Essay #3: The Exploratory Essay For Paper #3, you will expand merely summarizing sources in an annotated bibliography into a substantial reflection in the exploratory essay. The exploratory essay asks you to describe and reflect on your critical thinking process. In the process of completing this essay, you should first identify what your original perception was on the research question you had. If you write about gun control, for instance, you may say something to the effect that you believed the government should not interfere before you started doing your research. This will be your introduction: what was your original thought? In the terms of the dialectic, this is your initial thesis (not to be confused with a thesis statement like in an argument essay!) Then, you will want to bounce each source off of your original question in the body of the paragraph. Each paragraph should contain a strong response to a source. In a dialectical fashion, how did the source add/enhance your understanding or opinion of the issue? Did it change your opinion, or make it stronger? How about the process of writing to find the sources: did you discover a gold nugget at 3 AM before the due date for the annotated bibliography? Have you found anything new now, even after your original ten sources, to change/alter your thinking? Each paragraph should build off the other and tell a story about the pains and pleasures of the research process. You don’t have to talk about all of your sources from your annotated bibliography, but talk about all the ones that will build a strong argument. You should talk about new sources even outside the bibliography. Make this paper personal and creative! Getting sources that go against your initial opinion is essential. This part of the dialectic is called the antithesis. It’s meant to clash with your initial thesis. It’s important to see how your ideas clash with that of others. Without a substantial antithesis, your research process is significantly weakened. The final conclusion will be the synthesis, which is the logical result when a thesis and antithesis collide. What is your final opinion on the issue now, after completing all this research? How has your understanding of the problem changed? If it’s the same, how is your opinion stronger? If different, what changed it? The conclusion to your exploratory essay will be the thesis for your next paper, the argument. This is your final thesis that you have come to after undergoing a rigorous process of research. Therefore, the conclusion is arguably the most important part of the paper, where it all comes together (a delayed thesis conclusion, according to the midterm packet I gave you.) I envision a minimum of 5-6 pages, double spaced. The deadline will be Monday, July 26, by 05:00 PM, through eCampus. On Wednesday, July 21, you will read student examples and respond to them on the discussion board for your first check-in. On Thursday, July 22, there is no work due except to add three new sources based on the feedback I gave you in your bibliography. On Friday, July 23, you will submit a full draft of your paper to the discussion board for peer review. You will review submissions up to Monday by 12:00 PM. You will submit the paper officially on Tuesday, July 27, by 12:00 PM. Dialectic: Thesis: what’s my take? Antithesis: opposite, differing views Synthesis: what happens when you conflate both the thesis and the antithesis in your brains. I: Introduction: your thesis (before you started the research). What are your initial biases? What do you hope to gain from doing a process of research? II. Source A: what were the ideas in this source? Evaluate them: is the argument strong or weak? How is your original opinion getting moldedis it being reinforced or changing? Make sure you get several antitheses, going in opposition to your original opinion. Wrestle with ideasroll in complexity! III. Source B: After reading source A, I asked another Q, leading to source B. Then, evaluate. IV: Source C V: Source D VI: Source E: don’t forget about sources above! VII: Conclusion/Synthesis: After doing all of this research, where am I now? If thesis is the same: how has the research made it stronger? If your opinion has changed, why? Explanation & Answer: 5 pages Tags: palliative care terminal illness right treatment processes right information critical illness situations User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool’s honor code & terms of service.
Reference List: Basic Rules
Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.
This resource, revised according to the 7th edition APA Publication Manual, provides fundamental guidelines for constructing the reference pages of research papers. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (7th ed.).
Note: Because the information on this page pertains to virtually all citations, we’ve highlighted one important difference between APA 6 and APA 7 with an underlined note written in red.
Formatting a Reference List
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page “References” in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
Basic Rules for Most Sources
- All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
- All authors’ names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
- Authors’ first and middle names should be written as initials.
- For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would begin with “Smith, J. M.”
- If a middle name isn’t available, just initialize the author’s first name: “Smith, J.”
- Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors (this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six authors). Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.
- Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
- For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
- When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
- Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special rules. See section below.
- Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on).
- Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.
Basic Rules for Articles in Academic Journals
- Present journal titles in full.
- Italicize journal titles.
- Maintain any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title.
- For example, you should use PhiloSOPHIA instead of Philosophia, or Past & Present instead of Past and Present.
- Capitalize all major words in the titles of journals. Note that this differs from the rule for titling other common sources (like books, reports, webpages, and so on) described above.
- This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic journal titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources’ titles do not.
- Capitalize the first word of the titles and subtitles of journal articles, as well as the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and any proper nouns.
- Do not italicize or underline the article title.
- Do not enclose the article title in quotes.
- So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled “Deep Blue: The Mysteries of the Marianas Trench” that was published in the journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would write the article title as follows:
- Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.
- …but you would write the journal title as follows:
- Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication
- So, for example, if you need to cite an article titled “Deep Blue: The Mysteries of the Marianas Trench” that was published in the journal Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication, you would write the article title as follows:
Please note: While the APA manual provides examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not cover all conceivable sources. If you must cite a source that APA does not address, the APA suggests finding an example that is similar to your source and using that format. For more information, see page 282 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed.
