Research Essay Assignment * Power & Imagination * Trimble/Kudray Winter 2016

Key due dates:

Interest Inventory: Feb. 2 in mentor session (use Ch. 1 in The Curious Researcher as guide--see class schedule)
Research Journals: on 2/9 and 2/18 on D2L, and on 3/10 w/ draft on D2L (instructions below)
Essay Topic proposal: Feb. 9 on D2L (for proposal guidelines, see ex. 1.4, pp. 45-6 in The Curious Researcher)
Annotated Bibliography (see instructions below): 2/23 on D2L, and also bring to mentor session
Conferencing: Youll sign up to conference with me about your research during week 7.
Research feedback presentation: 2/18 & 2/23: 5-minute presentations of your research will take place in mentor
session (I will circulate instructions for this presentation well in advance of these due dates)
Full Draft: 3/10 in main class (Final paper will be completed spring term)

Essay Requirements
8-10 pages, double spaced, one-inch margins (Page count does not include works cited; also, do not use a title page)
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. Works cited is not part of your page count.
In Spring term you will do a peer review of your draft, and turn in your final, revised version of this essay,
along with 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
This assignment provides an opportunity to explore a topic related to our course concerns that is especially
interesting to you. Its a chance for you to engage with the theme in an individual way. Also, an aim of this course
is to help you to participate effectively in academic conversationsto become a skillful practitioner of thoughtful,
critical analysis and discourse. Approach this assignment, then, as your contribution to an ongoing social
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.
(This is the purpose of a thesis statement.)
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. That system could be tracing the power dynamics in a commodity chain of your choice, or
the power dynamics of another cultural/social phenomenon. 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. Youll develop your ideas for your topic in stages, and you must receive my approval for the topic you
ultimately select. (This is to help you frame a fruitful topic so youre not wasting your time on a dead end or
bottomless rabbit hole) Its important to do the work to find a topic that both engages you and also engages fully
with the course content and approach. While your options for topics are quite open Ive offered some specific
options at the end of this document to help generate ideas. It may also help to 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 final essay should have a developed introduction that engages readers 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? Why should your readers?)

The essay should also include the following:

Analysis of the key power system involved in your topic: What sort of power system are you examining?
Use readings from the class to help you discuss the type of power system thats the subject of your analysis.
Identify the players and stakeholders in this power system.
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 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 use interviews, but if you do, make sure you read carefully the section in The Curious Reader
on interviewing techniques (pp. 82-89). Surveys and fieldwork (covered on pp. 89-100) 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 classroom.
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 all research journals
and a full draft of this essay at the end of Winter term to pass the class. To receive a grade for the final 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 in the Dropbox as Word documents or pdfs. In each of your
entries from week to week you should demonstrate that you have completed the assigned reading in The Curious
Researcher by doing the exercises for the chapters assigned so far, and take thorough notes about the process of
your thinking about and research for your research essay. (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 summary, this journal will include notes about the assigned readings (including exercises) 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. 72-3
(look in Chapter 2 if you have the 7th edition) of The Curious Researcher, and use the example of a working
bibliography (figure 2.7 on p. 73) 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. Trace a commodity chain: Choose a commodity, product, or service available to us with an

international origin and explore the paths of power 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?
Who are the stakeholders at each stage?
2. Explore in more depth one of the social or political issues we examine in the course that can be further
interrogated: Public education and government control/individual freedom, gender inequality, 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 needs to be understood in order to examine the issue, and characterize the
conflicts that define the issue.
What institutions are involved in the power system? Who has access, and how?
What belief systems about the issue do they uphold, and how? (E.g. what role do they play in the social
construction of reality surrounding that issue?)
Has the nature of their power changed over time? How?
What is the historical context of the issue?
Who are the stakeholders?
What are the economic, social, political, cultural consequences of the power system of this issue?