Students will write and submit a research paper, no longer than 10 pages (not including bibliography) that engages with a research topic of their choice. The paper might be an application of a contemporary theory, and most students generally take this route. Alternatively, the student may deconstruct and reformulate a theory (more difficult). APA 5 or 6 should be used.
About the Paper:
Instructions: Write a research essay applying criminological theory to a topic of your choice. You may want to use a particular theory to explain a case or phenomenon, or you could write a critique of some contemporary theory. If you have concerns about your topic feel free to consult with me.
The essay should be approximately 10 pages. This assignment is designed to assess your critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. You are not being asked to describe an issue or problem, you are being asked to provide a critical analysis of it. Your answer will be judged for its clarity, relevance, coherence, logic, depth, consistency, and fairness. More specifically, when I evaluate your paper, I will be asking the following questions:
1. Is the question at issue well stated? Is it clear and unbiased? Does the expression of the question do justice to the complexity of the matter at issue? Since you only have 15 pages or so to work with, provide a brief context for your argument and then get straight to your argument. Get to the point quickly, then develop your argument.
2. Does the writer have an argument? Is the argument clearly stated?
3. Does the writer cite relevant evidence, experiences, and/or information essential to the issue?
4. Does the writer clarify key concepts when necessary?
5. Does the writer develop a definite line of reasoning, explaining well how he or she is arriving at his or her conclusions?
6. Is the writers reasoning well supported?
7. Does the writer show sensitivity to alternative points of view or lines of reasoning? Does he or she consider and respond to objections framed from other points of view?
8. Does the writer show sensitivity to the implications and consequences of the position he or she has taken?
The paper should contain:
A brief introduction to the problem you are examining.
Your precise question /puzzle.
A clear statement of your main argument (thesis statement).
A coherent argument which demonstrates your ability to link concepts.
An appreciation of the usefulness (or not) of an alternative perspective or perspectives
on the subject.
The integration of your research findings (meticulously documented in APA style) as evidence for your argument.
I pay close attention to overall organization and literacy in evaluating your paper. Research
This is a library research type of assignment. We are also constrained by time. I dont expect you to write a comprehensive analysis of complex issues in 12 weeks. Pick a topic that is feasible.
In terms of the research for this assignment, I expect you to use material in addition to the book. Your grade will be based not on your ability to regurgitate what you have read, but on how well you have made your argument, i.e., how logical are its sequential steps and how well data is marshaled in support.
Assume you are writing for a reasonably intelligent audience who might nevertheless be unfamiliar with the concepts criminologists use.
Picking a topic:
The first problem students face in writing a paper is finding an appropriate topic. By appropriate I mean:
1. The topic relates to the subject of the course
2. The topic is not too broad. It is focused on an aspect of the course. For example,
too many students want to write about topics like Racism in Canada, or Poverty in Ontario, or Gender. These are topics that would require volumes of research to write about properly, and would result in a book (or several volumes).
Here are some general things to keep in mind to determine an appropriate topic:
1. Choose one of the topic areas of inquiry. This is where you do get to ask those big questions I mentioned in the last point. You wont write about this, but it is the general area or question that you are interested in.
Handbooks and encyclopedias often give a good overview of a subject area and provide relevant background information, as well as key terms that can be used when searching the databases. Find handbooks, encyclopedias, and specialized dictionaries in the library’s collection. Check the online subject guides for these tools.
Consult the readings for your class and look for possible topics.
Try reading online daily news sources for something that might spark your imagination.
Explore a topic that you know nothing about but wish you did. Browse Wikipedia for ideas. But be careful about Wikipedia. It is not always accurate, and sometimes wrong.
2. Evaluate your topic for the following:
Are you interested in it? If not, then pick something else. You should have enough interest in the topic to sustain reasonably deep research over the coming weeks. Also, the more interesting the topic is to you, the easier it is to write about it.
What is the goal of your paper? Since this course emphasizes critical thinking, dont just describe something. Analyze it. Ask yourself questions. Compare and contrast. Argue and analyze. Ask why is something happening, then tell the reader why.
After thinking about the topic of your paper and the goal you are trying to achieve, you need to read as much as possible in the area you are going to write about. Here is where many students stumble so let me give you some strategies to help you be more efficient in your reading.
If you are only a little familiar with the literature on a topic, thats fine, everyone has some degree of familiarity with the literature, even experts. That is because we are always building knowledge, coming up with new ways to think about issues, problems and puzzles. In some of the hard sciences like genetics, this knowledge building process is almost impossible to keep up with because new discoveries in that field emerge literally every day.
