. Ask yourself these questions: (1) What is my opinion on the topic? and (2) What is the basis of that opinion? Your opinion may be shaped by one or more things - family or friends you associate with, what you see on the news, what you read on social media, etc. Like the opinion itself, there are no right or wrong ways here. It is just important to identify where your ideas and understanding come from.

Your research topic and question should be just a couple of sentences in total. Your opinion reflection should be approximately 2 (full) pages.

Grading Criteria (0 - 15 Points):

• Your choice of a research topic is clearly stated and has prior approval if not on the above list (2 points)

• Your research question is clearly stated and answerable within the scope of the project (3 points)

• Your opinion review is thorough and organized and addresses both what your opinion is and how it was shaped (10 points)

News Summary

Once you have selected your topic, you will find (at least) 5 recent news articles from different credible sources that discuss your broader topic. Recent means that the articles were published within the last 3 years (so between 2017 and today). Credible news sources are those that, among other things, ensure content is accurate through fact-checking and issue corrections when errors occur, use reputable and verified sources, produce more news reports rather than editorials (and identifies both types of stories accordingly when they do publish them), and adhere to a professional code of ethics. Examples of credible news sources include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Associated Press, BBC, The New Yorker, The Economist, Reuters, The Atlantic, and Politico (Forbes has a great list of additional sources that have been identified as credible).

Once you have found your 5 articles, you will synthesize their content into a summary. Your summary should address the following questions:

• How did you determine these sources were credible?

• How was your chosen topic presented in the stories? What information or facts were included? Was there any information presented consistently across the 5 articles that suggests that fact was particularly important?

• How did the sources compare in their coverage of your topic? How were they different?

• What are the key takeaways of the coverage of your topic? What understanding would a general audience have on your topic after reading these articles?

Your news summary should be between 2 (full) and 4 pages. Your document should have both in-text citations where needed (paraphrase your information - no direct quotes should be used) and a corresponding references list at the end that includes each source included. All citations must be in APA format (7th edition). Here is a short video tutorial (3 minutes) that provides a helpful overview. For information on how to cite various types of sources, check out the Purdue Owl's APA website. You may use a citation generator, but be mindful that they do not always format references correctly. You will want to either compare the generated citations to the Purdue Owl or some other style guide, or manually create them yourself.

Grading Criteria (0 - 20 Points):

• You have selected five recent sources from credible news outlets (5 points)

• Information from sources is cited in-text and there is a references list at the end, both in APA (5 points)

• Your review synthesizes and summarizes the main content of the articles, offering comparisons and contrasts between the sources (10 points)

Literature Review

In addition to your summary of 5 news articles, you also will find (at least) 5 recent pieces of empirical research to synthesize into a literature review. For the purpose of this class, empirical research will come in the form of peer-reviewed academic journal articles. Since the body of research grows and changes quickly, much like the news, you should utilize articles that were published within the last 5 years, unless it is a foundational piece (feel free to ask me if you are unsure!).

You can locate peer-reviewed journal articles using Google Scholar and/or the Penfield Library. The tutorial below (left) has great tips on helping you find your research using targeted keyword searches. You will want to ensure that the articles you choose are relevant to your research question. For instance, if your topic is policing and body worn cameras, you don't want to include an article that talks about police unions. The articles you choose should help create understanding about the state of information and research available on your topic.

Once you have your 5 articles, you will synthesize them into a review of key findings by topical area. Your paper should have 3-4 topical areas, each of which ties together the relevant research related to that topic as it is presented in the articles you chose. A short tutorial of how to write a literature also appears below (right).

Your literature review should be between 3 (full) and 5 pages. Like your news summary, your literature review also should include in-text citations and an accompanying references list (APA formatted as well). Headings and/or subheadings also should be used to organize your content into topical areas (scroll down towards the end for a short tutorial on APA formatted headings). No direct quotes should be included.

