Introducing the Junior Research Paper
Why do we do the Junior Research Paper?
- The JRP will help you develop skills that you will use over and over again in college.
- Beyond and outside of the world of college, the work you’ll do for the JRP will help you become a better reader, a better writer, and perhaps most importantly, a critical consumer of information in the world.
Some general guidelines you need to know:
- You will work on the Junior Research Paper for most of Quarter 4.
- The planning, research, and writing that will go into this project will be broken up into smaller assignments, all of which will help you build toward your final draft.
- Your grade will be based on how you do on all of those smaller assignments, as well as the final paper itself. Failing the Junior Research Paper or failing to turn in a final draft will result in a failing grade for the quarter.
- You will choose a topic on which to do your paper, focused on a modern-day abolition movement, and it must be approved by me.
Some general expectations for your projects:
- The final paper will be 4-5 pages in length, not including your cover page or bibliography. It will have a clear, arguable thesis which you support with evidence from your research.
- You will do extensive research to become an expert on your topic. You will document this research by creating an annotated bibliography of several sources, and a final bibliography in MLA format of at least 6 sources. I encourage you to use different forms of media as sources: articles, books, podcasts, TV shows, documentaries, interviews, etc.
- All references, quotes, summaries, and paraphrases that come from your research must include proper citations within the paper. Any plagiarism will result in an “F.”
- You will sign and submit a plagiarism agreement that shows you understand what will happen if you are caught having plagiarized even a small portion of your research paper.
- You will receive a full rubric from me that clearly details the expectations for the final paper.
Helpful tips and more information:
- You will best succeed on this paper by completing the steps of the project on time. You will not be allowed to move on to the next portion of the assignment until the previous one is complete in order to help ensure this success.
- Choose a topic that you find really interesting! You’re going to be working on it for a long time. It should be something you can get passionate about.
- We will meet one-on-one periodically to check in, discuss how the project is going, and troubleshoot any challenges you are having. You will get lots of feedback from me along the way as long as you are turning in each component of the project on time.
