Week 1 group discussion forum | GEN 499 General Education Capstone | Ashford University

Prepare: Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, review the Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question (Links to an external site.) web page and Integrating Research (Links to an external site.) tutorial. These resources will help you in developing a topic.

It is also recommended that you review these tutorials from the Ashford University Library:

You may also want to review the Sample Final Paper GEN499, so that you can start preparing your rough draft that is due in Week 4.

Reflect: When considering a research topic, consider an interesting topic that is worth further research. For instance, having a strong opinion on a specific topic may deter you from thinking more critically, and therefore the research might end up being one-sided. It is a good idea to pick a topic in which you can provide a good argument for both sides of the societal issue.

Write: For this discussion, address the following prompts:

• Identify a global societal issue from the following list that you would consider researching further for your Week 5 Final Paper:
  • Climate change
  • Pollution
  • Religious conflict and violence
  • Rise of artificial intelligence
  • Lack of education
  • Unemployment and lack of economic opportunity
  • Government accountability and corruption
  • Food and water security
  • International drug trafficking
  • Poverty and income inequality
• Describe effective methods you used in identifying and narrowing down to just one of the topics to further research for your Final Paper.
• Explain three ways you can critically analyze sources to determine if they are scholarly.
• Summarize information from at least two scholarly journal articles from the Ashford University Library that will support your claims for your chosen topic.
• Explain why scholarly sources should be used to support your writing on the selected topic.
• Download and attach a PDF copy of one of the peer-reviewed scholarly articles that you found from the Ashford University Library to your answer using the “Attach” function located below your response.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length, which should include a thorough response to each prompt. You are required to provide in-text citations of applicable required reading materials and/or any other outside sources you use to support your claims. Provide full reference entries of all sources cited at the end of your response. Please use correct APA format when writing in-text citations (see In-Text Citation Helper (Links to an external site.)) and references (see Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)).

Respond to Peers: Review your classmates’ posts, and respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7. In each response, provide comments on your classmate’s topic idea and ask a question that prompts your classmate to think more critically about how to explore the research topic in more detail. Each participation post should be a minimum of 75 words.