Click to download the project description (PDF).
Be taken to:
Be taken to:
Project Description--Overview
Word Search Paper
The “Word Search” paper is not like any research you have done before or will do later at this school. However, like all research papers, you will be asked to do the following:
1) Choose a topic
2) Refer to a variety of sources
3) Synthesize information from these sources
4) Write a full-length paper
Hopefully, when you are finished you will have arrived at a fuller and richer understanding of your topic, learned new ways to acquire information, stretched your ability to evaluate information, and found your “voice” in the process.
You are going to research a word. You will discover that only one word is a wellspring of information, which can be viewed in a multitude of ways.
Your first task is to look over the list of words on the handout given to you in class. Most (if not all) of these words are abstract, intangible ideas and concepts. You should narrow your focus to two or three words that attract you, and begin to relate them to your own experience in life. Once the word starts to have a personal significance for you, you will have created a context for understanding, and you will actually have begun your research. You may have many reasons (known and unknown) for choosing the word you choose, but when you finally decide, you will spend the next few weeks in a close relationship with the word. As in all relationships, it will have its difficulties, but it should prove a rewarding experience if you put effort and attention into it.
Once you have settled on your word, you will begin the process of discovery that makes this research project different from any other you will do in English classes. You will decide on the direction and organization of this project, and you will infuse it with your own self as you record your personal joy, frustration, confusion, amazement, disbelief, boredom, stupefaction, ecstasy, etc. I am encouraging you to write in a first person, informal, journal-like style so that the real you comes out in the discovery process. Of course, you will be required to list sources and do some of the formal aspects of research, but the main idea of this word search is for you to integrate the information you research with your own personal insight and experience in your own personal way. That should mean that you share a wide range of emotions and thoughts in your paper: the positive and the negative.
The “Word Search” paper is not like any research you have done before or will do later at this school. However, like all research papers, you will be asked to do the following:
1) Choose a topic
2) Refer to a variety of sources
3) Synthesize information from these sources
4) Write a full-length paper
Hopefully, when you are finished you will have arrived at a fuller and richer understanding of your topic, learned new ways to acquire information, stretched your ability to evaluate information, and found your “voice” in the process.
You are going to research a word. You will discover that only one word is a wellspring of information, which can be viewed in a multitude of ways.
Your first task is to look over the list of words on the handout given to you in class. Most (if not all) of these words are abstract, intangible ideas and concepts. You should narrow your focus to two or three words that attract you, and begin to relate them to your own experience in life. Once the word starts to have a personal significance for you, you will have created a context for understanding, and you will actually have begun your research. You may have many reasons (known and unknown) for choosing the word you choose, but when you finally decide, you will spend the next few weeks in a close relationship with the word. As in all relationships, it will have its difficulties, but it should prove a rewarding experience if you put effort and attention into it.
Once you have settled on your word, you will begin the process of discovery that makes this research project different from any other you will do in English classes. You will decide on the direction and organization of this project, and you will infuse it with your own self as you record your personal joy, frustration, confusion, amazement, disbelief, boredom, stupefaction, ecstasy, etc. I am encouraging you to write in a first person, informal, journal-like style so that the real you comes out in the discovery process. Of course, you will be required to list sources and do some of the formal aspects of research, but the main idea of this word search is for you to integrate the information you research with your own personal insight and experience in your own personal way. That should mean that you share a wide range of emotions and thoughts in your paper: the positive and the negative.