Author Topic: Need help with a research project  (Read 925 times)

Offline Dragon Tamer

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2047
Need help with a research project
« on: March 28, 2015, 07:52:29 PM »
I'm not sure if anyone will be able to help me or not but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

My specific topic is "acceptance of cultural differences in America" but it seems to be exceedingly hard to find any information on this topic. I haven't tried Google search yet but one of the requirements is that one of my sources is scholarly. I've been looking on Google scholar for the last two days and I've come up empty handed. I've even changed my search terms but I still can't find anything.

I'm not looking for any specific cultural acceptance but it has to be from an American standpoint. Any sources you guys could provide would be a huge help.

I know that this is a borderline topic so I would like to ask that people refrain from posting their opinions which will inevitably take this topic in very bad direction... maybe asking that links be sent as a PM would be better.

Offline Brooke

  • Aces High CM Staff
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 15731
      • http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2015, 08:41:00 PM »
I'd still do a Google search and look around on Wikipedia.

These contain a lot of useful stuff and pointers to solid information, not just unsubstantiated opinion.

Offline Oldman731

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 9502
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2015, 11:06:58 PM »
My specific topic is "acceptance of cultural differences in America" but it seems to be exceedingly hard to find any information on this topic.


Yikes!  Quite a broad topic.

You might contrast "assimilation," which is more or less classic American melting pot theory, with "multiculturalism," which is a Euro value that generally opposes assimilation.

But otherwise there are a zillion sources available to you, most of them race-oriented, but also including anti-Semitism, "know nothings," the Irish experience and anti-Roman Catholicism...heck, the Civil War fits in here as well.

Can you narrow your topic?

Most important:  When is the paper due?

- oldman

Offline MrKrabs

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2152
      • AH-Freebirds.com
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2015, 01:58:12 AM »
How about "We hate everyone equally?"  :aok
The boiling pot is put away and the crab has gone back to sea...

Offline Muzzy

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1404
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2015, 02:05:23 AM »
Sadly, most of American history focuses on a lack of cultural acceptance rather than its promotion. I would check Ebsco if your school has access to it. Wikipedia is a good source for background information, but you should make use of the source material listed at the bottom of the article rather than the article itself. Online Wikis are not scholarly sources or peer-reviewed so they are generally unacceptable in academic work.

Again, this is a broad topic and you may want to narrow it down a little.


CO 111 Sqdn Black Arrows

Wng Cdr, No. 2 Tactical Bomber Group, RAF, "Today's Target" Scenario. "You maydie, but you will not be bored!"

Offline Dragon

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 7055
      • AH JUGS
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2015, 01:53:43 PM »
"acceptance of cultural differences in America"

This is why you are having a hard time finding material.  Americans in general don't accept the cultural differences of others.  Food is about the only part of foreign culture we embrace.  Habits, religious attitudes and requirements, views towards gender and children, treatment of laborers, etc are all areas where we view ourselves superior and can't accept.

Good luck with your fictional paper.   :cheers:
SWchef  Lieutenant Colonel  Squadron Training Officer  125th Spartan Warriors

Offline Dragon Tamer

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2047
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2015, 02:14:15 PM »

Yikes!  Quite a broad topic.

You might contrast "assimilation," which is more or less classic American melting pot theory, with "multiculturalism," which is a Euro value that generally opposes assimilation.

But otherwise there are a zillion sources available to you, most of them race-oriented, but also including anti-Semitism, "know nothings," the Irish experience and anti-Roman Catholicism...heck, the Civil War fits in here as well.

Can you narrow your topic?

Most important:  When is the paper due?

- oldman

Thanks for the help, the word "assimilation" turned up some much better results than what I was finding. I think I had the idea correct, I just couldn't find the right words to use. I'll try "multiculturalism" in a bit, see what I can turn up.

The paper is an exploratory essay. I have to pick a topic and write about it from an unbiased point of view. The same topic will also be used for my final paper in a few weeks so I wanted a topic that I had little knowledge about so I could avoid adding any opinions that I already have to it.

How about "We hate everyone equally?"  :aok

I have that on a plaque on my wall. :aok

Offline caldera

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6469
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2015, 02:14:39 PM »
"acceptance of cultural differences in America"

This is why you are having a hard time finding material.  Americans in general don't accept the cultural differences of others.  Food is about the only part of foreign culture we embrace.  Habits, religious attitudes and requirements, views towards gender and children, treatment of laborers, etc are all areas where we view ourselves superior and can't accept.

Good luck with your fictional paper.   :cheers:

Many inhabitants of other countries want to kill Americans for our culture, but we're the "intolerant" ones.  Of course "tolerance" now somehow means "acceptance and promotion".

Nothing wrong with the melting pot.  Too much "cultural diversity" from other countries - demanded by people that loved their culture so much that they emigrated here - and a country loses it's own culture.
Snuggie - voted "Sexiest Man Alive" for the entire Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere!

