Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Type a 300- to 500-word paper that uses the sources from the annotated bibliography to explore how diversity, equity, and inclusion informs your future. Your future includes many possibilities: selecting your major, seeking jobs post-university, developing self confidence, building communities, etc. Research into diversity, equity, and inclusion issues is intended to help each of you broaden your awareness of others and demonstrate that you can learn and discuss sensitive topics respectfully in a professional environment.

Using the sources you have already found and summarized, write a research paper that argues for some action to be taken, some problem to be solved. Your future gives you much to think about. Careers are more than jobs with salaries and educational requirements. Jobs are people. People live in communities. Communities produce people (and around we go).
Think about your future career and the people in it and not in it. Think about the people around you now, how you got here, who you will work with in the future, and how you might affect people within your career. What might be an issue that you can improve? Issues should go beyond the personal and affect more than just yourself (though ideas might begin
with what you would be concerned with).

Required Sources
Use the sources from the Annotated Bibliography assignment. Include only the citations, not the annotations.
a. One Scholarly Journal article that you have accessed online through WKU Libraries databases
b. One TED talk
You can add more sources (such as when you research your problem/solution), but you cannot take any of these core sources away. Any added sources must be credible, which means the source must be based on research – not opinion. Ask if you are uncertain.
Assignment Steps
• Think about the problem/solution you want to write about
• Begin the research paper draft
• Turn in 50% draft that uses and cites all sources from the annotated bibliography (include sources!)
• Fine-tune the formatting and argument
• Finalize the research paper

Assignment Requirements:
• Be at least 300-500 words
• Include reference to the scholarly journal article and TED talk (in bibliography and in text)
• Include a position you take (an argument) on something you have learned from at least one source you used.
• Include formatting for an APA paper (sources, cover page, page numbers, margins, font/point size, NO abstract)
• Submit a draft at least 50% complete (must include all sources) on the Discussion board by the due date
• Submit a Microsoft Word (.docx) file for final grading on Blackboard Assignments. (DO NOT submit links, .pages, .pdf, or any zipped files.)

As you research and write, keep the sources in the same file (not a separate one). Keep all old drafts. Delete nothing ever, just save a new version. Good ideas that seem like bad ideas can come back around to being good ideas in the multi-step process of writing a research paper. Multiple drafts also prove you wrote it, if stealing/plagiarism ever comes up.

Organization
Your paper may be organized in a variety of ways, if it meets all requirements. Here is one logical way you might want to organize your paper:
Introduction (explains topic of paper): Explain your chosen area of diversity, equity, and inclusion and why you are interested in it. Identify the issue you researched, what problem(s) you found, and explain your solution. Keep the topic narrow and clear.
Body (provides reasoning and source support): Explain, briefly, what sources you found in your research and what they contained. Point out what source(s) informs the argument you are making. Be sure to discuss each source at least once in this section, according to what you found in the source. DO NOT organize by sources, but by information. For instance, if two separate sources contained similar or very different viewpoints, compare them, discuss them together, and explain differences.
Conclusion (sums up argument and promotes action): Show how the argument you have made can be solved.
Explain what should be done.
Bibliography: List all required sources (more if you wish, but no less) according to APA style on a separate page at the end of the research paper

Research Paper Grading Rubric