Prompt The culminating experience for this course will be a substantive paper in which you

Prompt 
The culminating experience for this course will be a substantive paper in which you will conduct research within your intended major or discipline. Thus, if you are a business major, you will conduct research within the business field and create an authentic approach to a question at issue related to the business field. This format would be the same if you are an English, History, Engineering, Biology etc.
PLEASE NOTE, YOU ARE NOT WRITING A PAPER DISCUSSING WHY YOUR MAJOR IS THE BEST MAJOR FOR YOU. YOU ARE IDENTIFYING AN ISSUE WITHIN YOUR FIELD AND RESEARCHING A QUESTION BASED ON THAT FIELD OF STUDY.
For example, let’s suppose you are a history major. You may want to write a research paper in which you discuss the complexities of naval strategy during the Second World War—not how the major should be undertaken by more people because it’s interesting and fun. Or, let’s suppose you are a nursing major, you may want to look at ways to treat the patient holistically—not how the job is rewarding, and more people should do it.
I encourage you to reach out to the outstanding faculty we have available on campus. This would be a great opportunity for you to become acquainted with experts in the field and I am confident they would welcome your interests in the field.
You will be taught how to conduct research and use sources in a meaningful way to develop and further your argument. This is something that will be a very rewarding experience. This is not something that you want to put off until the last moment. You should begin to brainstorm and consider what topic you would like to discuss and begin to formulate tentative arguments NOW.
You will be asked to synthesize information. What this means is to use resources in a coherent way to further your argument. It is very important that you understand you are not simply retelling what scholarly sources have said. In contrast, you are using the rhetoric and the arguments of others in a meaningful, thought provoking way to further your own argument.
The research project will have several components. These components are meant to help guide you in the process and ensure you are on the correct path. There are four elements to the research project:
Research Proposal
Annotated Bibliography
Research Rough Draft
Research Paper Final Draft 
All of these assignments are due at specific times during the course. If you want to make sure you are on track, please refer back to the schedule of assignments.
Format
The research paper should be between 6-7 full pages
You should incorporate anywhere between 7-8 scholarly sources
Use of extensive quotes from your sources and the proper citing of those sources
Thesis statement formatted with the phrase “I argue”
Times New Roman Font 12 pt.
You are asked to use MLA format for this paper, citations and works cited should follow this format
You are also asked to construct a MLA formatted Works Cited Page. To assist you with this, please refer to Purdue Owl (Links to an external site.). 
Please ensure you are following proper MLA format. If you would like to see an example of how an MLA paper should be formatted, please refer to the MLA Sample Paper (Links to an external site.) on Purdue Owl’s Website (Links to an external site.). 
In addition, here is a video that will take you through a step-by-step process in order to ensure your paper is formatted using appropriate MLA formatting guidelines.