This is the main question of the group for a digital storytelling project which we will do later and we are doing individual research papers for it now.
– How did the government handle the drug crisis in California? With the ongoing war on drugs, how did the California government step in and handle this widespread problem? How were the communities within the state affected?
This is the question that needs to be answered for this paper:
How did police forces intervene in communities of color relating to drug use?
Extra Advice
A few students have asked how many sources that they should use for their individual research papers. It’s always hard to answer that question, because there is no standard size for sources. Some sources, like a classified ad in a newspaper or a 30-second TV commercial, are very short. Other sources, like a novel or feature-length movie, are much longer. Rather than think about the number of sources, I encourage you to focus on filling your paper’s body paragraphs with specific details, examples, and short quotations. As a general rule of thumb, each paragraph in the body of your essay should have between 3 and 5 specific details, examples, and short quotations. A normal body paragraph is about 1/2 to 2/3 of a page, so that means you should have about 5 to 10 specific examples per page.
Also, you can use a combination of primary sources and secondary sources. It does not have to be all primary sources.
A good outline for the essay might look like this:
1. Introduction (a half-page paragraph setting up your question and thesis)
2. Body paragraphs (each paragraph should be 1/2 to 2/3 of a page; that means you should aim for 7 to 12 body paragraphs; each paragraph should help support your essay’s topic).
3. Conclusion (a half-page paragraph summarizing your thesis and offering a thoughtful closing comment).