Turning in your research proposal on time is part of the total grade for the res

Turning in your research proposal on time is part of the total grade for the research project and you will see the points for it on the main research assignment rubric.
Your proposal can be just a few sentences or a paragraph. It should describe your topic idea at a minimum, and could include details about why you chose it or how you plan to proceed if you are that far along in your process. Refer to Research Paper assignment for more detail on this major semester long project if you need additional information.
Example:
I want to research the topic of Steganography, which is the practice of concealing messages within other messages. I will give a short history of how steganography has been used, discuss why someone would want use steganography, describe how it is done now, and include some examples of steganography in practice. [Please note that now that I’ve used Steganography as an example here, you should choose a different topic for your paper.]
At the end of this term, you will be presenting a research project on a subject of your own choosing. The work will be presented in front of your classmates as an oral report with visual aids, and handed in as a written report. You may select your own topic.
As part of your skill set as a communicator, you should know how to
Research and organize information on a complex topic
Write an accurate, complete, clear, logical, well-written report
Evaluate and select credible source material
Cite source material
Prepare and deliver an informative talk with visual aids
This assignment is intended to help you learn and practice these skills.
Here are some ideas for choosing a subject:
Research a home based business idea or a future career option you are considering.
Report on a project you have been working on in your job or home life. For example, you could describe a home remodeling project. You could discuss a project you have completed at your job. Students have in the past reported on major software rollouts, marketing materials they created, job searches, ideas for starting businesses, hobbies, and a variety of other topics. This is probably the easiest way to complete this project, as you would be doing some of the required research anyway.
Research a topic that interests you. During a previous semester, three students were building computers and wrote about that process in various ways. Many students have written about a chosen career path, including the outlook for that career, working conditions, required training, and job duties.
Please keep in mind that research is required; this should not be a paper that simply states your opinion on a particular topic. No matter what topic you choose, I expect you to do research, cite a minimum of four sources and include a bibliography.
This project will be submitted as a written report about seven to ten pages long, including a cover page and a bibliography, and also presented live in a talk about ten minutes long. Draft versions of the report will be due several times during the semester. Please remember that timely submission of your work is part of your grade, so be sure to on submit all the project deliverables on schedule.
Completed papers are turned in May 5 by midnight. Please note that the final project is due on this date no matter which date you choose to present your talk about your work.
Elements of papers
Some of you will choose to do informative reports, where you find out about a topic and summarize your research. Others will be preparing analytical reports, where you describe a problem and recommend a solution. Formats for various types of reports will be discussed in more detail in our book in Chapter 12. You do not have to follow these formats exactly, but your report will be downgraded if it is just one big block of text without sections indicated.
Additionally, all written reports are expected to include at least one captioned visual aid, which could be an image related to the topic of the paper, a graph summarizing data in the paper, a chart that visually represents one of the ideas in the paper, or some other non-text content.
example of a chart that could be included in a research paper
this is a caption for the image above to demonstrate how to add captions to images
Figure 1 – add a caption to whatever image you include so your reader knows why it’s there and what it represents. This graph depicts market share of various browsers over time.
All final projects should include a formal report and an oral presentation with accompanying slides or other visual aids, such as a PowerPoint presentation, presented on one of the several presentation dates. Presentation materials do not have to be turned in, but I will provide feedback on any presentation slides that are turned in with the final projects.
Additional discussion about the components of the report, such as effective visual aids and presentation slides, will take place in the weeks leading up to presentation of the report.
Components of your finished research project:
A written paper of 7 to 10 pages; this paper should include
A cover page with a title for your report
Section headings
At least one captioned visual aid
A complete bibliography using APA style, as described on page 576 in Appendix B of your book
An electronic version of your paper submitted to the plagiarism detection tool in Canvas
The oral presentation
A talk of about 10 minutes in length, presented with visual aids such as PowerPoint slides
Talks will be presented in small groups using the ConferZoom conferencing tool on December 1, 3, and 5. You will only be required to attend the session where your talk is presented, but you are welcome to attend any session to hear other students present.
These talks are really interesting and fun to listen to. Your classmates have a variety of interests. I guarantee you will learn something new by listening to your classmates.
How to sign up for a talk
I have put three dates onto the Canvas calendar: May 4, 6, and 8 for you to sign up to present. Each time slot is three hours long and you will stay the entire three hours if necessary, giving your talk and listening to other students present their work. I will spend a little time at the beginning of the hour giving you a short visual tour of Zoom so you know how it will work for your turn when you present your talk.
