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our initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have
until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will
reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your
responses. Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for
guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
Reflecting on General Education
Prepare: Start by reviewing General Education Curriculum found in “
the Ashford University Academic Catalog, which addresses the core
Applied Ethics, Communication, Information Technology, Critical Thin
Reflect: Think about the core competencies as previously mentioned
Reflect on the specific courses not associated with your college majo
acquired that relates to the core competencies.
Write: Explain what you have learned about the principles guiding ge
taken in the past:
• What are the most important concepts you have learned (a) from th
student?
• Why do you think obtaining knowledge from general education cou
• What are your plans for putting your education to use within your co
• How might your newly acquired knowledge and skills shape your p
• Support your claims with examples from required material(s) or at l
• Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length.
Respond to Peers: Review your classmates’ posts, and respond to
provided feedback on the value of general education and comment o
memorable lessons learned through general education courses. Eac
ASHFORD 6: - WEEK 5 - FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT
Final Research Project
The topic of your project needs to be a contemporary societal
problem, such as healthcare reform, immigration reform, privacy
rights, euthanasia, First Amendment Rights, stem cell research,
capital punishment, corporate prisons, legalizing drugs, ageism,
animal rights, cloning, prayer in schools, racial profiling,
recycling/conservation, sexism, outsourcing jobs, workplace bullying,
etc. The topic must focus on a single aspect, as in “How far do
corporations intrude into the private lives of their employers?” or “The
social costs of financing the distribution of custom-designed drugs.”
You may suggest another topic to use, but the instructor must
approve the topic during the Week Two Discussion.
The Final Research Project will present research relating the
responsibilities of a critical thinker to contemporary society. In this
assignment, you will do the following:
• Research one aspect of a contemporary social problem.
• Define the problem.
• Propose a possible solution for the problem.
• Create an argument that supports your thesis position. You should
take on the perspective of a critically thinking researcher. The
argument must present a thesis statement and evidence to
support the thesis statement.
• Evaluate the ethical outcomes that result from the position you take
on the issue and explain how those outcomes would influence
society and culture.
• Interpret statistical data from at least two peer-reviewed scholarly
sources.
• Evaluate evidence using the following standards: validity, reliability,
and bias related to the chosen topic and accurately identify
strengths and weaknesses.
Research and Define the Problem
You must take on the perspective of your major field of study and
explain in your paper what that perspective is and how it informs your
view of the topic. The topics listed above are far too broad to write
about in 10–12 pages (3,300–3,900 words). Instead, you must
choose a narrowly defined thesis and approach it from the
perspective of your field.
Example: If you are an economics major, and you are interested in
immigration reform, you should approach a very specific aspect of
immigration reform through the lens of economic theory and practice.
A specific thesis question would not be, “How does illegal immigration
influence the U.S. economy?” One could write thousands of pages on
such a topic. Instead, a better question would be, “How do illegal
immigrant hotel workers in Chicago impact the economy of Northern
Illinois?” You would then want to do the research and determine the
positive and negative impacts they have, ultimately trying to conclude
how illegal immigration in this area should be approached ethically.
How to Hone Your Thesis: It is important that you start your
research early in this course. Try to find the most important
contemporary questions and theories in your field of study and then
align the most important questions with a very specific aspect of the
general topics above. For example, if you are a psychology major,
you might want to start thinking within the realm of healthcare reform
or aspects of mental health and criminality in the prison system.
Your Argument
You must present a complete argument, including a major claim with
at least five points of evidence, information, or data that will prove the
claim.
• The thesis statement must be
◦
A clear, simple declarative sentence as the first or last
sentence in the opening paragraph of the essay.
◦
Of such a nature that it can be substantiated, corroborated,
verified, and proved through appeal to primary or
secondary academic research source materials.
• The introductory paragraph must
◦
Present the thesis statement, an explanation for the
importance of the topic, and its relation to the student’s
field of study.
• Beliefs, opinions, and personal opinions must not be introduced at
any point in the essay.
• All beliefs and opinions should be supported with academic
evidence. Sweeping generalizations with no supporting
academic evidence do not reflect adequate critical thinking
skills.
