Reference no: EM132453955

The writing and researching involved in this essay will give you a better sense of what research is and how and why it is done. Class work will orient you to the FNC libraries and their various resources, and help you gain a better understanding of different types of writing and publications.

Paper #1: A description of a CURRENT (within the last 12 months) topic or development in your field and an explanation of its significance to those outside of the field.

Audience: Students new to your major who have a curiosity or research interest in this particular topic but no prior specialized knowledge of the topic; your English 3311 teacher

Length: at least 2 to 3 pages, not counting references page (MLA)

There are two basic tasks to fulfill in this paper:

- to describe this topic or development as clearly and concisely as possible for the specified audience; in other words, to educate your audience about this topic as thoroughly as possible given the space constraints.

- to make a compelling, specific, and explicit case explaining obvious and not-so-obvious reasons this development is important to the world outside your major.

It may help you to think in terms of a little role-playing to imagine how this assignment might match real-world expectations: You are doing research or making something closely related to this topic. Your company, department, or division needs funds to begin your research or project. To be awarded these funds, you need to go in front of a group of people and provide them some necessary background as they make their decision. This could be an internal or external group: a board of directors, a grant committee, a government agency, a venture capital firm, among other possibilities. You can't assume (ever!) that every member of the group making the funding decision is familiar with your topic.

We need to understand and be responsible for the terminology we use given the audience for whom we write. This means that you need to decide for yourself how much members of the specified audience already know about the topic and its terminology, and how much those student doesn't know. This will help you in turn decide what kind of vocabulary, detail, and tone will be appropriate for your writing.

You'll also need to decide what kind of research is appropriate for the paper. Many of you will rely heavily on popular sources for this paper, though scholarly sources will be helpful or necessary in certain cases. I will require in-text citations and a references page in the citation style of your choice. That references page should include a variety of source material, so that your reader will understand that you are not simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and purpose.

You will receive a provisional grade on this paper. If you choose to revise the paper, that provisional grade will be entirely replaced by the final grade.