–>> There are a limited number of spaces available on each day. If you wait to sign up, there is no guarantee that space is available when you want. <<-- If you arrive a little early and want to practice launching your presentation, that's fine. I will be there 30 minutes ahead of time. Please sign up for a time to give your talk using the Canvas calendar. Here's an explanation of how to sign up on the calendar. Frequently asked questions about the research project Why are we preparing this formal report? In professional communications, there are a variety of reports you may be required to prepare that will follow this formal style. The style is different from an essay you might write to fulfill an English assignment, for example, and learning to prepare such a report and present it to others is part of your communications skills toolbox. Why are we starting this project so far in advance of the due date? The best reports are well researched and thoughtful. You are more likely to produce high quality work if you spend some time on the project. How will the report be graded? See the rubric for this report for information on the grading of the project. What if my idea changes as I work on the report? Many students find that their original idea is unworkable for some reason. Perhaps you have chosen a topic that is too large for a report of this type. Perhaps you planned to write on a work project you will have completed by the end of the term, but the project has been delayed. Perhaps as you worked on the project, new information was uncovered that changed the direction of the research. All of these things are okay, but if you have questions about how your project is progressing, feel free to contact me about them. I don’t really understand how to prepare a bibliography. How can I get help? Check the back of your textbook, Appendix B, for rules and examples of how to create an APA bibliography. A list of URLs is not a bibliography. Additionally, the reference librarians at the college are a great resource if you are unclear on how to cite sources. Las Positas also has access to a great online tool to help you create a bibliography called Noodlebib. Ask in the library for information on Noodlebib or check this library page for information. What are the biggest challenges students have in this assignment? Learning to write for your audience: Sometimes students have a hard time understanding how to write this report for an audience that doesn't know anything about their topic. For example, if you write about starting a small business, assume that your audience doesn't know that SBA stands for Small Business Administration, or that the SBA is a government organization. If you write about selling some product on Etsy, assume that your audience hasn't been part of an Etsy transaction. If you want to talk about building a computer, think about what kinds of questions a person would have who had never opened a computer case or worked on a computer system. Think about how you might explain your topic to a friend or relative who isn't in this field, and that will help you define your approach. Choosing a topic that can be covered completely: Another common difficulty is choosing a topic that is too large. For example, you probably don't want to write on alternative sources of energy, as this is a very big topic. You might want to write about installing solar panels on your roof, however. It’s always better to cover less material and explain it more completely. Selecting credible sources: Just because you can find a page somewhere on the internet claiming something is true, that does not make it true. You can find claims that instant noodles cause cancer, or cooking food in microwaves drips toxins into your food, just to cite two examples of false statements. Your credibility as a communicator depends on selecting and citing established and proven sources for the material in your paper. The library offers a guide to evaluating source material here. We will have assigned work on how to do research and evaluate sources later in the term. Distinguishing fact from opinion: Many people choose a topic because they feel very strongly about it. That’s fine, but remember in the interests of informing your audience and being deemed a credible source, you need to present your material in a fact-based way, supported by research using at least four different, credible sources. If you think the NFL did not handle information on concussions in a way that was fair to the athletes, build a case using facts and evidence instead of personal outrage. This is a research project, not an editorial, and your opinions are not relevant to the content of the paper. Creating a proper bibliography: Remember to use a bibliography, with correct APA bibliographic style. You can’t just copy down the URLs you used to get your information and list them in the back. If you want to be a credible communicator, you need to use proper formats, such as those described in Appendix B, to show your authority and your respect for your audience. a fanned out collection of paint chips, used here just as an example of a very vivid picture a sample caption for the image above it Figure 2- add an image to your text and be sure to caption it so readers know what they're looking at. Here. that might be something about the variety of paint colors available for construction and renovation projects. Including a captioned visual aid: Remember to include non-text information such as an image or graph in both your paper and your talk. This is important for you to learn to do in the business world, and it can also help make printed words easier to follow for some of your audience. This could be photographic images, graphs, or flow charts, just to name a few examples. Creating a good introduction and a complete summary at the end: Finally, remember to include both an introduction and a conclusion when you write and when you present your work orally. A conclusion, for example, should include a summary of your talk, highlighting the two or three most important points -- more content than “Well, that's all I have!” We'll look more closely at report structure later in the term. Can I see some examples? In the Modules section of Canvas, you can see examples of previous student work for this assignment. the Modules section of Canvas under Research Papers showing a list of sample papers Figure 3 - Accessing the Sample Papers in Canvas. Your menu in Canvas may look different than this one. This list should include at least four sources you plan to consult to complete your research project. This can include web sites, books, interviews, company brochures, and lots of other kinds of source material. If you need ideas on source material, the Las Positas library includes a number of useful tutorials on this subject. At this point your list does not have to be in proper bibliography format. That will come later. I have gotten permission from four students with very different research projects to share the results of their work. The first paper and slides are about designing rides at Disneyland. The second one is about antibiotic resistant bacteria, and (content warning) there are some kind of disgusting looking images in the slides. The third one is about brewing beer. The assignment only requires that you include visual aids, and this student decided use the actual brewing equipment as his visual aids , so there are no PowerPoint slides. Obviously, this is easiest to do if what you plan to show is large so your classmates can see it clearly. This is easier to do for some talks than others. For example, if you were giving a talk on assembling a computer, it's hard to show the detail on a motherboard over a camera, so using digital images is probably more logical, but I have seen talks both ways. The fourth one is about how to create a successful Kickstarter campaign. All of these students received A's on their work. I have left in some of the comments and corrections in the work, so you can see what that looked like.