Should we be concerned about genetically modified food?

Assignment #4: Exploratory Research Essay

THE ASSIGNMENT: A six-page exploratory research paper (five pages text + References page) on a topic that:
• Motivates your curiosity
• Connects with your personal life
• Sustains your interest throughout the length of the project
• Is a question rather than a statement of opinion

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Here are the basic guidelines about this writing project:

Choose a question, problem, or issue that genuinely perplexes you. At the beginning of your exploratory essay, explain why you are interested in this chosen problem and why you have been unable to reach a satisfactory answer. The body of your paper will be a first-person, chronologically organized, narrative account of your thinking process as you investigate your question through library research (six sources, no more than two from internet search), talking with others, and doing your own reflective thinking…Your goal is to examine your question, problem, or issue from a variety of perspectives, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different positions and points of view. By the end of your essay, you may or may not have reached a satisfactory solution to your problem. You will be rewarded for the quality of your exploration and thinking processes. In other words, your goal is not to answer your question, but to report on the process of wrestling with it.

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THE AUDIENCE: Those interested in the evolution of your thinking about your question, problem, or issue as well as the specific research actions you took in your quest to find answers.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS: Remember that by definition the exploratory research essay you will write is less formal than the traditional closed-form research paper. You will be writing a first-person narrative about your topic that recounts not only your thinking processes through time but also your specific research activities. However, it is also a research paper; you must cite and discuss at least six different sources, one source per body paragraph, which should be listed according to APA source citation format on a separate “References” page (see the bibliography or “References” page in the sample paper in Content). The Student’s Book of College English also provides the information you need about citing sources and creating a bibliography in Chapters 20 and 21. Remember, even though this essay tells the story of your research of a question, is a fact-based paper. For that reason,

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• You will need to keep a research log where you document all steps taken in the research process. Which database and what search term did you use? When you find a source and skim it, what do you think? What’s the main point? Do you agree? Did you learn something new? Write down these initial impressions as the most efficient way to write the paper. The log is a great way to produce sentences which will go into your paper.
• Each paragraph in the body of your paper should summarize and evaluate one of your six chosen sources, providing specific references to the source (with quotations and paraphrase) to support the paragraph’s main idea and lend credibility to your ideas. This is a research paper and should focus on your research process, along with your evaluations of each source throughout the essay.
• You must cite at least six different sources, which should be listed according to APA source citation format on a separate “References” page. Every time you refer to a source in the paper, an in-text “parenthetical” citation is required (see p. 471 in our text for examples).

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Should we be Concerned about Genetically Modified Food?
Introduction
Biotechnology continues to revolutionize the field of Agricultural production. The innovators and advocates of this technology, Agri-biotech investors and other affiliated scientists, are of the view that use of biotechnology will offer the best solution to the ever experienced food shortages as well as the scarcity of | GET AN EXPERT FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT |however, is a group of independent scientists, farmers, environmentalists and more importantly consumers of products who argue that genetically modified food which is the main product of Agri-Biotechnology poses new risks to food security, the environment, human health, increased resistance of antibiotics, food allergies among | GET AN EXPERT FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT | concerns of both parties raise great concern on just which side of the coin should be considered. With the emergence of many food products both in chain stores and in open markets, coupled by ever emerging scientific innovations in…