Grading Criteria (0 - 20 Points):

• You have selected five recent peer-reviewed scholarly articles (5 points)

• Information from sources is cited in-text and there is a references list at the end, both in APA (5 points)

• Your review synthesizes and summarizes the main content of the articles into key topical areas (10 points)

Interview Guide and Consent Form

You will draft a list of 5 open-ended questions that you will use to ask people their opinions about your topic. Open-ended questions are those that draw out detailed responses - "I don't know" does not count a response for the purpose of this project. The best way to determine if your question is open-ended is to read it out loud or have someone read it out loud to you. If it can be answered with a yes or no or a single word, it is not open-ended. Start your questions with words like "what," "why," or "how" as these will signal to your participant that you are looking for a detailed answer. Avoid asking questions that start with "do/does," "is/was," "could/should/would," and other similar words as these do not lend themselves to generating detailed responses. Your interview guide also should include at least 3 basic demographic questions (e.g., age, sex, race, major, etc.) to be able to give a summary of your sample.

Your accompanying consent form should be a short overview (approximately 1-2 paragraphs) of your project that you will read or give to participants before they decide whether or not they want to be interviewed. Your consent form should include the following:

• A description of the purpose of the study (class research)

• An explanation of how the data will be used (they will be analyzed as a group to understand people's perceptions of your topic)

• A description of how the data will be kept anonymous (e.g., you will not be collecting any identifying information like names, social security numbers, or student IDs)

Grading Criteria (0 - 10 Points):

• Your interview guide includes 5 open-ended questions related to your topic (5 points)

• Your interview guide includes 3 basic demographic questions (3 points)

• Your consent document includes the appropriate information (2 points)

Interview Response Summary

Once your questions have been approved, you will then ask them to a minimum of 10 SUNY Oswego students. Please note that since this is a class research project, your subjects can only be students at Oswego or your project will be required to go through Human Subjects Committee review, meaning you will likely not be able to complete it in time for the due date. You can ask your questions of each other (remember that you are all trying to meet your assignment requirements, so it is good to try and help each other out when you can) or other students on campus. If you have any questions about whether a person is eligible to participate in your project, please contact me before you interview them.

For each participant, you will provide them a copy of your consent form either in print (e.g., email it to them) or orally (you read it to them at the start of your interview before any questioning). You must ask them if they are willing to participate after you give them this information. If they are - awesome! You can get started on asking your questions. If they say no, thank them for their time (remember, participation in research is voluntary and there is no penalty if someone doesn't want to be a part of your study) and move to the next participant, knowing you will need to find a replacement to ensure you have the minimum number of responses.

As you go through your questions, make sure you take detailed notes on each participant's responses. These notes will be needed for you to be able to write your summary. Your 3-5 page summary should synthesize the responses for all of your participants for each question (meaning that if you are using your headings/subheadings, you should have one for each question). What did your participants agree on? Where did they disagree? What were the common themes of their answers? These are the types of questions that your summary should address. Do not simply restate what each participant said.

Grading Criteria (0 - 20 Points):

• Your response summary synthesizes the interviews of your participants related to your interview questions (20 points)

Paper Discussion

Your discussion section should tie the previous sections together by summarizing the main points of your research. To this point, your project has examined both fact (the academic research you pulled for your literature review) and opinion (your initial opinion and the opinions of your interview participants) - your news articles probably included both. As you draft your discussion, which should be 2-3 pages, consider the following questions:

• Did the your initial opinion on the topic match the empirical research you reviewed? If so, how did it match? If not, where did you differ?

• How did the media coverage on your topic compare with the empirical research you reviewed?

• How did the opinions of the people you interviewed compare with the empirical research?

• Based on your overall research, has your opinion on the topic changed? If so, how did it change? If not, why was there no difference?

Grading Criteria (0 - 15 Points):

• Your discussion summarizes the main points of the paper and concludes with a comparison of fact-vs.-opinion (20 points)

Final Draft

For your final draft of your course paper, you will combine the previous sections into an organized final draft. Before combining (or during your final review process), you should edit each of these sections based on the feedback that you were given at the time of initial submission and correct all of the issues raised. You will then synthesize them into a final document in the following order:

1. APA formatted title page

2. Introduction including your topic overview and research question

3. Literature review

4. Personal opinion summary

5. News summary

6. Interview response summary

7. Discussion

8. Conclusion

9. APA formatted references page

Headings and subheadings should be used to organize your final paper by sections. (The short tutorials below will help you format both your headings and your title page.) Note that your introduction is not labeled - it is a given that it is the introduction because it is the first section of your paper. Your interview guide and consent form should be included as an appendix, which goes between the end of your paper and the references page.