Offline ink

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 11274
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2015, 02:19:38 PM »
"acceptance of cultural differences in America"

This is why you are having a hard time finding material.  Americans in general don't accept the cultural differences of others.  Food is about the only part of foreign culture we embrace.  Habits, religious attitudes and requirements, views towards gender and children, treatment of laborers, etc are all areas where we view ourselves superior and can't accept.

Good luck with your fictional paper.   :cheers:


 :aok

Offline Muzzy

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1404
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2015, 03:59:50 PM »
Thanks for the help, the word "assimilation" turned up some much better results than what I was finding. I think I had the idea correct, I just couldn't find the right words to use. I'll try "multiculturalism" in a bit, see what I can turn up.

The paper is an exploratory essay. I have to pick a topic and write about it from an unbiased point of view. The same topic will also be used for my final paper in a few weeks so I wanted a topic that I had little knowledge about so I could avoid adding any opinions that I already have to it.

I have that on a plaque on my wall. :aok

Well, doesn't your investigation turn up your thesis then? (How do I know this? I teach English Composition). Go with the failure of cultural acceptance in America.


CO 111 Sqdn Black Arrows

Wng Cdr, No. 2 Tactical Bomber Group, RAF, "Today's Target" Scenario. "You maydie, but you will not be bored!"

Offline Dragon Tamer

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2047
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2015, 04:17:10 PM »
Well, doesn't your investigation turn up your thesis then? (How do I know this? I teach English Composition). Go with the failure of cultural acceptance in America.

The idea of this paper is to not have a thesis. So in this case I would be looking at cultural integration from a typical American's point of view, from a politicians point of view (maybe), possibly an employers point of view and from an immigrants point of view.

These are the actual guidelines to the essay.

Quote
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, why the question is significant and worth exploring, and why you have been unable to reach a satisfactory answer. Then write a first-person, chronologically organized narrative account of your thinking process as you investigate your question through research, talking with others, and doing your own reflective thinking.

Your research should involve reading at least four sources found through library or internet research, one of which must be from a scholarly source, such as an academic journal. As you reflect on your research, you can also draw on your own memories and experiences. 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.

Offline Rich46yo

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 7358
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2015, 04:26:59 PM »
You obviously havnt traveled and lived in foreign lands to speak thus about your own country men.

Try finding a place where anyone, I mean anyone, is protected by a Constitution. Even foreign terrorists.

God Im so tired of fat arsed Americans who have never been anywheres bad mouthing their own country.


"acceptance of cultural differences in America"

This is why you are having a hard time finding material.  Americans in general don't accept the cultural differences of others.  Food is about the only part of foreign culture we embrace.  Habits, religious attitudes and requirements, views towards gender and children, treatment of laborers, etc are all areas where we view ourselves superior and can't accept.

Good luck with your fictional paper.   :cheers:
"flying the aircraft of the Red Star"

Offline Motherland

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 8110
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2015, 04:50:51 PM »
That's an extremely broad topic. While you may still be able to address it, you should think about ways of doing it other than trying to find sources about that topic as a gigantic, general whole. Maybe look at acceptance of cultural differences from the perspective of

-changing perceptions of black culture throughout American history (while this is written about ad nauseum, it changes constantly with starts and stops, so the perspective is perpetually changing)
-comparing/contrasting the assimilation of different immigrant waves - you can start the whole way back at Scots/Scotch-Irish in the colonies, through Northern Europeans and Germans in the early 19th century, Irish in the mid 19th, Southern and Eastern Europeans in the early 20th, Mexicans in the late 20th/early 21st, etc., or just pick a few depending on paper length
-comparing/contrasting the concerns and strategies of the Know Nothing Party, 19th century Democrats, 20th century Republicans, etc.
-comparing, even more broadly, the acceptance of counterculture movements with each other and maybe with foreign cultures foreign cultures for fun?

Now I have to choose a topic relating to groundwater geology that isn't related to the depletion of California's aquifers or contamination around here due to fracking, like everyone else is doing
« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 04:54:20 PM by Motherland »

Offline ink

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 11274
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #13 on: March 29, 2015, 05:10:50 PM »
You obviously havnt traveled and lived in foreign lands to speak thus about your own country men.

Try finding a place where anyone, I mean anyone, is protected by a Constitution. Even foreign terrorists.

God Im so tired of fat arsed Americans who have never been anywheres bad mouthing their own country.




yes the idea of America is great....but in reality people are selfish power hungry bigoted dicks....

one can Love their country and hate the system at the same time...... :aok


do you know what they call people who follow and believe the constitution?

constitutionalists......


we today in no way shape or form follow the founding fathers idea of what America was...

Offline Muzzy

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1404
Re: Need help with a research project
« Reply #14 on: March 29, 2015, 05:35:20 PM »
We're getting perilously close to lockdown here. Just saying.


CO 111 Sqdn Black Arrows

Wng Cdr, No. 2 Tactical Bomber Group, RAF, "Today's Target" Scenario. "You maydie, but you will not be bored!"