GLOA 400

Capstone Research Paper should have the following items:

 Name and Title at the top of the first page and bolded (no separate title page); page
numbers at the bottom of the pages.
 Introduction to your city, your research question, the sources you are using, and your
answer to your research question.
o Don’t call this section Introduction, since it is at the beginning of the paper and
thus is obviously the Introduction.
o Sources could be maps and/or data about your city from websites; official data
from the national Census or national government data; local newspapers, local
websites for NGOs, Facebook pages, photos, etc. Be critical of who is writing and
their perspective.
 Feel put photos or screen shots in the paper. In captions, state where these
sources are from.
 Literature Review, which must discuss the 10 scholarly, peer-reviewed sources in the
bibliography, including the two relevant readings from class. Here you are telling me
what scholars have already discovered about your city and your research question. You
want to conduct research on something that hasn’t been discovered before:
o For example, Author X (2000) found that City Z is experiencing gentrification.
However, is City Z experiencing gentrification today?
o For example, Author K (2015) found that City Q has a right to the city movement.
Does City W, which is in the same country, also have a right to the city
movement? Why or why not?
o For example, Authors A, B, and C have shown that gentrification is going on in
City Y, but is there commercial gentrification going on in City Y?
 Findings. Here you tell me what you discovered from your own sources. Here you tell me
the answer to your research question and prove it to me with your sources.
 Conclusion to the paper, which summarizes your topic, research question, research
answer, findings, and directions you might want to work on in the future.
 Bibliography (this is a list with at least 10 scholarly texts [of the 10 texts, there must be 2
class texts] and the sources used for your analysis and findings).

General issues:

 The paper should be 2,500 words (or slightly more like 2,700 if necessary; the
bibliography is not included in this count). About 10 pages with 1 inch margins all
around, 12 point font.
 Use a citation style both in the paper and in the bibliography. Not using a consistent style
will result in a reduction of the grade by one letter (such as from A to B). Here are styles
to choose from: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/resources.html
o When doing in-text citations, you just refer to the author's last name and the date
of the publication. You don't need to tell me the title of the article or tell me that
the person is an author. I can find the full titles, etc. in your bibliography. For
example: Purcell (2015) explained the ideas of Lefebvre...
o Please don't plagiarize. Plagiarizing is taking someone's words or even their ideas
without telling me where they came from. You can take lots of peoples' ideas, but
you have to tell me through citations from where you are getting these ideas,
concepts, etc. 
 Ask a research question and study a city that truly interests you. You will likely find that
this research will help you in the future in different surprising ways. I intend for this
paper to be fun and enjoyable.