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Writing Your Career Research Paper: Overview and Application to this Class
Hello! My name is David Taylor and I work at UMUC’s Effective Writing Center. It’s great to be with you in EDCP 100. I hope that you find this conference helpful and, most of all, that it gets you off to a great start on your career research paper. Honestly, you are being given a unique opportunity with the writing project for this class:
In this thread I would like to offer an overview of how we will proceed in this conference and what the outcomes should be. No response is required. Sit back and relax. Overview Why do teachers assign so many doggone (you may use a different word) research papers in college? Actually, that’s a very intelligent question. It's another way of asking why so much importance is placed on your ability to use research materials in writing. The answer is strikingly simple: because an adult professional conducts some form of research and analysis virtually every day. You may be asked to evaluate a new inventory program for possible purchase; to determine the relationship between a social worker’s case load and client outcome; to compare your company’s price structure to a competitor’s; to find the best location for opening a new store; to select the best insurance policy for your family; and so on. All of those tasks require you to carry out five basic steps of the research process: (1)
formulate the question to be answered
(2) determine your information needs (3) acquire reliable information through research (4) analyze the information you have gathered; (5) answer your original question in a format that is effectively organized, accurately documented, and clearly written. As we prepare your career paper, you will receive instruction for each step of this research process. It is the same process that you will be asked to carry out over and again as you attempt to answer important questions at school, at work, and in life. Each of the following threads will focus on one of the steps of this research process. Our goal is to work carefully through each step so that you can see one of the most important truths about writing a research paper: Each step builds upon the one before it. One misstep can compromise the end product. However, the other side of that coin is much shinier: The student who works methodically through the five steps of the research process—and especially the student who solicits feedback from places like the Effective Writing Center—is much more likely to have an outstanding paper. Go to the next thread and let’s get started! David Taylor Senior Advisor Effective Writing Center UMUC Great Links The Research Process - Online Guide to Writing and Research Writng a Research Paper |