Week 4 Assignment

For the research paper you will choose your own topic (see "research paper requirements" lecture notes in this week's Content).

This week's assignment will help you to understand how to locate data that you will incorporate into your research pape.

Before you begin to gather data for your research paper it is very important to identify a thesis statement or research question to develop keywords, so that you can effectively and quickly locate data.

You will use these keywords AND boolean operators to search for data via the Monroe College Library and the Internet. Your lecture notes and video included in this week’s content will explain both types of searches to conduct.

View this video for assistance on selecting the right keywords so that you will work smarter, not harder!

Visit this website to learn how Boolean operators work. Go to the Site Map and select Searching Online under the section for Research. This entire site contains valuable information for all types of writing assignment, and I suggest you bookmark it for this and future classes.

A good research paper uses a variety of sources and students will need at least three scholarly journal articles for the research pape and four Internet sources. (a total of 7 sources)

View this video In order to get a better understanding of what makes an article scholarly.

****"ASSIGNMENT:"****

This week please develop the research question OR thesis statement that you plan to use for your research paper.

Then, identify the keywords AND the Boolean operators to use in your search parameters via the library databases and the Internet. Remember to include the entire pathway, not just single words for the search path. Submit as one file to the Week 4 Assignment dropbox by Thursday Sept 30th at 5 PM. Remember you are only submitting the thesis statement which would be a sentence or two, and the keyword path for the electronic databases and your internet searches (search conducted differently).

For example, if your thesis statement is: Funding for prison education programs should be restored to reduce recidivism, then your keywords Could be: Prison AND education AND recidivism. These keywords will limit your results from the library or Internet search to articles/website that only contain these words, but they would not be just single words to search.