Lynbrook High School

The Senior Project Spring 2016

In order to put to use the literacy skills you have acquired over the course of your
time in Lynbrook High Schools English and social studies classes, your final exam grades
for both subjects during your senior year are based on the Senior Project. This
assignment offers you the opportunity to do research on a substantive, argumentative
topic of interest to you and to prepare both a fully developed research paper and followup oral presentation. Of course, you will be assisted throughout this process with direct
instruction by both your English and social studies teachers and by being assigned a
teacher-mentor, who will help guide you through this process and provide the extra help
you seek.
Since tackling an assignment of this magnitude is a new experience for you, we
have broken down the assignment into a series of parts with corresponding due dates.
This will help you better manage both your time and the task.
Due Dates:
Wednesday, March 30 . Topic & Thesis Statement
Friday, April 8 ................................... Annotated Works Cited page
Friday, April 22 ........................................ Formal Paper Outline
March 31 April 21 ...................... Conference(s) with teacher-mentor
Monday, May 9 ................... Rough Draft
Thursday, May 26 ................Final Copy of paper (including final Works
Cited page)
Wednesday, June 1 ................ Oral Presentations begin
You Project Must:
Follow letter-perfect MLA style
Be 10 to 12 pages in length double spaced, one-inch margins, size 12 font, Times New
Roman
Have its thesis underlined
Include a Works Cited page that has a minimum of FIVE sources
Include a TEN- to FIFTEEN-MINUTE oral presentation
Things to Keep in Mind:
o Choose a topic that is substantial in natureperhaps one that pertains to your future
career interest; your intended college major; or an issue that faces our community, our
region, or our world.
o Stay away from common topics such as abortion, the death penalty, whether or not
marijuana should be legalized. These topics are commonplace and tired, and you want to
dazzle your teachers with a topic that is fresh and exciting.
o No science research papersor papers submitted in any other class during your school
years in Lynbrook may be used for this assignment.
o Once a topic is submitted, it may only be changed with the permission of the teachermentor.
o Students are responsible for adhering to all due dates. There is a 5-point penalty for each
day late for each and every part of the paper (that includes 5 points for each weekend
day)!
o Your teacher-mentor will be a valuable resource to you as you zero in on your topic. Feel
free to see him/her for help, as you need it.

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You MUST keep an electronic copy of your paper in case of anything.

No plagiarism of any kind will be tolerated. Therefore, the penalties for plagiarism will be
quite hefty. (Remember: This paper counts for 20% of your grade in both English and
social studies!)