Research-Process Essay

Order Description
Write an essay that describes your research process and what you learned. (See the “Grading Rubric” below for a more complete description.)

Logistics

An exceptional essay could earn up to 50 points extra credit
Your essay should be about five full pages (double-spaced) and contain MLA-formatted parenthetical citations.
Grading

The number of points you earn will depend on the quality of your work.
Rubric

Your process essay must contain

a discussion of how you arrived at your topic
an explanation of the library tools and resources/finding aids used in the research process
a detailed discussion of successful search strategies, as well as those that didn’t work
an explanation of how your searches were modified if initially unsuccessful
a discussion of the way in which you distinguished what sources were good (and should be used) and what sources were not good (and should not be used) in the final
draft of your essay
a description of what the 122 papers taught you about the research process (Note: If you enter the contest, you will be submitting only the argument paper because it
meets the length requirement.)