Topic: Polygamy: history, lifestyle, current controversies

RESEARCH PAPER (6-8 pages, MLA style)

This paper will involve research and evaluation of research. It will combine your opinions and arguments with the opinions from at least five articles on the topic that you have chosen. At least three of these articles have to be opinion/argument articles (i.e. containing the authors position on one side or the other, not just facts). Also, all of your articles have to have an author (blogs, chain letters, or Wikipedia are not acceptable sources). Best sources: library resources, or sites associated with universities or major newspapers. Tip: you can add “scholarly article” to the key word if you use Google or other search engines on the web. Do not use articles that ask for any money. The library provides its own search engine with plenty of articles on a great variety of topics (so go to “Library” on the STC website, go to “Articles” and you will see several options. EBSCO is a good one.

I want your paper to contain a DEBATE between two sides of the issue .You will present the sides and explain where the authors stand in your paper major points and how theyre supported from the articles, and agree or disagree with each point you bring up from their texts. Finally, you will choose one side based on which arguments you agree with the most. You should make the comparison between the arguments obvious: are the articles that are on one side very similar or have differences? Is the opposing argument more, or less valid? Why?

YOUR argument that evaluates the four articles that you picked should be clear from the beginning, but then elaborated in a dialogue with the 4 articles. It should be clear, however, what YOUR voice and your opinions are in relation to the sources. Do not simply paraphrase or summarize someone elses point without mentioning whose opinion that is, if its not your point, because that would mean youre plagiarizing. Always distinguish between their points and yours, with signals such as In his opinion, I agree because, or his point makes sense because, or I think a flaw in this argument is. You can give your own examples, to show how you relate to the issue or not.
When you discuss a source that contains facts, explain the meaning of those facts and use them to help make your point. Make them relevant to your position.
Organization: The paper does not have to follow any specific pattern, except that of course it will have an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction, as usual, will announce what the topic is, what articles you talk about (by what authors), and will announce your position in relation to them.

The two easiest ways to construct a body for your paper is to do either of the following:

A.  Divide the body of the paper in 5 parts (though you should have more than one paragraph for each source) and each part will be about one article, making sure you always agree or disagree, saying what reasons you have to agree or disagree with it; when you move on to the next one, make references to the previous ones, saying how it is similar to them or not, as well as your position toward it. After that, you will draw some conclusions based on your position and how you analyzed the articles (e.g. because you agreed with this point and disagreed with that point, your overall point is this);

B.  The paper will alternate between the 5 (or more) articles (giving at the same time a critical evaluation of them, by expressing your attitude and why you have it). It will be organized by sub-points, and show how each article addresses each particular sub-point, then you will move to the next sub-point and show how each article addresses it, etc.
In any case, it should be clear by the end where you stand in relation to the topic.
IMPORTANT: You will have to use QUOTES from all the three articles to show how the author makes a point. Approximately, you should give a short quote for each separate idea, with proper citation, and with a comment on the quote. In any given paragraph, the quote should not be more than 1/3 of the paragraph, the rest being your own evaluation of the point made in the quote or the analysis preceding the quote.