Diving Deeper (Research) Project:
I’m doing on Homelessness, this is My local social issue.
Please read the assignment carefully, thanks.
(Be sure to follow the submission guidelines found at the bottom of the assignment description.)
This assignment is designed to have you deepen your research with the goal of discovery and deeper understanding of your social issue’s complex history. When we begin research projects, it’s important to let go of assumptions and look for information that is truthful rather than information that supports our previously held beliefs. Sometimes we do find that we were right, but the goal is never to be “right” – as much as it is to learn and to understand.
To get started, make sure you have already read “Academic Writers: Responsible Researchers First.”Links to an external site.
This article covers:
the importance of identifying our own bias
how to examine and use our cultural eyes productively
how cognitive bias can inhibit our research
how to be more intentional researchers all the time
and how to transform as researchers
Assignment Details:
Please pick ONE of the prompts below or propose your own research project that allows you to dive deeper into your issue.
Then ensure that:
you have read “Academic Writers: Responsible Researchers First”Links to an external site.
you have published your assignment on your student website within its own tab
your project is a minimum of 400 words
your project uses a minimum of 3 sources (these can come from your library research or be new sources)
your project is organized
your project synthesizes your researchLinks to an external site.
A note on sources: These sources should be professional sources found in places like:
the SLCC academic databasesLinks to an external site.
trustworthy news outlets (like NPR, PBS, Salt Lake Tribune, etc)
online magazines
TED Presentations
nonprofit organizations
interviews
etc. (Just ask if you aren’t sure.)
Prompts
Write a letter to a politician, or public figure whose ideas (on your topic) you disagree with. Explain respectfully why you disagree with their ideas. Explain your own ideas. Discuss where you think compromises could/should be made between you and the audience for your letter. Use your three sources to back up your arguments and point out facts.
Find a piece of history that exists along the margins of your issue. Take a picture of it. Find a piece of research that is integral to understanding your issue. Connect the piece of marginal history to the integral piece of research. “Show” and explain what this activity helped you discover about little-known and known facts surrounding your issue.
Find a feature-length documentary film about your issue (i.e. at least an hour long) on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Prime, Youtube, etc. Watch it, and as you do, pay attention to how the filmmakers use sources. How do they announce a source? How do they indicate that a source is trustworthy? Where might they be missing sources or presenting facts without a clear source? Overall, how well-sourced do you feel the film is. Where and how could it have been done better or more responsibly? Next, fact-check at least TWO major facts mentioned in the film, finding one or more reliable sources to back up (or contradict!) each fact. For this prompt, the film itself can serve as one of your three sources. Share your thoughts on the above in an organized reflection.
Look up what reporters, politicians, your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram friends/followers are saying about your semester issue. Screenshot, copy and paste, or write the most interesting, odd, insightful, misinformed, etc. phrases down. Next, take notes of any connections, associations, or themes that emerge. Then write a creative essay focusing on the themes/words/ideas/ etc. that emerge from what you found. Integrate your three sources by finding connections between their information and the themes/words/ideas you uncovered.
Play around with any of the following multimodal forms and make something new related to your issue. Use the What Mediums Should I Try resources to get ideas. Make sure to integrate your three sources in some way. Though your Diving Deeper assignment can be in a multimodal form, it will not count as your multimodal requirement. The major projects, including the one that fulfills your multimodal requirement, are more polished, longer, and more complex than the Diving Deeper assignment.
photo essay
infographic
video
podcast
interactive map
Create a dialogue between two of your sources. Make it a comic or a quick online animation. Make the voices talk to one another–you can quote, but don’t only quote. Use your own summaries and paraphrases, too. See where the sources agree and disagree and where they diverge entirely.
Rewrite the story–with details–of a significant event in your issue’s history from the point of view of your opposition and/or from those whose voices have largely been unheard regarding the issue.
Write a satirical “This I Don’t Believe” essay in which you take on the persona of an opponent to your position on your issue or a stakeholder that sees only the limitations of your proposal. Model the essay after NPR’s “This I Believe” guidelines. Or, try a satiric monologue (the kind Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert or Trevor Noah or Samantha Bee might do). Check out The Onion for example satires. Note: The Onion often uses adult humor and language.
Create a series of at least 5 memes related to your topic. Write about 75 words per meme commenting on the implications and ideas contained in each of your memes (for about 400 words in total). For meme ideas, look at Know Your Meme (Links to an external site.) (caution: internet content!). Base your memes on info/ideas/facts from your three sources. You must create these memes yourself. You cannot borrow memes off the Internet.
I’m doing on homelessness this is my local social issue.
Homelessness is my local social issue is what l’m working on.