RESEARCH PROJECT
From the syllabus
RESEARCH PROJECT
A project will be undertaken resulting in a research paper and a presentation. This project can be undertaken individually or in groups of two. Your will be responsible for investigating a particular contemporary social issue where individual citizens and community organizations have organized in order to seek some form of progressive social change. The type of societal change must be controversial in some way, challenging the status quo (maybe not controversial to you, but controversial to significant portions of the population). The societal change sought could be either governmental or other organizational policy changes or regulatory changes, e.g. tax laws or environmental regulations; individual changes or society wide changes, either in attitude and/or behaviour. The issue will have to have activist based organizations associated with it, groups seeking significant social change in the local/municipal, regional, national or international level. It is advisable although not necessary to choose an issue & social movement that has a local component.
A central focus of this project will be to undertake research of the issue in terms of how the issue, associated organizations and actions of the organizations have been/are perceived by society or groups therein and by the justice system as being non-conforming (thus deviant) and having perceived unlawful impacts (criminal). Thus part of the research is to explore how the individuals, group(s), action(s) are criminalized. The following are the steps to complete the project:
- Part 1: Choice and description of social issue and associated social movement: provide a rational for choice of issue and movement, i.e. why did you choose this (must still use 3rd person), and provide a brief synopsis of the issue and movement; DUE JANUARY 15th; 5 points
- Part 2: Initial research of topic: submit an annotated bibliography (a list of the academic sources that have been found, with each item having the full citation information and a brief description of the contents of the source, e.g. the abstract of an academic article), DUE JANUARY 22nd, 5 points;
- Part 3: History of social issue: submit a description of the historical context of the issue, why & how did a social movement develop, draft DUE FEBRUARY 5th, 5 points
- Part 4: Detail of societal changes being sought: explain why and how these are and are not controversial, identifying what values and/or norms and/or regulations and/or policies are being challenged and/or threatened, what groups in society are/would be affected by the sought changes, from where would the resistance to the changes stem, draft DUE FEBRUARY 12th , 5 points;
- Part 5: Description of the social movement: Describe the strategy and actions undertaken by individuals and organizations, describe the demographics of the social movement members, in essence you are discussing how the individuals within social movement organizations are seeking these changes, what is the background of these individuals – what lead them to want to seek social change and become involved in the social movement, make sure to include a discussion of nonviolence and civil disobedience (if applicable);
- Part 6: Analysis of the criminalization of the movement: Discuss how the social movement and its associated individuals and groups have been in the past and/or are currently being criminalized by the state, by media and/or other sectors of society (corporate sector, religious organizations, etc…), what actions has the state taken against persons and groups, e.g. what are the charges being brought against the group or individuals, how is the criminalization framed by media and elected and other leaders in society, what has been the reaction of sectors of society to this criminalization to these actions;
- Part 7: Personal reflection: An individual reflection piece will be required, to be submitted separately by each individual member of the group if working in pairs, in this you are to comment upon what you have learned about i) yourself & ii) about the topic you researched;
- Part 8: Individual assessment if working in pairs: Individually, you are to provide a log of the work you undertook for this project (how many hours on which day did you spend doing X task), similarly what the other person was responsible for, in essence you are describing the division of labour, commenting on the fairness of the distribution of the work involved in completing this project.
When the final research paper is submitted, any draft submissions are to be included in the final submission. There are NO EXTENSIONS for the final report submission due on APRIL 2nd and only hardcopy will be accepted, no electronic version.
Information for the above will be found in books and academic articles on the movement, the latter being available on the library journal databases, internet sources of the issues and groups, publications including monthly newsletters, press releases, brochures of the group, newspapers and other media sources, attendance of meetings of the group, interviews with group members, etc… At least 50% of the sources of information must be from academic sources. A presentation will be required and will account for 25 points. You will have 30 -40 minutes in which to present your project. See my website for further information and a draft assessment for the project.
NOTE: Remember to refer to the syllabus for additional criteria regarding written work. Type and double space the submitted paper. This report is essentially a formal academic research paper, which will be much more comprehensive in the exploration of the topic than your presentation. You are NOT to present a report based on your presentation. Only use 1st person in the individual components of the report. The paper is to have a logical sequence to the information presented. Each section should segway into the next, not just jumping into another section or issue being discussed. It is advised you use section headings. You are to assume that the reader is NOT familiar with the topic. The information is NOT to be in point form. You must use complete full paragraphs & sentences. Proper use of English is to be used, avoid using contractions, abbreviations, ‘streetspeak’ or ‘techo’ speak, e.g. using the word “like” instead of “such as”, “things” (far too vague).
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT
RESEARCH PROJECT ASSESSMENT (Presentation and paper) TOTAL 105 points
Presentation – 25 points
The presentation is a subset of the information that will be discussed in the final paper as it is impossible to cover all the information in the allotted time. Your presentation must engage the audience thus there needs to be interactive components. Simply asking the audience questions is not engaging an audience.
If the project is conducted in pairs, then the presentation assessment will comprise 10 points individual (5 style & 5 content), and 10 points group (5 style & 5 content), and 5 points activity.
10 individual content
2 – relevant material
3 – understanding of material
3 – comprehensive coverage of material
2 – organization of material presented, logical flow to points made
10 individual style
4 – articulate, intonation, speaking clearly, pace & volume of speaking, eye contact with audience
2 – enthusiasm, professional attitude
3 – speaking to class with minimal reading
1 – materials used, e.g. overhead, etc…, & usefulness of these
5 points activity(ies) engaging the class
usefulness of engagement, helping audience to connect, understand & retain information, creativity
Research paper 85 points
Draft submissions
5 points - Part 1
5 - Part 2
5 - Part 3
5 - Part 4
Total 20 points
Final paper
3 points – Introduction: introducing the social issue, social movement, outlining what will be discussed in remainder of paper
10 points – Historical context: description of what was taking place in society, historically and contemporarily, economically, politically and culturally/socially, that lead to the development of the social movement and the social changes sought by members of society
10 points – Description of social changes sought
10 points – Description of social movement: demographics, and how social changes were sought – strategies & actions
16 points – Discussion of societal reaction by state (government, police, courts, etc…), media (mainstream, corporate and independent) and other sectors (e.g. economic sectors, education, different population groups impacted by changes), specifically there must be a discussion of the criminalization of dissent, of nonviolence and civil disobedience
4 points – Conclusion: summary, future considerations
2 points - Bibliography
5 points - Citations throughout
3 points - Organization: logical flow to presentation of the information, segways between paragraphs, sections and topics of discussion (it is advisable although optional to use section headings)
2 points - 3rd person language
Total: 65
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