Love and Deception

Research Assignment

A key component of college work and professional work is the practice of research. Being able to develop your own research questions, to investigate those questions, to form hypotheses and test them, and to draw educated, informed conclusions is an essential skill. For this research project, you will investigate an aspect of identity and how the world perceives or understands it. For example you could research:

Gender and identity. Potential questions include: How has gender and identity changed over time? What impact does gender identity have on policy in the United States? How does popular culture depict gender identity? How does gender impact experience in the workplace?

Toxic Masculinity. Potential questions include: Where does “toxic masculinity” come from? How does popular culture contribute to “toxic masculinity”?

Race and identity. Potential questions include: How does race shape notions of identity? How do race and identity get depicted in popular culture? How have depictions of race and identity changed since the beginning of the twentieth century?

The above topics and questions are examples, but you are not limited to these examples. You are free (nay, encouraged!) to formulate your own topics and research questions.

Step 1: Topic selection. By Wednesday, November 6 you will submit a two-paragraph topic description. In the first paragraph you will introduce the topic, describing the who, what, when, where (i.e. the context or background). In the second paragraph you will describe how your topic embodies or is related to concepts of identity (as related to our course readings). You should specifically reference course readings to support your proposed argument.

Step 2: Research. By Wednesday, 13 November you will submit a bibliography of scholarly sources. You should access at least 10 sources in researching your topic. They should come from primarily scholarly, reputable sources and from reputable media sources (NY Times, for example). You will produce a bibliography in proper MLA format and also supply the first page (photocopied or printed) of each source you list in your bibliography.

Step 3: Rough Draft. By Monday, 25 November, you will submit a rough draft of your essay. In the rough draft you will highlight or underline your thesis statement. You will also highlight or underline each topic sentence in your supporting paragraphs. You want to make sure that you effectively organize your argument, and every highlighted or underlined sentence should be connected to each other by the central thesis.

Step 4: Final Draft. Due Wednesday, 11 December. This essay will be a typed, double-spaced essay in 12-pt Times New Roman font. 5 pages, 1-inch margins. No title page. Bibliography included at the end. Name and page number on each page. Submitted to Moodle.