Investigating Happiness at College
SNAPSHOT:
TOPIC Either a specific group related to college or a factor within college life that possibly affects a specified group of college students or students in general.
PITCH Present your topic and your research question to the class—
shark tank! Sound too scary? How about guppy tank ?). Tentative due date: 2/5 & 2/7
ESSAY 1 The prospectus and the annotated bibliography. Tentative due date: 2/21
ESSAY 2 Change in your topic or conducting your own study
Tentative due date: 3/16 ESSAY 3 Argument about a specific controversy within your topic
Tentative due date: 4/6 ESSAY 4 Answers and argues your refined research question about the importance of your topic.
Tentative due date: 4/24
♥ Rough drafts with reflections about what is working and not working and WHY will be required for the prospectus and essays 2 and 3. The work on the rough draft and the reflections will count toward your essay grade.
♥ Final reflections submitted the class period after you submit your final draft for essays 2-4 will also count as part of your essay grade.
♥ You will upload your drafts on Moodle. You will be asked to identify the portions of the sources you used and submit hard copies of your sources in a folder or files of your sources online.
Investigating Happiness at College:
Some questions that will help you form your own research questions:
● Is happiness a necessity or a perk in college life? ● What do the expectations of happiness and the pursuit of
happiness reveal about a specific college group, college students in general, or another college-related group?
● Considering both on-campus factors and off-campus factors (at least at first), what most influences your group’s happiness (or unhappiness)?
● Is there one major factor (on campus or off campus) you would want to investigate that affects students’ happiness?
● How do the expectations about happiness that society has in general or a certain specific segment of society (for instance, parents) has, relate to college or college students?
● How much do preconceived notions and expectations about college life affect student happiness?
● Hard work is hard to enjoy. So how do students balance that hard work with the other joys of life?
This semester you will be investigating happiness and some aspect of college life. You will either pick some SPECIFIC GROUP you are interested in studying. Here are some examples of a SPECIFIC GROUP : first-year athletes (or better: freshman football redshirts), sorority members, RAs, members of religious groups, art students, students who work on campus, international students (or better: Puerto Rican college students), cafeteria workers, and so forth.
OR you will investigate a certain aspect of college life that FACTORS into either the overall college students’ happiness or some segment of college students’ happiness. Here are some examples of FACTORS : technology, parking, textbooks, teaching style, major selection, on-campus jobs, work,
parental pressure, procrastination, and so forth—though I would suggest tying these to a specific group, such as first-year students or early admission students, I won’t require it.
Just note : it is better to start too specifically on a narrow GROUP or FACTOR ; then, if the need arises, you can broaden the GROUP or FACTOR . You might start your investigation with Puerto Rican students, but find you have to expand it to students from US territories, then students whose first language is Spanish, and so forth.
Note that it is usually more interesting to study a group that you are not a member of or that you want to understand better; however, this is not a requirement. MOST IMPORTANTLY : FOLLOW WHAT YOU ARE MOST INTERESTED IN—BEING INTERESTED IN YOUR TOPIC MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE FOR HOW YOUR SEMESTER GOES!
ENGLISH 102: RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS
● The Pitch ● Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography Essay 1
● Essays 2 & 3 ● Essay 4
THE PITCH (tentative due date 2/5 & 2/7)
You will make a minute-long pitch in class (each class decided to do this method). You will justify your planned topic and why you want to research it. You will center the pitch around your research question. By the time you submit your pitch, you will have familiarized yourself with preliminary research about your topic to get a general view of it and its viability. What is the question about your topic that you want an answer to this semester? What have you found in your preliminary research about it? Why is it valuable to research and study this specific topic? Think Shark Tank–or how about guppy tank . PROSPECTUS & ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ESSAY 1 (tentative due date 2/21)
1) In the Prospectus (500-750 words/MLA format), you will explain your research topic for the semester and what you plan to do for each essay. The prospectus is more informal and you can use “I” in it; it won’t include sources because you should be writing it from your general knowledge of the topic without referring to specific sources. See pages 215-18 in C&RG and my guidelines below. Note that this is not just something you can write from the top of your head. This takes a lot of legwork and preliminary thinking, discussing, and research to be sure it is a viable topic with viable mini-topics for essays 2 and 3.
