Unit 3: Developing a Research Project Topic Literature Essay

Unit 3: Developing a Research Project Topic (on the due date, you will be automatically assigned 2 peers to review)
NOTE: This assignment is REQUIRED in order to pass the final assignment. The quality of your draft WILL be considered as part of your final grade on the assignment.
Welcome to the Research Project!
As all social researchers do, you start with an interest in a problem and then work to acquire a broad understanding of what the problem is and how it came to be. You then work to articulate the "key terms" and "key players" of your problem: who or what the problem affects and how; who or what causes the problem; what is the vocabulary used by the experts to describe the problem.
You'll begin by locating, reading, finding key terms, summarizing, and evaluating a range of credible sources. To ensure that your source is credible, you might initially avoid a broad Google search, and just use the IVC library and other search engines that have been provided for you below.
For this course, we will focus our projects on civil rights-related topics because the majority of your reading has been centered around those, specifically those related to the black community. You don't need to focus your topic on the black community, but you do need to focus it on a topic related to civil rights in the United States. To find a suitable topic, think narrowly. Part of the project involves learning to do that narrowing yourself through effective research strategies that focus on specific places and specific communities (e.g., homeless college students in CA, farmworkers in the Central Valley, undocumented domestic workers in Orange County, women in California prisons, etc). A topic like "immigration" or "mass incarceration" or "law enforcement" is too broad--the stuff of a 450-page book! For a college-level introductory research project, you want to be specific. You could write your whole project on a single federal law (like the First Step Act) or a federal-state conflict (like the one between CA and the fed over immigration) or policy (like the travel ban), a single event (like the end of net neutrality), organization (like the Environmental Protection Agency) or report (like the 2019 biodiversity report). All of these are related to civil rights.
CQ ResearcherLinks(http://library(dot)cqpress(dot)com(dot)ezproxy(dot)ivc(dot)edu/cqresearcher/) to an external site. (Must be accessed through the library. You need to log in first): CQ Researcher is a fantastic database of journalism equipped with an overview of current, related issues on the topic, timelines, overviews, bibliographies, links, maps/graphs and more. It's a quick and easy way into an overview of your topic.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles through Academic Search CompleteLinks(https://web-b-ebscohost-com(dot)ezproxy(dot)ivc(dot)edu/ehost/search/basic?vid=1&sid=3fde9c39-1da3-413e-8b9a-eebbfc549b79%40pdc-v-sessmgr03) to an external site. (Must be accessed through the library. You need to log in first): Before you search, click on the box "Scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals." This will ensure that your search is limited only to peer-reviewed publications. You'll need to annotate at least THREE for your final bibliography. There is a good overview and a couple of good videos HERE (https://guides(dot)lib(dot)jjay(dot)cuny(dot)edu/c.php?g=288333&p=1922599) that show you how to evaluate an article you find in a library database and refine your search (note that this is for a different school, but IVC's library works almost the exact same way).
Criminal Justice and Law Related Sites:
The Marshall Project (https://www(dot)themarshallproject(dot)org/)
The Sentencing Project (https://www(dot)sentencingproject(dot)org/)
Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji(dot)org/)
Innocence Project (https://www(dot)innocenceproject(dot)org/)
Solitary Watch (https://solitarywatch(dot)org/)
Prison Policy Initiative (https://www(dot)prisonpolicy(dot)org/)
SCOTUS Blog(https://www(dot)scotusblog(dot)com/)
Criminal Justice Podcasts:
Complete List 2018 (https://player(dot)fm/podcasts/Criminal-Justice)
Ear Hustle: https://www(dot)earhustlesq(dot)com (Links to an external site.)
70 Million: https://70millionpod(dot)com/ (Links to an external site.)
Running from Cops: https://www(dot)topic(dot)com/runningfromcops
Documentary:
13th (Netflix)
Vanguards of the Revolution (Netflix)
Investigative Journalism:
Here is a list of some reliable investigative reporting and scholarly outlets:
ProPublica, The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), The Center For Investigative Reporting (CIR), Frontline, Mother Jones, The Intercept, Real Clear Investigations, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Buzzfeed, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Public (current issue on mass incarceration (https://public(dot)imaginingamerica(dot)org/current/))
Note: many of these articles contain hyperlinks to other sources that might be of use. Sometimes they are so good, the article becomes an all-in-one for your initial research.
Google Advanced Search:
Google is fine, but use the settings tool on the far right hand corner, click Advanced Search, and see what you can find when you narrow your results to a specific site or domain (.edu, .gov). You will often get really credible popular sources that way and Google Scholar is going to give you only scholarly material much of which you can't access unless you find it through the library's search engine (more on that later). There are also so many scholars making their work public now as links on the faculty sites of their own campuses (.edu).
Think Tank:
From Wikipedia: "A think tank, policy institute or research institute is an organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology and culture. Most policy institutes are non-profit organizations, which some countries provide with a tax exempt status. Other think tanks are funded by governments, advocacy groups, or corporations and derive revenue from consulting or research work related to their projects." In other words, think tanks are the work of researchers who do not go through a formal peer-review process before their work is published, which is why you should always read and evaluate a Think Tank's "About" section to determine the organization's agenda. Having an agenda does not necessarily qualify your work as suspect; having an agenda simply means that the work evolves from a set of values. When a source is reliable, those values are made transparent; when it isn't, those values are concealed.
Here is a list of the current top Think Tanks: https://guides(dot)library(dot)upenn(dot)edu/c.php?g=476482&p=3254045 (Links to an external site.)
Here is a list of Think Tanks based on the affiliated political parties—e.g., conservative, progressive, independent, etc—as well as the particular focus of the organization—education, economic, social, etc—and more: http://think-tanks(dot)insidegov(dot)com/
Legislation and Key Court Cases:
Supreme Court Blog. Gives current and past cases with commentary: http://www(dot)scotusblog(dot)com/
Supreme Court cases past and present (with audio): https://www(dot)oyez(dot)org/
The Constitution Center (all things constitution, including amendments and explanations): http://constitutioncenter(dot)org/
Laws by state and federal governments: https://www(dot)law(dot)cornell(dot)edu/
Federal Bills (tells you what bills have been introduced, what they are, when they were introduced and by whom, whether they passed or not and more: https://www(dot)congress(dot)gov/
Once you find an assortment of sources, do the following while reading:
Look for problems as you read. Make a Document that allows you to cut and paste key passages and to make notes on the source as you read. You should do this sort of organized note-taking for every source so that you don't have to waste time trying to find information you read and remember, but later forgot where to find it.
Complete the assignment below and then paste it into the discussion board simply by hitting "reply" under the instructions.
1.
At the top of the page in 8th edition MLA formatting, please record a minimum of TEN sources you found for the topic. Your sources should show variety. E.g., newspaper and magazine articles, articles written for organizations related to your topic, investigative journalism (https://en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Investigative_journalism), government or organization reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, original documents. Your goal is to show different types of sources as well as different perspectives on the problem. You should have TEN sources, but FIVE of them should show argumentation. An easy way to assess if a source includes argumentation is by determining its genre. Investigative reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, government or organization reports ALL make arguments. If you don't know how to properly use MLA, consult the Online Writing Lab at Purdue: https://owl(dot)english(dot)purdue(dot)edu/owl/ (Links to an external site.)
2.
Under the longer sources that make arguments provide a brief summary.
3.
Describe the current social justice problem that you decided to investigate? Describe what communities, groups or individuals are most affected by this problem and how they are affected? Describe at least ONE source of the problem's cause. E.g., a policy, law and/or common misperception that has caused or contributed to one or more of the problem's effects. Be specific. (250-words)