• Do not include rhetorical questions in your essays. All the questions
that are pertinent to your project need to be answered in your
essay and your answers again need to be supported with
evidence from peer-reviewed journal articles and academically
published books.
Attributes of Good Critical Thinking in Papers
• Your paper should include academic sources that explain multiple
sides of the issue.
• The evidence that you use should come from high-level researchers
engaged in your field of study.
• Your interpretations of the evidence should be objective and state
the conclusions and theses presented in the evidence clearly
and fairly.
• Your paper should place the various forms of evidence in relation to
one another and demonstrate why one form or perspective is
stronger than the other positions that one could take on the
issue.
• Your paper should point out the limitations of current evidence and
attempt to indicate areas for future research.
Ethical Outcomes of the Position You Take
After you have defined the problem and created an argument about
how one ought to respond to the issue, you need to explain the
ethical outcomes of the position you have taken. This should again be
in relation to the field of study in which you are working. There might
be different ethical outcomes that result from your analysis. For
example, going back to the example issue above, from an economic
standpoint, illegal immigrants might contribute positively to the
economy of Northern Illinois in a specific number of ways. Thus, an
economist who believes that positive impact to the economy is the
greatest good would say that one should promote the use of illegal
immigrants. However, because these workers are often paid less
than others and eliminate jobs that could be done by residents of
Chicago, there could be other negative ethical outcomes that would
outweigh the positive impacts to the economy. It is your goal to draw
out the ethical implications of your thesis and explain the underlying
rationale that is the foundation for your claim that one action is better
than another.
• Critical thinkers are those who can outline the positive and negative
ethical impacts of their positions. In addition, they are able to
provide a rationale for why they believe a specific position is the
right position, even when it leads to negative outcomes.
• Critical thinkers are also able to be honest and objective about the
limitations and gray areas that pertain to their theses.
Final Research Project Requirements
The Final Research Project may be presented as a formal research
paper (essay format), a PowerPoint presentation, a video, or a
podcast equivalent to a minimum of 10 – 12 pages in APA format
(approximately 3,300 – 3,900 typewritten words, excluding title page
and reference pages). Written essays must adhere to all APA
formatting standards and requirements, as outlined in the Ashford
Writing Center.
PowerPoint presentations must include the full text (at least 3,300
words) in the speaker notes portion of the slides, with appropriate
citations, and full reference pages. PowerPoint presentations must
adhere to the basic principles of PowerPoint presentation design and
must include citations and references according to APA standards
and requirements.
Videos and podcasts must include a full transcript, in APA format,
including appropriate in-text citations and a references page.
Quotations:
There must be no more than 15% quoted content in the body of your
essay. All quoted material must bear quotation marks and a full
quotation citation.
Source Documents:
• There must be 10 or more source documents used, cited, and
referenced.
• Multimedia sources (such as videos) may be used, but no more
than two such sources may be used. If multimedia sources are
used, then they must be authored and distributed by credible
sources, such as universities, law schools, medical schools, or
professors, or found in the Ashford University Library.
• Where print documents are used for source materials, those must
be peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles, and academically
published books. Popular media sources (e.g., newspapers,
magazines, television and radio shows, etc.) may not be used.
Materials from advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace, Human
Rights Campaign, National Organization for Women, etc.) may
not be used.
• Two of the peer-reviewed scholarly sources used must include
statistical evidence, which must be accurately interpreted.
• Sites such as ProCon.org and Wikipedia should not be used.
• Religious texts are neither peer-reviewed nor scholarly and so may
not be used in any way.
Summary Conclusion:
You must have a summary conclusion as the last paragraph(s) of the
project, presenting the major point of the essay and the evidence
supporting that point.
Word Count:
The content body of the project must be 3,300 words or more. The
word count does not include anything in the title page, running
header, or reference list. It is expected that you meet all logistical
requirements of this paper.
Reference List:
• The list of references must include only those source documents
that are cited within the body of the project.
• The project must fully comply with APA formatting standards and
requirements as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center: title
page, running header with page numbers, font face and size,
line spacing, citations, and reference page(s).
Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to
evaluate your assignment.