2) The annotated bibliography is a list of sources that will serve as the foundation for your research this semester. It is a list of at least 10 sources (see the specific requirements below) in MLA Works Cited style, but in addition to the source information, you provide information about the sources such as author information and context, the type of source it is, a summary of the source, quick evaluation, specific sections that are of interest, your reactions to it, and how you might use this in your essays this semester. See the specific directions in C&RG 219-220 about multi-source annotated bibs and my example that is linked in the assignment when we did our first annotated bib entry. Please note, that the summary of the source must be your own summary—you cannot just use the abstract that comes with the article! Plagiarism rules apply! In each entry think: context , main point, summary, evaluation, and reflection about how it might work into your essays this semester. The bibliography must contain the following types of sources, but you are welcome and encouraged to have more:
● at least 4 scholarly secondary sources (from academic journals) ● at least 1 other secondary source (reliable but not necessarily scholarly) ● at least 2 nonfiction primary sources ● at least 1 creative primary source ● the remaining sources should be reliable and appropriate for academic essays.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PROSPECTUS Introduction See the section about the prospectus in the Composition and Rhetoric Guide for more specific help.
Describe your group or the factor you are investigating and the connection to happiness. Why you chose this group or factor and what about it interests you. Say what you hope to argue/prove OR, best, present your research question. You might find writing and reviewing this paragraph helps you with your pitch.
Each Body section 1-3 should develop most of the following areas: What you hope to discover/prove in this essay or your limited research question geared to this
essay and any necessary explanation that will help your audience. What opposition might say (and perhaps how you might persuade them). What specific categories of sources you might look for and what sources do you already plan to use. What primary sources you might use to illustrate your point. What troubles you anticipate having.
Body Section 1 (this corresponds to Essay 2– make sure you review the prompt for this essay below before you tackle this !). For this essay you’ll have two choices:
Option 1: explain a significant change in the group or factor related to happiness and what you might argue about it.
Option 2: You’ll do your own study on your topic, and then in an essay modeled off a scholarly research article, you will report what previous scholars have said, how you conducted your study, your findings from your own field research, and your conclusions based on your research.
*For both options, you’ll discuss what type of field study you are planning to conduct to gather first-hand information and why you plan to use that type.
Body Section Two (this corresponds to Essay 3–make sure you review the prompt for this essay below!)
identifies and explains a controversial issue within your topic and how you will tackle the argument. Body Section Three (this corresponds to Essay 4–make sure you review the prompt for this essay below!)
explain why your research is important to pursue and what impacts it might reveal. This essay will try to answer in an argument your main research question for the semester. Also consider why your audience should care about the group/factor you focused on and what is the impact of your findings on the group itself, students, colleges, and possibly communities? You may also end up discussing some of the implications for the future.
Conclusion
Why it is worth studying? Why is it important to study? Overall opposition/what different sides will say? Return to your thesis or research question and consider what you think you’ll discover and why.
Your annotated bibliography will then follow on a new page but will be submitted in the same file as the prospectus.
ESSAYS 2-3, OVERALL REQUIREMENTS ● Each essay must make a well-supported argument with well-integrated sources and be
based on the assigned prompts below. To get a passing grade: you must support an arguable thesis based on your own thoughts about your topic and the sources you have read and the research you have conducted; each must also be a 1,000-1,300 words, have 5-6 sources minimum (see the individual requirements for each essay) that are cited in the style required for each essay. See the syllabus about the other requirements as far as rough draft, final draft, and revision submissions.
● Sources must be well-integrated in the text of the essay with the use of direct quotation, summary, and paraphrase as well as in-text citations. A Works Cited must be included, and though it is the last page of your essay it does not count as part of the word requirement!
● You will upload your drafts on Moodle. ● You will be asked to identify the portions of the sources you used and submit hard copies of
your sources in a folder or files of your sources online. ● Be sure to review the rubrics and checklist in The Composition and Rhetoric Guide as you
draft and revise!
ESSAY 2: ARGUMENT/1,000 WORDS/6 INTEGRATED SOURCES/MLA/WORKS CITED (tentative due date 3/16)
Option 1: Argue a significant change in the group or factor related to happiness. Option 2: You’ll do your own study on your topic, and then in an essay modeled off a scholarly
research article, you will report what previous scholars have said, how you conducted your study, your findings from your own field research, and your conclusions based on your research.
