21 Sep Baseball as a business matter

Research Project

For your presentation and research paper, you will be required to conduct research, evaluate sources, and present your findings in both oral and written form.  This is your opportunity to explore your field, learn about it, answer questions, and fill in your knowledge gaps.  Therefore, it your job to come up with a topic.

• You will come up with an area of interest within your current academic discipline
• I suggest you look to trade publications in your field as well as topics covered in your degree specific classes.
• You will seek out and find at least five sources from academic journal articles, trade publications, and books relevant to this area of interest.
• You will be assessed on the quality of your sources
• You must search beyond Google. Papers that are researched using Google and or Google scholar as a primary method will receive an automatic F. You must use the PBSC library resources. 

• Google is only useful if you are looking for what is happening in your field.
• You must actually read, the materials you discover. 

• The secret to writing good prose is reading good prose.
• Five of these sources will form the basis for your project and presentation.

Topic Memo – Due at the end of Lesson 04

• You are to complete a concise memo (1/2-1 page) where you explain your topic.
• Use proper memo format 

• Hint Microsoft office has numerous templates
• Explain your topic and at the end of your memo write a one-sentence thesis statement.

Annotated Bibliography – Due at the end of Lesson 07

• An APA style annotated bibliography
• These annotations are roughly 250-300 words per source. This is approximately 1500 words in total.
• Plan ahead.
• The annotations should consist of a brief summary (1 paragraph), and an evaluation (also roughly 1 paragraph) of the source covering each of the following: 

• Currency
• Authority
• Reliability
• Objectivity vs Subjectivity
• Bias
• Academic style and conventions
• Tone

Presentation – Due at the end of Lesson 11

• The presentation will take the form of a work in progress report.
• You will prepare a short (7 minute) brief covering: 

• How you arrived at your area of research/ interest? 
• A brief description of your research journey.
• The methods you used to find and select your materials. 
• What databases, journals, etc. did you use?
• A brief summary of the main idea/argument for each source. 
• You should select two to three as you will not have time to cover all five.
• A brief evaluation of the usefulness of each source. 
• This evaluation should be akin to an oral Annotated bibliography entry 
• Use the same two to three that you summarized.
• What have you learned about your subject and the research process?

NOTE: Presentations will be submitted online and you will record yourself (with webcam AND screen capture) using Kaltura (see instructions below).

Research Paper – Due at the end of Lesson 13

(optional: Draft Research Paper submission* – Due at the end of Lesson 08)

• A paper (minimum 1,000 words) where you bring no less than three sources together in service of an argument of your creation. 

• This paper will also be in full APA style.
• Your paper should contain no more than 15% quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material.
• Each body paragraph should use two pieces of support for your argument. Each of these pieces of support should come from a different source. 

• Your ability to connect different sources and explain said connection, as it pertains to your argument, is key to success in this paper.
• Submission order for the final research paper is: 

• Cover page
• Abstract (150 words, this does not count toward your paper’s word count)
• Research paper ( introduction, body, conclusion)
• References
• Only list the sources that you used in the paper
• You will be assessed on: 

• Critical thinking
• Argument construction and support
• Analysis
• Mechanics
• A full rubric is posted in BlackBoard

*NOTE: Drafts will only be accepted if you include a completed copy of the peer review document with your submission. It is your responsibility to find another student in the class to agree to act as your peer reviewer. You will also receive instructor feedback after submitting your draft.