The topic must focus on a single aspect, as in “How far do
corporations intrude into the private lives of their employers?” or “The social
costs of financing the distribution of custom-designed drugs.”
The Final Research Project will present research relating
the responsibilities of a critical thinker to contemporary society. In this
assignment, you will do the following:
Research one aspect of a contemporary social problem.
Define the problem.
Propose a possible solution for the problem.
Create an argument that supports your thesis position. You
should take on the perspective of a critically thinking researcher. The
argument must present a thesis statement and evidence to support the thesis
statement.
Evaluate the ethical outcomes that result from the position
you take on the issue and explain how those outcomes would influence society
and culture.
Interpret statistical data from at least two peer-reviewed
scholarly sources.
Evaluate evidence using the following standards: validity,
reliability, and bias related to the chosen topic and accurately identify
strengths and weaknesses.
Research and Define the Problem
You must take on the perspective of your major field of
study and explain in your paper what that perspective is and how it informs
your view of the topic. The topics listed above are far too broad to write
about in 10–12 pages (3,300–3,900 words). Instead, you must choose a narrowly
defined thesis and approach it from the perspective of your field.
Example: If you are an economics major, and you are
interested in immigration reform, you should approach a very specific aspect of
immigration reform through the lens of economic theory and practice. A specific
thesis question would not be, “How does illegal immigration influence the U.S.
economy?” One could write thousands of pages on such a topic. Instead, a better
question would be, “How do illegal immigrant hotel workers in Chicago impact
the economy of Northern Illinois?” You would then want to do the research and
determine the positive and negative impacts they have, ultimately trying to
conclude how illegal immigration in this area should be approached ethically.
How to Hone Your Thesis: It is important that you start your
research early in this course. Try to find the most important contemporary questions
and theories in your field of study and then align the most important questions
with a very specific aspect of the general topics above. For example, if you
are a psychology major, you might want to start thinking within the realm of
healthcare reform or aspects of mental health and criminality in the prison
system.
Your Argument
You must present a complete argument, including a major
claim with at least five points of evidence, information, or data that will
prove the claim.
The thesis statement must be
A clear, simple declarative sentence as the first or last
sentence in the opening paragraph of the essay.
Of such a nature that it can be substantiated, corroborated,
verified, and proved through appeal to primary or secondary academic research
source materials.
The introductory paragraph must
Present the thesis statement, an explanation for the
importance of the topic, and its relation to the student’s field of study.
Beliefs, opinions, and personal opinions must not be
introduced at any point in the essay.
All beliefs and opinions should be supported with academic
evidence. Sweeping generalizations with no supporting academicevidence do not
reflect adequate critical thinking skills.
Do not include rhetorical questions in your essays. All the
questions that are pertinent to your project need to be answered in your essay
and your answers again need to be supported with evidence from peer-reviewed
journal articles and academically published books.
Attributes of Good Critical Thinking in Papers
Your paper should include academic sources that explain
multiple sides of the issue.
The evidence that you use should come from high-level
researchers engaged in your field of study.
Your interpretations of the evidence should be objective and
state the conclusions and theses presented in the evidence clearly and fairly.
Your paper should place the various forms of evidence in
relation to one another and demonstrate why one form or perspective is stronger
than the other positions that one could take on the issue.
Your paper should point out the limitations of current
evidence and attempt to indicate areas for future research.
Ethical Outcomes of the Position You Take
After you have defined the problem and created an argument
about how one ought to respond to the issue, you need to explain the ethical
outcomes of the position you have taken. This should again be in relation to
the field of study in which you are working. There might be different ethical
outcomes that result from your analysis. For example, going back to the example
issue above, from an economic standpoint, illegal immigrants might contribute
positively to the economy of Northern Illinois in a specific number of ways.
Thus, an economist who believes that positive impact to the economy is the
greatest good would say that one should promote the use of illegal immigrants.
However, because these workers are often paid less than others and eliminate
jobs that could be done by residents of Chicago, there could be other negative
ethical outcomes that would outweigh the positive impacts to the economy. It is
your goal to draw out the ethical implications of your thesis and explain the
underlying rationale that is the foundation for your claim that one action is
better than another.
Critical thinkers are those who can outline the positive and
negative ethical impacts of their positions. In addition, they are able to
provide a rationale for why they believe a specific position is the right
position, even when it leads to negative outcomes.
Critical thinkers are also able to be honest and objective
about the limitations and gray areas that pertain to their theses.
Final Research Project Requirements
The Final Research Project may be presented as a formal
research paper (essay format), a PowerPoint presentation, a video, or a podcast
equivalent to a minimum of 10 – 12 pages in APA format (approximately 3,300 –
3,900 typewritten words, excluding title page and reference pages). Written
essays must adhere to all APA formatting standards and requirements, as
outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
PowerPoint presentations must include the full text (at
least 3,300 words) in the speaker notes portion of the slides, with appropriate
citations, and full reference pages. PowerPoint presentations must adhere to
the basic principles of PowerPoint presentation design and must include
citations and references according to APA standards and requirements.
Videos and podcasts must include a full transcript, in APA
format, including appropriate in-text citations and a references page.
Quotations:
There must be no more than 15% quoted content in the body of
your essay. All quoted material must bear quotation marks and a full quotation
citation.
Source Documents:
There must be 10 or more source documents used, cited, and
referenced.
Multimedia sources (such as videos) may be used, but no more
than two such sources may be used. If multimedia sources are used, then they
must be authored and distributed by credible sources, such as universities, law
schools, medical schools, or professors, or found in the Ashford University
Library.
Where print documents are used for source materials, those
must be peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles, and academically published
books. Popular media sources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television and radio
shows, etc.) may not be used. Materials from advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace,
Human Rights Campaign, National Organization for Women, etc.) may not be used.
Two of the peer-reviewed scholarly sources used must include
statistical evidence, which must be accurately interpreted.
Sites such as ProCon.org and Wikipedia should not be used.
Religious texts are neither peer-reviewed nor scholarly and
so may not be used in any way.
Summary Conclusion:
You must have a summary conclusion as the last paragraph(s)
of the project, presenting the major point of the essay and the evidence
supporting that point.
Word Count:
The content body of the project must be 3,300 words or more.
The word count does not include anything in the title page, running header, or
reference list. It is expected that you meet all logistical requirements of
this paper.
Reference List:
The list of references must include only those source
documents that are cited within the body of the project.
The project must fully comply with APA formatting standards
and requirements as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center: title page, running
header with page numbers, font face and size, line spacing, citations, and
reference page(s).
