Your final assignment in this assignment track will be your final “Note of Inquiry”. Essentially, this is a mini research proposal. The assignment builds on our library research skills, as well as our course materials and interdisciplinary conversations. But rather than focusing on the work of another scholar, you will come up with your own topic to focus on, and do library research to develop a thoughtful and interesting research question.
Here are the components of the assignment:
Sources: Identify a minimum of 1 each, download the PDF, and post the files here.
An academic research article (not a book review or introduction to the issue): that is about the topic or phenomenon that you are investigating, and/or uses the same (inter)disciplinary approach that you plan on using
An academic book chapter (not a full book, just a chapter): that is also specific to your topic/phenomenon and/or approach
A reference source that gives you a broad understanding of the topic
A primary source that provides an example of the data that you will analyze in order to carry out your research and answer your question
A source that was assigned in class
List of references: List your sources using the APA6th citation style in a full bibliography. Save it as a .doc or .docx file.
Write-up: Write-up your note of inquiry itself using the following format:
Title: What is the title of your research project?
Research question: What question are you trying to answer?
Justification: Why does the question matter, and what will answering it allow us to do differently? What is the problem you are trying to solve? Be sure to base this on evidence, and what you know so far from your reading/research.
Discipline(s): What discipline(s) will you engage with as you do this research and attempt to answer this question? Why and how?
Data & Methods for Action: What is your data that you will analyze? Alternately, what is the action you would like to take? This is the same thing as a primary source, of the sort you provided an example of already, so describe what it is and how it will allow you to answer your research question. What does your initial primary source tell you? What might more data allow you to know?
Your write-up should be max 2 pages (not including the bibliography), 12 point font, double spaced, with 1″ margins. Your Justification, Disciplines, and Data/Methods should be substantiated with evidence from your sources using in-text citations in APA6th.