The Research project has a number of important goals. It will take you the entire semester to assemble the project. In this area you will submit the various pieces you have created.

The project has the following goals:

To introduce you to the valuable online databases to which NYIT subscribes.
To further develop your understanding of academic disciplines, research methods, and evidence.
To develop a deeper understanding of an issue, and take a stand on the issue, using both newspaper and academic sources.

The first step is to choose a topic that interests you and describe it below.

1. Describe the topic/issue in your own words (100 word minimum):
2. Why does this topic interest you and/or why it is important? (100 word minimum)

• Step 2: Collecting Data

In the second step of the process you will begin collecting data from 2 main sources: newspapers (in particular, the New York Times that you already subscribe to as part of the class) and academic, refereed (peer-reviewed) journals available to you through the NYIT library database. Your instructor and librarians will work with you in searching through databases.

For each source that you cite you must provide basic citation material including date of publication, author, publication name, and page numbers.

1. Summarize and cite 5 articles on your topic from the New York Times.
2. Summarize and cite 3 articles in 3 different disciplines on your topic (for a total of nine articles total)

Make sure to put the findings in your own words because this program will check for plagiarism.

• Step 3: Research Methods Analysis

In this section you will demonstrate your general awareness of research methods.

1. Describe the research methods in both the popular and academic sources that you have assembled. By research methods we mean archival work, fieldwork, experiments, observation, statistical analysis, etc.
2. Describe the types of evidence that these research methods produce.

(250 words minimum)

• Final Research Project

In the final step you will “take a stand” on your topic using the material you have gathered this semester. For your individual points you must refer to findings in the journals and New York Times. You are not required to agree with the findings, of course, but you must make them part of your final submission. This article should be helpful for your oral presentation on the “take a stand” project.