Research Paper (7-8 pages; 250 points)
This assignment is to write critical overview of a topic related inequality (race, class,
gender, sexuality, etc.). The goal of the assignment is to summarize a social problem or
issue related inequality, power, or class in US society or abroad. You should find
several sources to summarize the key features of the selected urban problem or issue.
In this paper, choosing a topic that is interesting and researchable is vital. This topic
should be specific enough that it is focused and coherent yet broad enough to be able
to find others who have been interested in the same topic. A good way to determine if
your paper topic will work is to formulate your topic as a research question. Examples of
excellent topics/questions might be “How does racial segregation in urban/suburban
schools affect student outcomes?”; “How has the growth of finance affected income
inequality in affluent countries?”; “How has the War on Drugs created racial and class
inequalities in American society?” or “How do social programs provided by the
government and social organizations help and/or hurt the poor?” If you are unsure about
the quality of your topic, please email me.
The paper should be divided into five sections marked off by headings
(Ex: Introduction). In the first section, the Introduction, you should briefly describe
your research topic/question, why you decided to research the topic, and why this topic
is relevant to society. You should also give a very brief overview of the literature you will
examine in the body of the paper. In the Key Issues section, you should go into more
detail on the topic that you chose and make connections between the different readings
and research found on your topic. A good way to approach this section is to identify the
main causes, consequences, and potential solutions to the problem that you are
examining. A major challenge to this assignment is to remain concise in order to not go
too far over the page limit. You should have identified at least 5 sources for the
report. All sources should be properly cited in the paper using ASA (or a similar format)
and included in the references section. In the Evaluation section, you should briefly
evaluate the literature you have examined. Questions to answer include: What evidence
do you find convincing? What evidence is not as convincing and why? What new
questions do you have? In the Conclusion section, you should briefly restate your
research topic/question, briefly summarize the literature and how you evaluated, and
then state what you feel you have learned from writing this paper. The final section is
the References section.
This 7-8 page paper should be written in Times New Roman 12-point font, double or 2-
point line spacing, and standard margins (1 inch).
Topical Research Paper rubric
Report, 250 points
35pts: Introduction- Do you properly introduce your topic? You should give a basic
description of what you will be discussing in this paper. Also explain why you chose to
write what you did and why it is relevant to society.
60pts: Key Issues- What does the literature you have found say about your topic? Do
you make connections between the different readings? To achieve the maximum
possible grade, you should interweave the discussion of your different sources instead
of having separate paragraphs for each one.
60pts: Evaluation- You should address the following topics: What do you make of the
evidence in the sources? Are their arguments sound or do they have logical errors?
What new questions do you have?
35pts: Conclusion- Do you summarize and conclude the paper appropriately? Do you
restate your research question or thesis? What have you learned from writing the
paper?
20pts: Overall organization- Does your paper have a logical flow? Do you jump around
all over the place or speak about one issue (or at least interwoven issues) at a time?
20pts: Grammar- Do you write with proper sentence structure, spelling, and word
agreement?
20pts: Citations and References-Do you have at least 5 sources? Do you properly
acknowledge them?
