I highly recommend you go back and review this page from Learning Module 3:
Many of you have written research papers throughout your life. White papers aren’t much different in that the assumption is that you will be well-informed on a subject and you will collect many sources to help inform you.
So, one of your early tasks in this project is gathering research.
Gathering Secondary Research
As mentioned before, review the Learning Module 3 page for thinking about primary vs. secondary research, using library resources, and tips for searching (e.g., Boolean operators).
Think, too, about what would be good sources to use. Reviewing the example white papers that we have previously looked at in Learning Modules 5 and 6, as well as in previous lessons, would be a good idea. It can help guide you for what counts as rigorous research.
As you look over sources, you will have to evaluate them. This page from my ENG 2100 class has a series of good questions to ask when you look at sources:
Research: Evaluating Sources – ENG 2100: Writing I, Spring 2021 (cuny.edu)
Academic research is going to be best. Anything in a scholarly journal or published by an academic book press can be reliable. YouTube videos, webpages from organizations that give no information on what people are running it (or from people who have no expertise in the topic), or stuff made from organizations/people who have been criticized in the past as doing poor research (i.e., plenty of academics are credentialed but are simply not good at what they claim to do!).
Research organizations are also trustworthy even if they have no academic affiliations (again: who is involved and do they do good work?).
Reflecting on Research
So you can keep yourself organized, it is good to have a system for aligning your thoughts/ideas for how to evaluate research you find, your thoughts/ideas for using that research in your writing, highlighting specific parts of the source you want to paraphrase or quote, and simple bibliographic information so you can cite it later.
This is an assignment we often use in first-year writing. It is intense! But very helpful. It helps do the things I described in the previous paragraph:
Microsoft Word – RefAnnBib_practice.docx (cuny.edu)
Click the above link for an example of how to think through your sources (it has a template and an example for a source).
Task
In a comment below, just give me an update on where you are at in finding sources for your white paper assignment–sources you have found, ideas for incorporating sources, the kinds of sources you want to look for or find, questions you have about sources you have found, thoughts on how your secondary research can be integrated with your data analysis., etc. You can ask a question if you are confused, too.
After commenting, click on the button below to continue.
I actually already have plenty of secondary research for this project from the last paper we wrote. It was more applying into this paper than that one so I’ll definitely be using the 4-5 sources I have from there into this paper.
I have already foundI have already found sources for my white paper assignment. My secondary research can be integrated with my data analysis because with those sources, it will help me backup my claim, help audiences understand where I’m coming from. Also help be more open minded as I can.
I have plenty of resources available about my dataset. I’m struggling with narrowing to which resources will be the best in terms of supporting me throughout my writing. But since my topic is really complex, I may use them all to help the audience better understand its impact.
I have a few, but not enough sources for my paper. The organization that I am writing as a part of actually has done a lot of research on my topic. I think that some of the information they have published is sufficient, but I need to find other organizations that have similar data to strengthen my argument.
Currently, I am struggling how to incorporate my ideas in the paper with the secondary source. I am not sure if I should focus in one topic or somehow connect it with other topics. I am thinking to just talk about the psychological effects of the quarantine in students, but also I would like to talk how pandemic affect the general population and kind of compare and contrast my data set with other countries.
As I said in the proposal, I will firstly go to Baruch Library website for researching. However, my concern right now is that it would give me those same articles as I’m working on the same dataset and I already consulted and used them in my previous paper. So I will have to try to do more research from different references, maybe from different university’s library.
I found a couple of sites. One is from McKenzie, Kendra. “The Effects of Poverty on Academic Achievement.” BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education 11.2 (2019): 21-26. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1230212 another is Blazer, Christie. “The Effect of Poverty on Student Achievement. Information Capsule. Volume 0901.” Research Services, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (2009). Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544709.pdf. I hope to get some more, but I think I will look over it and maybe talk about the effects of poverty that impact high school graduates. Please correct me if I am on the wrong path. Thanks
I have found a secondary research for my paper which is an analysis by Public Safety Lab at NYU about the NYPD Officer Misconduct. This source that I have found goes deeper into analyzing the data that we have and provides a better insight which might be very useful to policy makers.
I have not started researching resources aside for the one in my proposal yet but will start to do so over the weekend.
I have one secondary source that has really good visuals that I want to incorporate to help people visualize what I am saying better and to make it more interesting visually. It shows bar graphs for how many people were arrested for which kind of crime in a given year (you could choose criteria based on what crime, gender, race, and age). You can also get information on locations. They work with federal and local governments to gather data. I will use this data and the graphs to back up several of my points. I also found a scholarly article that goes in depth on the impact of media consumption on police misconduct and how media portrayals of certain groups of people and officers play into the issue of police misconduct in real life. I want to include this in a section talking about causes of this issue.
For my secondary research, I will use online information about global income inequality across the world. The white paper will also use government and non-government agencies’ data on the national gross domestic product, household incomes, and education achievements Besides that, I am planning to use data from academic journals and websites on global income inequality.
I have found various secondary resources to use in my paper like a dataset on glaciers melting throughout the years and sea level rising throughout the years too. These will help my claims in the paper. I have also found other datasets on carbon emissions and such as well so they might prove helpful too.
I have found information from the American Heart Association online which I think is really helpful to understand what is done to prevent heart disease and what is seen as a risk. My initial data set focused on heart disease risk factors but was not as clear. This piece of information on the cdc.gov website is really helping me articulate my point better for my paper.
I have found many resources and organizations regarding for gender wage gap such as the leanin.org, equal pay American association, the aauw, equal pay today, the national women’s law center, pay scale, american progress.
I have found articles and case studies that are related to police misconduct from Baruch Library. Those articles would provide statistical reports that could support my claims, and examples that would concrete my idea. In addition, I have found BuzzFeedNews.com that provides records of police misconduct in NYC.