Connecting Personal Experience to Scholarship—I-Search Paper
Academic scholarship may at first seem “esoteric” to many students who join the university. But most issues of academic scholarship are based on the reality or experience/interests of the authors or their community/society. This assignment asks you to take up the same issue from your first (personal narrative) essay and conduct some research in order to better understand the broader social implications of the issue/problem underlying your personal experience/story. In other words, you will explore the question/topic from a “scholarly” perspective—or that of someone who is interested in the social, intellectual, or otherwise broader point of view. NOTE: If you want to write this paper on a topic that is different from that of your personal narrative, you must get it approved by discussing it in person with me; the type of your paper must be the same as described here.
This is an “I-Search” paper, which means that you must describe the “process” of how you conducted the research; what/who your audience, context, purpose were/are; what you already knew, what you learned from the research, and what you’d like to further understand about the subject; what you found useful, challenging, etc, during the search; and, finally, how you turned the notes you took in the process (that is, how you gathered, analyzed, and organized information) into the paper that you are submitting. You can not only conduct standard academic research using academic databases but also so do surveys and interviews and/or general internet research for learning the basics about the topic; but any time you use major ideas that comprise the substance of your paper, you must cite the source of the information/idea using the MLA style. You will learn how to conduct survey and interview as well internet and library research in class. You must use at least 6 outside sources in your paper (survey and interview count as one item each). Note that this paper involves describing a process of exploration, so you should pursue that process with an open mind rather than trying to “argue a position” by finding support for what you already believed or knew. Remember that taking notes is a critical part of this assignment. This paper must be 3-6 pages long in standard format.