In our field, the body of knowledge evolves much slower, but there is still a huge amount of literature on a range of topics that we will never be expert in. Plus, our field involves grasping and drawing upon ideas and concepts in numerous other fields like economics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and history. Dont be concerned about the complexity of the issue. Rather, tell the reader that you know the issue is complex, but that you are only going to take on a small aspect of the topic.
So far you have gone from a general idea topic area, to a clearer research question, and a hunch about what youre going to say. Some people call it a thesis statement, but I dont like that term because it suggests finality before the fact.
The truth is that you dont really know what your thesis statement or argument is going to be until you have made it. For instance, you could start with a very broad (and wrong) hunch that police are racist. In your research you would soon understand if you didnt already, that this statement is an overgeneralization, but that racism in society is a serious problem, and has been for centuries. Further research indicates to you that the police are a
top-down, paramilitary organization where training emphasizes use of force at the expense of negotiation, de-escalation and other non-violent ways of protecting public safety. You might argue that forceful tactics are ultimately about suppressing dissent and anger over inequalities and injustices in other spheres of social life. Suppressing and silencing the voices of the less powerful in turn serves to preserve current power structures and ultimately the wealth and power of a small proportion of people. You might choose to argue a variation of this thesis, perhaps by developing the idea that police are not increasingly relying on force, but that people are now much more aware of the functions of modern police because of social mediaAs people are awakening, they are increasingly outraged.
Research is a journey. You search, and then you re-search. You use the tools, concepts, theories and ideas at your disposal to try to determine your thesis statement. You dont start with a thesis statement then desperately hunt around for evidence to prove your point. And remember that we dont prove things in social sciencewe deal in probabilities.
Break things down:
The best way to get to your argument is to break down your research question into mini- puzzles. The mini-puzzles will serve as your guide of things to read.
An example:
Research Question: Does the internet make people behave in violent ways?
OK. Pretty broad still, but here is what you could do. Break it up.
the internet what part of the internet. The technology? The people who use it? The people who own it? What platform?
people which people? All of us? Children? Teens? behave is behaviour what you do or what you think or both? violent you could have a field day with this one….
Obviously, you cant answer all of these. Just be sure of which ones you are important to define for your argument, and be prepared to justify your decision. Remember that you want your reader to care about what you are saying. Provide some reasons why I, as a reader should care.
Then read in the area specifically on the things you need to learn about. For instance, in the example above, I might start reading in the area of the impact of the internet on society. If I had time, I would read at least one important book and then from there would find myself interested in one aspect: How democracy is compromised by digital
communication because it can be used to spread false ideas very quickly. Or, I might choose to argue that the internet has resulted in many positive outcomes for society. The key is to pick one argument, not several.
I might decide to write a paper on the idea that digital media companies have created technologies giving us the illusion of freedom of thought and expression, and that this illusion is a dangerous one. Why? Because what they are also doing is enabling people with vile, disrespectful and often dangerous ideas to victimize others. My example might be around how the internet has been used to change electoral outcomes. Or, I might use the example of how spreading false ideas about everything from vaccination, to the source of Covid-19 has impacted global response to the disease. Or, why did everyone in power ignore the science that told us this would happen, 20 years ago. And what does that mean when the science is telling us that this will happen again, but that pandemics pale in comparative impact to what is going to happen if we dont take proactive action on climate change now? Its OK to leave the reader with more questions if you are raising alarm bells. Any solutions? No? Thats OK too. If your argument is that there clearly has to be more work done, then tell me why.
All along you are should be taking notes, shuffling them around and splitting what you have read into piles, one you will definitely use, one youre not sure about, and another that is definitely not happening. Read the abstracts of papers to get a sense of whether something is useful to you or not. Thats what abstracts are for, so that you can quickly determine the utility of the authors work.
And now the big question. How much reading is enoughoften expressed as a quantitative question, like, how many references do we need to have?
The answer to this question is I dont know. How many do you think you need given the limitations of the paper and the time you have to do it? You will never be able to read everything, but did you at least read enough to make what you think is a good sound argument?
I could give you an easy answer to this question. Lets say the answer is 12 sources. But what if eight is enough? What if you actually have about 15? Is that too many?
