Steps to follow

1.     

Carefully read How your Research Essay will be marked
later in this file, to review the marking criteria and understand what is expected to get an excellent mark.

ü 

Statistically, who are the most common perpetrators of drunk driving in North America, what has been tried to dissuade this group and what might be the next innovative step to end drunk driving forever?

ü 

What are the main arguments made by the opposing stakeholders concerning
the impact of the extraction of oil from the oil sands in Alberta? Which arguments seem to be the most convincing and why?

ü 

What is the role that food packaging and promotion plays in attracting young children to junk food? For example, is there any science behind the names, colours and shapes of particular candies or chips that make them especially enticing to kids under age 12?

Search for all the different answers to your question

a)     

After you’ve chosen your research question, you will then start researching. Based on the question, you need to READ, READ, READ. The purpose of reading plenty of academic articles and maybe some books about your topic is to find out what is being said about your question.

b)     

You are NOT trying to prove your point, or any point in particular, because this is not an argument essay. Instead, you must be objective and look for answers, information, statistics, ideas, opinions from academic sources, and then sort through all the material you find to pick out the best items to include in your essay.

And actually speak to a librarian about your research question!  You may wish to include the Reading Articles from our course as a source, but you must also include other credible sources.

c)     

You should read from plenty of sources, but at the very least, you must use three or more credible, timely, academic sources (books, authoritative magazines, academic journals, videos, interviews, etc.).

2.     

Gather all your possible answers together and sort through the material

a)     

Who has said what? What does it mean? What evidence has been found?

b)     

Organize
the material you’ve gathered in your research and plan an outline of your essay

Outline Example:

                                                  i.     

Introduction paragraph

·        

Hook – draw the reader’s attention, help the reader warm up to the topic

·        

General sentences – to narrow the topic

·        

Thesis – a simple statement of the conclusion of your research with a plan for how you will develop the essay to share your conclusion with the reader.

a.     

For example:
Stakeholders debating the Alberta oil sands have two main arguments that hold them in opposition: the environmental cost and the economic benefits. The elements of these two main arguments will be examined one by one to show that ultimately the environmental damage is too great, so the oil sands cannot be supported despite economic advantages.

                                                ii.     

Body paragraph 1

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