LENGTH 900-1200 words (not including citation page) FORMAT Please use APA citation style. AUDIENCE Address your paper to a general audience. Assume that your readers are not specialists in your topic area. Ideas must be fully explained and made accessible to a general readership. SOURCES Reference as many sources as needed in order to substantively explore your research question, but no fewer than 4.
As you develop the project, keep in mind that our focus is inquiry, not argumentation. Argumentation is a worthy area of study and is a focus of other courses you may take in the future. In this research project the primary goal is to explore your research question with depth and sophistication rather than to persuade an audience of a particular viewpoint. While you will need to propose some sort of answer to your question in the final version of your project, that answer may be tentative. It may, for example, point in the direction of further questions and further research. It may identify contradictions in your research that are at this time irresolvable. Again, in writing this paper, focus on exploring, interpreting, and synthesizing ideas rather than on defending a thesis. Keep in mind, too, that you will carry out your research using published information and opinions. You should not try to do primary research of your own, such as surveys or experiments. This kind of research is specialized, varies from one discipline to the next, and is beyond the scope of this class.
Synthesizing Your Research Findings Information Literacy and Research Writing (hcommons.org)

The paper can be a continuation of previous work as a final research paper