The bottom line is that for this course, dont rely on one or two sources. At the very least I would expect five scholarly sources, and that would include parts from the Hall and Winlow book. But dont write a summary of Hall and Winlow. Read a little bit more than you think you need, then stop and assemble your notes. Remember though, although you are stopping your serious, deep reading, it is likely that you will have to do a bit more reading here and there to fill out gaps as they emerge while you are drafting.
One more thing. Consider the quality of the material you want to use. If you hand in a paper citing blogs or opinion pieces or journalism you will definitely receive a low, possible failing grade. Use scholarly sources, or other credible sources.
Notes:
All along, you have been keeping notes on these readings, right? I hope so, because those notes, as long as they are properly taken, are invaluable, and they are central to good writing of all kinds.
If you have been making notes the assembly of a first draft is easy, giving you plenty of time to revise your work for submission.
If you are not making notes, you are going to run into trouble. So, make notes. On everything. Here are some tips.
Notes do not have to be comprehensive. You dont have to summarize the entire article, report or book in your notes. Take what you think you need, copy and paste a juicy quote if you want, but in all cases write at least one line in the note in your own words. In other words, paraphrase as much as possible.
Notes should be separate from one another and short. Some people put all their notes at the end of the word document they are writing. That means a lot of scrolling and reading through notes to see what they say. You want to assemble and mix related ideas and that is much easier to do when you have small units of information you can play with, rather than a big long document you have to scroll through to find that information. Plus, you can use these discrete notes for other projects because they are much easier to find compared to looking for them in a long word document you wrote last year.
Make sure your notes have provenance, meaning that it is crystal clear in each note where it came from. You dont have to use APA or anything like that (although you can), just be consistent and clear about things like author, title, page number. As long as you have a way to identify the full source of the information, you will be able to cite as necessary in the paper, and avoid the dreaded plagiarism trap.
Keep the notes in one place that you can search easily. I write many notes by hand in a notebook or notecard because I am not always around a computer, and I am useless at typing at speed with two thumbs. Whether I write them by hand or straight into the machine, they are digitized in a program that can search my notes. There are many of these and if you are interested in learning more about digital note creation and retrieval software, let me know. Otherwise, you can use OneNote, Excel, Word, Google Keep, and a host of others to do this. Just find a place where you can enter and easily search for and retrieve notes. For Windows, a good program for these functions is
Connected Text http://www.connectedtext.com
For the Mac there are numerous programs. Bear is good. https://bear.app
Your notes do not have to be works of art. I toss a lot of my notes, but some notes have turned into research proposals, journal articles, position papers and books. Keep them for a while, stay in the habit of note taking, and see what happens.
The last step is revision. You should budget at least a third of your time for revision. Writing coach legend Helen Sword coined the term shitty first draft. This is what you will have. No one, and I mean no one, writes a clean first draft. You may have been able to do that elsewhere, but in this course, I am looking for clean, logical, grammatically correct, crisp prose as much as I am looking for critical thinking ability. And that means you have to rewrite your shitty first draft.
A few tips on rewriting.
Do it in stages. Start with logical structure. Ask yourself if all the subsections are in the right place and whether they follow logically from one another. Look for gaps, and fill them in as necessary. Reorder sections and then paragraphs as necessary. Do not worry about spelling and grammar at this point. You are looking at structure.
Look at your sentence structure. Be careful about sentences that are missing a subject or need a verb. Read the sentence aloud and see if it makes sense. Watch out for really long sentences, or paragraphs that go on for pages. Break up your thoughts by paragraph, making sure they are connected. Use connecting words like: therefore, nevertheless, accordingly, however, moreover etc. Such words help you, and the reader to be clear about what you are saying. One other trick: read your work looking for words that in ly, and eliminate most of them ruthlessly. Oops. I meant eliminate them.
Beware of statements like, Since the beginning of time…. (were you there? What happened?), or totalizing statements like all politicians, or the majority of people. Be precise.
Similarly, please dont write in academic jargon. If you have to define a term or concept in a scholarly way you should. But dont try to write like you think academic writing should be. The reason is simplemost professional academic writing is just bad writing. I would much rather read Steven King than a textbook. Dont write to sound like you are smart. You are smart. Now just write clear, simple sentences so I can understand what you are saying.
Remember to kill all your darlings, those sentences and words you think are the most amazing thing youve written but in fact are not going to work in your
current project). Eliminate any words that are doing no work.
Check spelling and grammar. Look for things like missing commas or periods, spelling errors and missing bibliographic and citation information.
If you have time put it away or a few days. Then go back and read it again, looking for things you may have missed.
