The written assignment this week is the Proposal and Outline for your Course Project.

The project is a research essay in APA format that focuses on one of the topics below regarding current trends and future predictions.

How social media, Web sharing, and/or similar trends on the Internet will affect social and personal behaviors.

Once you have chosen your topic, you will need to do a little research on it to find information useful for your final essay. Then, you will need to create a document that includes the following parts.

Preliminary Thesis: A sentence stating the point about the topic that your essay will argue.

Issue Summary: A one-paragraph review of the issue stating something about its history and describing the major controversies.

Preliminary Essay Outline: A formal outline indicating what arguments will be used and their likely order in the paper.

References List: A list of at least five potential sources for your subject in APA form.

This project fulfills the following objectives.

• (TCO 5) Given a range of statistical and empirical data, combine several inductive methods of reasoning (argument by analogy, argument by generalization, causal reasoning, or probabilistic reasoning), to draw specific conclusions.
• (TCO 7) Given a controversial social issue, write a persuasive essay to address the controversy, using identifiable types of arguments (deductive or inductive) and the resources of language, such as denotation, connotation, and figures of speech.
• (TCO 8) Given a case scenario or a problem, formulate several alternative solutions and select the optimal one to apply under specific circumstances.
• (TCO 9) Given several current news or opinion articles from print, radio, or television, assess the assumptions and values stated or implied in the articles and explain how these media can influence individual or collective decision making.

Project Overview

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This session, you will write a research essay, which is in APA format and includes a title page, abstract, and references list. The purpose of this paper is to hone your critical thinking skills by creating a suitable research plan, evaluating sources and arguments, and proposing solutions to a problem of current interest. The paper must focus on one of the topics below regarding current trends and future predictions.

• How social media, web sharing, and/or similar trends in the internet will affect social and personal behaviors

Choose a topic from the list above. Follow your personal taste in this choice, but also search a library and a library database for suitable critical articles about the topic. For the paper, you will need to use at least five scholarly articles, authoritative sources, and/or book chapters.

The Final Research Paper must include the following.

• Three to five pages of body and a References page
• 12 pt. Times New Roman font
• Double spaced
• APA-style title page and abstract
• All pages should be numbered
• Should contain five sources (minimum)

Guidelines

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• Select a topic from the list.
• Research library catalog and databases for works about the topic (five articles and/or book chapters required).
• Read the sources.
• Propose a preliminary thesis or solution on the issue.
• Write a proposal and outline for the project.
• FormatalldocumentsusingtheAPAStyle.
• Use feedback to shape and revise the paper.

ISBN: 978-0-07-803828-0

Parker, Brooke Moore and R. Critical Thinking, 10th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning