Focus Paper Assignment | Homework Help Websites

This is the first assignment designed to prepare you for the 7-10 page research paper.  This assignment is not an essay–it is a set of responses to 4 questions.  This is the first step in the Research Paper writing process.  There is a model available in the Modules–your Focus Paper should look like the model.  Each response is worth 5 points.

The purpose of the focus paper is to offer you a chance to organize your thoughts on your topic, to reflect on your rationale, and to strengthen your motivation for writing it.  To start, choose a topic from the list of possible topics given in the Research Paper assignment. Then, respond to the following prompts:

1. Prior knowledge and experience:  State your topic and explain its significance to you or its importance as a social or political issue.  What personal experience or prior knowledge do you have regarding the issue?   What is your tentative position on the issue?  (This may change as you conduct your research)

2. Research questions:  While you have a tentative position on the topic, you probably have at least 2 or 3 questions you hope to answer regarding your topic.  What are those questions?  Answer one as best you can without help of any sources.  (As you continue to go through your research, keep these questions in mind and note whether or not they have been answered satisfactorily.)

3. Initial source:  Offer a synopsis of the reading selection in Rereading America that you will cite in your research paper.   Do you have a sense of how you will use it in yøur paper?  Consider:  Does it offer helpful contextual information to your topic?  Does it offer evidentiary support for your position?  A counterargument?  Does it point you to other sources?
4. Concerns:  Describe 1 or 2 problems do you expect to encounter as you research your paper?  How do you plan to solve them?

Guidelines for the Focus Paper

Number your responses to each section.

Raquel asks:

“Professor, can you provide us with examples for each response section of the Focus Paper.”

Yes I Can.  Below Are Model Responses.

Model Responses

The purpose of the focus paper is to offer you a chance to organize your thoughts on your topic, to reflect on your rationale, and to strengthen your motivation for writing it. In about two pages run through the following prompts:

1. Prior knowledge and experience: State your topic and explain its significance to you or its importance as a social or political issue. What personal experience or prior knowledge do you have regarding the issue? What is your tentative position on the issue? (This may change as you conduct your research)

My topic is immigration.

My tentative position is this: College students who are “illegal immigrants” should be allowed to pay in state tuition fees.
My personal experience with the issue is that I have friends who are not here “legally” but they have been here since they were in elementary school—they are here because their parents brought them here. Now they have grown up and want to go to college and they are being punished for something out of their control! I want to argue that they should pay CA resident tuition fees at local colleges like ELAC instead of out of state tuition fees that run up to 2000 dollars for 2 classes at ELAC—that is wrong. Also, I just saw in the news that in California there was legislation that would allow illegal immigrants like my friend to pay my CA resident rate at ELAC and that legislation failed! Or I think it didn’t pass. So, I think this issue is current and important and controversial.

2. Research questions: While you have a tentative position on the topic, you probably have at least 2 or 3 questions you hope to answer regarding your topic. What are those questions? Answer one as best you can without help of any sources. (As you continue to go through your research, keep these questions in mind and note whether or not they have been answered satisfactorily.)

Here are my questions:
1) I don’t know exactly what the out of state tuition fees are for ELAC, Cal State LA or UCLA—I mean, if someone from Nevada were to come to California to go to college, how much do they have to pay more than someone who is a resident? I should know this for my paper.
2) It seems illogical that someone who is born in America but in Nevada has to pay more for an education at ELAC than someone who is here illegally—how can I resolve this contradiction? Am I going to argue that an American citizen from Utah has to pay more than an “illegal immigrant” for an education at ELAC–that would not make sense to a lot of people–and here is a related question–why does a Utah resident have to pay more than a California resident if the Utah resident wants to go to college in California? What is the fiscal and legal reasoning behind this reality? I should understand that for my position.
3) What will happen to the high school graduates who all of a sudden have to pay thousands of dollars for just one semester at a community college or university?

3. Initial source: Offer a synopsis of the reading selection in Rereading America that you will cite in your research paper. Do you have a sense of how you will use it in yøur paper? Consider: Does it offer helpful contextual information to your topic? Does it offer evidentiary support for your position? A counterargument? Does it point you to other sources?

I was reviewing Rereading America, and Vincent Parillo’s essay on “The Causes of Prejudice” seems like a source I will use. There are psychological causes of prejudice and sociological causes of prejudice. I think I can use his sociological causes of prejudice in my essay because so many people are prejudiced towards “illegal” or undocumented immigrants—I will probably be able to use Parillo as an expert and so as evidence in my essay.

4. Concerns: Describe 1 or 2 problems do you expect to encounter as you research your paper? How do you plan to solve them?

I have never written a research paper. I plan to be very organized and I plan not to procrastinate. I always procrastinate on long term projects—and that has to stop. In high school, I remember my first research paper was on whales—I chose whales because I was intimidated by the whole research project so I tried to keep it simple–whales! But in the end, it was so boring and uninteresting that I ended up procrastinating and I earned a fail for not turning it in. I am interested in my topic–it seems important and I think that will help me finish it.