Things to consider if you are writing about change: Have things always been this way? If not, what sparked a change? What caused the problem/issue to begin or become significant? What kind of impact did the significant change have on members of your selected group or on the impression of the factor you are focused on? How do current college students reflect/or not reflect this change?
If you are going to conduct your own study, you’ll figure out the best way to try to collect information about the group or factor, how you’ll conduct your study, how you plan to collect information from the subjects you are studying. You’ll also consider what other researchers have found as you figure this all out. Finally, you’ll make some conclusions about your findings.
Required minimum source guidelines: ● at least 1 scholarly secondary source from an academic journal ● at least 1 secondary nonfiction book source (does not need to be scholarly) ● at least 1 field research primary source that you conducted yourself. ● at least 1 primary nonfiction source or at least 1 creative media primary
source (try to have both of these because you’ll be more likely to meet the final essay 4 required sources)
● a reliable source of any type (student’s choice) that is appropriate for an academic audience and purpose
ESSAY 3: ARGUMENT/1,000 WORDS/5 INTEGRATED SOURCES/MLA & APA/WORKS CITED & REFERENCES
(tentative due date 4/6)
For the third research essay, you will make a formal argument regarding a controversial issue within your topic having to do with the group or factor you have been studying this semester. This will be an
academic essay, but if you wish you could gear your argument to your particular group or college students in general. So for instance, if you are studying how parents affect college student happiness, you might choose to write to an audience of college students to convince them of something about their parents OR you might write to an audience of parents to try to convince them of something about their college students. If you don’t want to aim toward a specific audience, you’ll be writing to a general audience.
Required minimum source guidelines: Three scholarly secondary sources Two primary
ESSAY 4: ARGUMENT/2,000 WORDS/MUST BE SUBMITTED TO MOODLE/10 SOURCES/WORKS CITED (tentative due date 4/24) All of the same submission standards for Essays 2-3 listed above apply to this essay except the word count and number of sources: 2000 words and a minimum of 10 sources as listed below.
This essay is the culmination of all your work this semester. Based on what you have learned this semester, you will argue the role of happiness in your group or how it relates to the factor you’ve chosen. Can happiness factor into student success? What is student success: social? academic? self-confidence? resiliency? a good job? a proud family? Should students expect to be happy most of the time in college? Alternatively, do students understand that hard work and tough choices may lead to greater happiness later? Should colleges (including students) do more to promote happiness and well-being? Should students care more about their own foundational happiness? What are the implications for the future? What needs to be studied more?
You will be using parts of your other essays to complete this one, BUT this should feel like a new essay and not just a copy and paste job! You most likely have to do some new research to support your thesis.
Required minimum source guidelines: Seven scholarly (at least three academic journals) Three primary (at least one creative source)
See my syllabus about what to do if Essay 1 doesn’t go well & revising Essays 2, & 3 for a new grade and the required procedure and last day of submission for doing this. If you are unhappy with your grade, you should come to see me immediately and use the writing center to get help. There is a
portfolio review option as well if you have made improvements over the semester—see the explanation in the Composition and Rhetoric Guide . Please ask for help if you are feeling stuck!
REFLECTION PORTION OF YOUR ESSAY GRADE
You will be asked to submit a rough draft with a detailed description of what you think is working and not working and why. Failure to reflect in depth will lower your essay grade and I will not give feedback on any essay that does not include this detailed reflection. This draft and your reflections on it may count toward your overall grade on that essay.
When you finish a final draft of essays 2, 3, and 4, on the next class day, you will submit a reflection that’s at least three paragraphs that contain the following:
♥ Paragraph 1: You will reflect on what’s working and not working on the essay and WHY this is and assign a letter grade to your essay that you believe would be fair based on the final product (not necessarily the effort you put into it)—you can use the self-analysis rubric to guide you.
♥ Paragraph 2: You’ll discuss the decisions you made during the writing of the essay, both on the page and in how you allotted time and effort. So you might discuss why you tried an informal but catchy introduction and your decision to have a two-paragraph conclusion with sources cited in it, and then discuss that you really thought a lot about writing the essay for the whole week but when it came down to it you started to work on the final draft at 9PM before it was due and you ran out of time and energy.
♥ Paragraph 3: You’ll reflect on what you are learning about writing and yourself as a writer. Please be extra careful to follow my submission instructions for drafts and final drafts.