4.
Include a list of key research terms: Good keywords are specific: they involve legislation, policy, court cases, organizations and government institutions, names of important figures. Keywords should always help you to find relevant, related sources. Also, keep a separate file for key terms, dates, policies, events, people, etc that you find in the articles you read that will help you to develop a vocabulary for discussing the specific policies, legislation, and/or other key players and related issues.
Example:
Good key research terms: "The Fair Housing Act" "Congressional Black Caucus" "The Sentencing Project" "NAMI" "Federal Housing Administration" "Jeff Sessions" "Buchanan v. Warley"
Poor key research terms: "mass incarceration" "civil rights" "criminal justice" (because they won't help you focus your project)
5.
Include at least THREE specific fact-based questions that you want for your research to answer for you.
Good fact-based questions (note that good questions try to understand the facts before making judgments): How do zoning laws in the city of Los Angeles work? What is the current demographic of the homeless population in Los Angeles County? What is the average time it takes to find an apartment once a Section 8 voucher is obtained? How long can a prisoner in a state facility be placed in solitary confinement in California? Is the same true for federally-housed inmates in California?
Poor questions (note that poor questions are opinionated, riddled with assumptions and generalizations): How do zoning laws in the city of Los Angeles discriminate against the poor? Why don't people care about the homeless? How come people aren't able to find an apartment with a Section 8 voucher? Why aren't we doing anything to end solitary confinement?


When you are finished, you have about 48 hours to respond to TWO other posts with USEFUL AND SPECIFIC suggestions or comments (Note that while it is nice to be positive, simply pointing out that you like a topic without offering clear, specific guidelines or suggestions can be misleading).
Constructive criticism means just that: criticism followed by some suggestions for construction--picking up the pieces of the author's shattered world! (e.g., "You need more sources in this paragraph. A great source for the claim you have here can actually be found on page 1, where you talk about..." Or "Have you thought about using...?"
Note, too, that offering other source suggestions the author hasn't yet found is always a bonus!