1023 Research Paper Examining the Impact of Design

1. Annotated Bibliography and Proposal
2. Research Paper Rough Draft
3. Research Paper Final Draft
4. Video Project

Academic work does not start with a paper but is a series of steps that, often, leads to a substantial and convincing paper. As part of our commitment to both understanding argument and writing as a process, we will work through several stages of creating an effective argument based on research. Each assignment is designed to help you build the skillsets you need to be an ethical contributor to research and knowledge making for both academic and non-academic audiences. These skills will, hopefully, be used throughout your life even if you never write another academic paper again. They are taught so that you feel confident about finding accurate and reliable information, and then conveying that information to others- whether you're arguing with family at Thanksgiving or doing research for the best solution to a work project problem. Your ability to persuade people, assess information, and understand the world in context are skills that you will use in every job and in many causal interactions.

1. It must address a specific way the built environment, the design of a space (virtual or physical), or the design of an interconnected built system (systemic design) in the U.S. impacts society
2. It must be relevant and a current topic of academic debate (ie not a historical review)
3. It must address, in at least some way, a Social Issue . It should not be on a valence issue.

NOTE: A social issue or problem is an issue that has been recognized by society as a problem that is preventing society from functioning at an optimal level. It is important to understand that not all things that occur in society are raised to the level of social problems. Four factors seem to characterize a social issue or problem: The public must recognize the situation as a problem; the situation is against the general values accepted by the society (or by large sections of the society); a large segment of the population recognizes the problem as a valid concern; the problem can be rectified or alleviated through the joint action of citizens and/or community resources. The line between a personal issue and a public issue may be subjective and depends on how groups are defined. However, when a large enough sector of society is affected by an issue, it becomes a social issue. For example, while one person losing their job is a personal and not a social issue, firing 13 million people is likely to generate a variety of social issues.

NOTE: A valence issue is a social problem that people uniformly interpret the same way. These types of issues generally generate a widespread consensus and provoke little resistance from the public. An example of a valence issue would be child abuse, which is condemned across several societies to a large enough degree that some social scientists might speak of them as though they are universal, for the sake of illustration. Your paper should not be on a valence issue.

1. You must use at least 6 secondary sources; I encouraged you to use at least one primary source. You may engage in your own field research.
2. You must use reliable sources. It is your responsibility to evaluate a source’s reliability.
3. You must use a quantitative literacy source and incorporate numeric data into your paper. You must include two original graphic representations of that data in your paper that is properly formatted according to MLA

As part of this assignment you will practice your skills at:

1. Selecting a specific topic for research. Academic research is characterized by thoughtful and thorough examination. Academics think deeply, analyze the details carefully, and attempt to address all relevant research. It is incredibly important to select a topic that is narrow so that you have the time to read, analyze, and think about all the relevant research on that topic. If, for instance, you are interested in writing about the design of voting districts, you certainly could not cover everything that goes into designing voting districts in this country (history, politics, state and federal laws, etc.). Instead, you might decide to focus on how just one state designs voting districts and why that design is effective/not effective. Or, you might discuss the impact of a recent gerrymandering case. In other words, it is usually impossible to address a whole topic so instead see your paper as one piece of a larger pie- you only write about your piece, you trust that everyone else in the conversation will write about the other pieces, and that, together, all your individual pieces will let the world understand the whole pie.
2. Clearly articulating an argument and supporting it with well-chosen evidence. It should be abundantly clear what your argument is and why it is important. This is not a summary of current issues so you are expected to identify the debate that you are participating within and articulate your contribution to that debate (IE You must offer a perspective that someone might disagree with and try to persuade your audience to agree with you).
3. Identifying and deliberately addressing your audience. The Research Paper is an academic paper. You are expected to identify and address a specific conversation that would be held in an academic setting (classroom, conference, paper published in a scholarly journal). Ideally, you could take your paper and send it to a scholarly journal to publish after completing this project. Part of writing a research paper is understanding which academics are interested in this topic, what journals are they published in, what terms and facts are already known by the people in the conversation, and what will you add to the conversation that is interesting or new.
4. Addressing an audience is a particularly difficult thing to do in a paper. It requires a lot of research to understand a topic well enough to be able to contribute to the conversation. While I don’t expect you to be perfect at this, I do expect you to start this project early enough, to work hard at collecting and evaluating research, and to have a decent understanding of the conversation you are contributing to.
5. Identifying key research material from reliable sources. Every research project begins with an unanswered question or a lack of knowledge about something. Perhaps you don’t know the history behind a piece of art, the significance of a line of poetry, the reason why most American kitchens don’t have a washing machine in them (imagine my surprise in Italy where the clothes washer was next to the sink), how the city decides how often to run a bus route, or why the Stonewall Riots were so significant to the LGBTQ+ movement. The world is full of unknowns and researchers want to answer those unknowns… ethical, trustworthy researchers want to answer those unknowns with well-supported, relevant, reliable, objective-as-possible answers. And that is what research is. Not just finding the answers but considering and looking through stacks and stacks of material for the best answer.
6. Sorting through and selecting the best research material. As part of the research process, you must browse through a lot of research material. Be sure to spend time evaluating whether a source is reliable and practice ethical inclusion of authors in your writing. It is important to fairly represent each of your sources as well as to properly acknowledge their contributions to your work. Remember, academic work is always about finding and presenting an idea, interpretation, or analysis based on the best knowledge we can collect.
7. Effectively organizing your paper into clear sections with well-framed evidence. Your paper should have an introduction that articulates your argument and explains what sub-topics will be addressed in the body of your paper. Each section should also have a clearly identified topic and evidence should be well-framed. Clarity and using the correct tone are crucial to convincing your audience that your work is valuable.