Paper #3--Research for the Knowledge Garden

hey there,

For this paper you will be focusing in on some topic that is related to our Knowledge Garden. You will write a 7 page minimum research paper. Your paper will be "published" along with your classmates' papers into a book that people will be able to read. (So, you will want to make sure that your grammar, etc. is clean, and that your ideas are well articulated.)

You will also be writing up a 2-3 paragraph summary of your paper that we will take and paste into a plaque that will be featured out in the garden.

You will need to focus your topic: You will want to be sure that your topic is manageable and accessable. For example, if you decide to do your paper on "Dirt" that is surely an accessable topic because there are a million articles about it. BUT, it is not a manageble topic because there is TOO much content out there. You will need to focus in your topic. You could do something about the soil composition in Hayward, and how this dirt effects gardens. You could do something on lead in soil, and its impact on gardens. The trick is to find a topic that is small enough, but that you can still find articles and information about.

A note about topic choices: You are encouraged to be creative with your topic choice. You can filter your topic through your major, or through a passion you have. You can find some odd angle that you want to share (To give you an idea, here are some possible topics that students are thinking about doing: the history of garden gnomes,  chain link fences, how to do a pond, how to make sunflower seeds, the story of an Iowa grandmother who was a corn farmer, gardens and PTSD, Milpa, wind chimes, etc.... there are a lot more....)

Details of paper:

1. 7 page minimum research paper
2. Works cited page
3. 5 sources minimum (dont make this a wikipedia heavy paper!)
4. 2-3 paragraph summary for your plaque (this is a different piece of writing than your paper)
5. Be very careful about avoiding plagiarism. You will want to name all the sources you use and you will want to put them in your own voice. The trick for doing that is actually simple: read the source material a few times to really understand it; then HIDE the source; then in your own voice, write up what you think the source was saying. (Your version may not sound as elegant as the original, but that doesnt matter. We want YOUR voice.)
6. paper is due on July 29th. Draft day is 24th. (you will be bringing in part of the paper next tues, the 22nd.)