RESEARCH PAPER

The following assigment’s aim is to help you break down your final paper into bite-size, manageable pieces. This assignment will count as your third “short paper”.

Writing Assignment 3: DUE April 15th

First, you are to write an abstract. An abstract is a statement of your research question, a brief description of why and how it is a problem, and a brief description of how you intend to solve the problem.

Breaking it down:

Find an interest in some topic. E.g. the nature of natural kinds, whether there are races, whether ANOVA is a good clue to causation, what, if any, the relationship is between race and iq, genetic causation, etc.

You may wish to look through the list of topics on the syllabus, flip through the readings, read some of the articles on electronic reserve, flip through journals or peruse the stacks at Marriott Library *(Some Journals to check out: Philosophy of Science, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science) or just go web-surfing. This is the fun part!!! Just explore what things interest you.

Now, you need to turn your topic into a research question. As Booth, Columb, and Williams write:

Finding a topic... is only the first step, so do not assume that once you have a topic, you need only search for information and report on what you find. Beyond a topic, you have to find a reason for devoting weeks or moths to pursuing it... Researchers do more than dig up information and report it. They use that information to answer a question that their topic inspired them to ask.... a researcher has to decide whether the question and its answer might be significant... (The Craft of Research, p. 35)

Doing a final term paper means more than simply assembling data and reporting it. Good writing involves answering a compelling question, one that does not have an obvious "yes/no" answer, and one that is original and well motivated, or, one which people will care about.

One way of narrowing your topic into a question is to start listing questions you have about your topic.

Here’s an example of a list of my plausible questions:

What is the proper role of ANOVA?

Can analysis of variance give us evidence of causes?

What are some of the limitations of ANOVA?

How has ANOVA been used to justify racialist hypotheses?

Is there any legitimacy to the view that those of a certain “race” have genetic predispositions toward lower IQ?

What is IQ?

What is race?

Out of this list of questions, choose one that puzzles you. Then, devote a paragraph to describing your "statement of a problem" and why it’s important. Your job is to describe and explain the question that you are asking and why it matters. Here’s an example of a statement of a problem:

Some have argued that certain races have lower IQ. There are a number of different ways to challenge this argument. For example...

Finally, suggest a solution to that problem. This may look something like an interpretation, argument, or, it could be a conceptual analysis. (See Booth, Columb, and Williams, Chapter 4.2-4.4, on the difference between practical and research problems.)

IQ and race are both problematic concepts, that are all the more problematically linked. Some of the problems with making these claims are…

Page 2: Breaking it down, continued:

Recommended Reading: The Craft of Research, Chapters 5-6 (pp. 64-85)

After writing your problem statement, you now may have a better sense of the research you need to do either to refine your problem or to find a solution. The object of the second part of this assignment is to do a careful analysis of the literature relevant to your question. You are to write up a 2-3 page annotated bibliography. There are no “required” number of sources. If you are asking a question that has opposing sides, a good strategy is to find authors that disagree with each other. Your own argument in your final paper will be better if you have considered multiple points of view! At this point, your aim should be to give a critical, thorough, and careful analysis of the readings. Here’s how an annotated bibliography looks:

Bibliographic citation, with author, date, title, and name of publication.
Brief summary of the thesis and argument in the book or paper sited.

Here’s an example:

Achinstein, 1964. "Models, analogies and theories," Philosophy of Science, 31: 328-50.

Achinstein argues against the logical empiricists’ view that the relation between model and theory is a merely formal one. According to this view, theoretical terms are not given content - or meaning - by their substantive identification with some model. Achinstein argues that in fact physicists do make substantive identifications of models with theories, and that the entities described by theoretical terms are interpreted by analogy with a model system's entities. In other words, questions as to whether a theoretical entity is really like the model entity do arise and form the basis of experimental tests.

Now that you have written an abstract and an annotated bibliography, you are ready to write a rough draft:

Recommended Reading: The Craft of Research, Chapters 7-11 (pp. 85-172)

This is only a rough draft of your paper. The final draft of the paper is to be 8-10 pages (for undergrads., 10-15 for grads.), double-spaced, with citations in proper bibliographic format (see WebCT for examples). For this draft, just write as much as you can, and don’t worry yet about citations. Your project now is to put your main ideas down, so that we can give you feedback before the final paper! Write at least 4-5 pages.

Everyone writes differently. Some people simply start typing and don’t stop until they have written fifty pages that they later pare down to 10 pages. Some people outline, construct a map on a huge piece of butcher paper, or make a sheaf of notecards. Some do all of the above. Use whatever strategies work for you. This is your opportunity to start thinking about the main points and organization of your paper, what will come first, second, third, and so on. Whatever works best for you in developing a well-organized and thoughtful paper is what you ought to do.

Remember to think of your paper as offering an argument or a solution to a compelling question or problem, where you make claims, provide evidence, and give warrants connecting that evidence with those claims. A warrant is a general principle that creates a logical bridge between some particular piece of evidence and a particular claim (See Booth, Colomb and Williams, Chapter 9, see also Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments).

We will not be grading this assignment on polish. Rather, we’re giving you this deadline so that at least a month before the final paper is due, you have a very good sense of where you need to go. Everyone revises! A journal does not publish papers that are in their first draft. Likewise, we will not put a grade on a paper that is obviously in its first draft.