The final project is your opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned about African Humanities in this class and to further explore a topic that interest you the most. The project will consist of a five-page research paper and an accompanying research poster that situates expressive culture in African Humanities within its specific and unique social and historical context. This page will provide an overview of the final project, the expectations, and the steps to complete the project.
Lesson Objectives:
- identify criteria and expectations in the assignment description
- describe the different between a descriptive report and a research-based analytical paper
- recognize steps to develop a research paper and produce a research poster
The Assignment Description
The written component of your project will satisfy the General Education Learning Outcome (GELO) for Global-Socio-Cultural Responsibility. Your paper must demonstrate an understanding of diversity/pluralism in the world community by analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating a creative medium in African Humanities that expresses unique social and historical experiences. Your project can address any of the expressive mediums explored in this course (music, film, religion, food, etc.) or you can investigate a topic of interest that was not covered in this class yet relates to African Humanities.
This is a research-based project, and this means that you are required to conduct research on a topic, collect information about the topic, and analyze the data in a way that you will be able to create a statement, or thesis, about the topic. If you have never done this before, do not worry! This module is designed to take you through the process step-by-step;
Download and review the assignment description below so you know what lies ahead.
What is Analysis?
Analysis is the process of producing new information based on research and observation. The thesis in your research paper should represent new information (your ideas) about your topic within African Humanities that is based on the information you gathered in your research. For example, a paper simply describing ‘Morocco’ is not analytical, but a thesis paper stating ‘Moroccan culture reflects a long history of ancient civilizations, colonial struggles and modern globalization’ is an analytical statement based on historical data that provides new information about Moroccan culture. This makes it important to conduct research first, organize your data by taking notes, and then create a thesis statement about the topic that you can support with your researched data.
Final Project Development Steps include:
Step 1: Select a Topic and submit it to Peer Review. The topic can relate to any medium of expressive culture within the humanities (art, music, film, poetry, news, dance, et.) or a combination of different expressive mediums. You can select a topic related to your selected country or you can branch out to a region, a continental comparison, or an element of the African diaspora. The peer review process will give you an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your topic.
Step 2: Conduct scholarly research, create an Annotated Bibliography and submit it to Peer Review. Your paper must have at east five scholarly sources. You can use scholarly sources from any previous research conducted in this class, any references included at the end of the web lessons, or scholarly references located through the library databases listed in the Bibliography web lesson. The peer review process will give you an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your scholarly sources.
Step 3: Organize data into topics, consider the main theme for your paper, and create an Outline for the Research Paper to submit for peer review. Organizing your data will help you identify a pattern that you can use to develop your thesis statement and create an outline of your paper. The outline is the bones that you will build into your paper. It should include your thesis, at least three subheadings that support your thesis, a conclusion, and your sources. The peer review process will give you an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your outline.
Step 4: Develop the outline into a Research Paper and submit it to peer review. Your paper is where you build your argument by connecting your data to your research statement. It will not address everything you have researched about your topic; only enough information to support your statement about the topic. This is where yu concentrate on writing; style, structure, spelling, grammar, etc. The peer review process will give you an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your paper.
Step 5: Create an accompanying Research Poster and submit to peer review. The poster is a graphic representation of your paper. It should include only the main points of your paper (thesis, brief data points, sources, etc.) as well as informative graphics such as photos, charts, graphs, etc. The peer review process will give you an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your poster.
Step 6: Revise the paper and poster and submit for a grade. After completing the peer review process for the paper and the poster, you will have an opportunity to revise it and submit it for a final grade.