Lee's Abstract

In this paper, I will explore the influence that smoking in movies has on culture and the public image of smoking. I will explain the prevalence of smoking in movies and how cigarette companies use movies in advertisements. I will then show how successful these companies are and how the movies effect the public image of smoking. I will also explain how successful smoking in movies is in getting young people to smoke compared to older people. I will do this by exploring smoking in movies influence in the past and in other nations. My research and information will conclude that smoking in movies keeps the positive image of smoking alive and successfully encourages young people to smoke.

Sam's Abstract

With a path paved by its big brother MySpace, the online social networking site, Facebook, has been growing rapidly among high school as well as my fellow college students everywhere. The site demands attention and time from the adolescent to young adult generation in an unavoidable way; Facebook creates an entirely new environment in which users can exist. The site is has reached into almost every aspect of life, and I plan to look at its impact, positive and negative. I want to put special focus on communication: with friends, on a college campus, and now, even with relatives. After all, the best way to make sure an event is noticed among a group of college kids is, arguably, creating an event on Facebook. Of all the environments in which my generation exists, it seems that Facebook has become the most demanding. Is Facebook defining my generation?

Tiffany's Prospectus

As I teenage college student, I can not imagine life without a cell phone. So for my research topic, I am studying the ways that cell phones have shaped our society. I will include information about the types of person to person relationships that cell phones both support and dampen. I will also include a section on how communication has changed with technological advancements. I will give reasons for how cell phones have improved communication and how they have hurt it. Many people don’t realize the impact cell phones have on them, so I want the reader to become aware of the ways these machines have changed their lives. The paper will not be simply positives and negatives, but the impact those positives and negatives have. My thesis will be along the lines of “Cell phones have played a big role in shaping American society and the ways in which individuals interact with one another.”

Elizabeth's Abstract

For my research paper I am going to do NAFTA’s chapter 11 and it’s implication for the average American person. I would really like to focus on the laws and policies that have been challenged by foreign corporations that could threaten the health of the people. I would also like to focus on the reasons why chapter 11 was included into NAFTA in the first place.
Chapter 11 is a section of NAFTA that allows foreign corporations of NAFTA countries to sue NAFTA governments that threaten them or their profits. There is a tribunal meeting held to determine the outcome of these cases but these meetings are closed to the public. The tribunal cannot force the governments to change their policies, but they can award huge uncapped financial compensations to the corporations.
I am going to research the reasons why big corporations need chapter 11 to protect themselves from governments. I want to research the situations in the past where governments have directly tried to cut the profits of corporations without a just reason. I want to research all the ways in which chapter 11 helps businesses to make a profit. I also would like to look at the results of chapter 11 for the average American consumer, who is not involved in the Tribunal meetings to determine the outcome of their own government’s policies. I am going to look into the cases that have already been brought against the government and the implications of the results.

Laura's Abstract

The divorce rate is now one in two, and one in eight Americans opt never to marry. I am studying the attitudes of Americans towards dating and marriage and how they have changed in recent years because I am trying to find out why the divorce rate is so high to help my reader better understand the nature of the modern marriage. In my paper, I would like to argue that the modern attitudes about dating and hooking up have led to the deterioration of marriage in our society. Because we live in a “hook up” society, and people often have pre-marital sex, people are more likely to have affairs once they are married. In addition, couples are now more likely to live together before they are married. When people don’t reserve this bond for marriage, they are likely to not value marriage as much. They seem to say, “let’s give this a test run.” Therefore this attitude is carried over to marriage, and couples don’t take their commitment as seriously. In addition, when people live together and then break up, the emotional effects can be as devastating as an actual divorce. As a generation, who lived through many more divorces than any other in American history, many of us are choosing to opt out.

Kelly's Abstract

Jon Katz said that by using the internet we will be forming a new kind of libertarianism. From that idea i decided that my topic will be based on the idea of free expression in using the internet. I plan to argue that this idea of free expression enables anyone to become who they want to be on the internet. It allows people to say what they need to say without bias. The internet helps people to challenge the norms of everday life and allow us to speak about what people believe to be the truth.
I would also like to focus on how the enitre world does not have free expression on the internet. I want to show what kind of progress is being made in the world to get people their rights of free expression on the internet. I would like to learn more about this topic and help those who read my essay to learn just how much free expression affects society and the world.
So. I would like to focus on freee expression, what it is, who has it, who doesn't, and how people are helping those who dont have it to get it.

Carl's Prospectus

My topic is on the study of how writing history through narrative affects the interpretation of that history. I am trying to find out exactly how narrative writing distorts reality, to what degree, and how to discern truth from fiction. Possibly to narrow down the topic I will use what I learn in an example and analyze parts of a narrative on Genghis Khan. The idea is to help my reader understand the complexity of history and how history cannot be taken at face value, especially the narrative, even when it is written as “fact” like Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Although I focus on narrative writing in history, I want the paper to show how much there is in regards to how history is written so that the reader goes away thinking more critically of historic sources and so that they know in the end, they are the ones that must decide which historic interpretation they wish to accept. Other ways to narrow down the topic might be to take a specific event that is told in multiple narratives and analyze that, or to look at one part of the historic narrative that is especially significant in the telling of history.

Ryan's Readjusted Prospectus

I have changed my topic somewhat since class this afternoon. Here are my new ideas:

My research paper will be an investigation of the interplay between advertising and personal values. The broad background is the psychological affect ads have on us. First, I want to learn about how advertising uses and/or manipulates American values in order to sell goods and services. I will uses outside research and studies and hopefully several ads themselves to demonstrate how ads use what we hold dear in order to satisfy our desires (or make us want to satisfy a fictional desire). Advertising, by definition, makes us want to buy things. But I think Americans are looking for something when they latch onto advertising. We are looking for advice, reassurance, and comfort in advertising, and ad manufacturers take advantage of these desires and values. So, the second dimension of the paper is that advertising in turn reinforces, adjusts, or perhaps even recreates some of our personal values. Although this topic essentially has a broad basis, the paper will be looking more at how advertising affects our values as individuals. I would like to argue that advertising can shape values. (I may bring in international sources here to prove that ads affect values in general, not just Americans’ values.) I will analyze ads from different media, but I would like to focus on television, magazines, and “brand names.” The fundamental point is that ads do more than just encourage us to buy things. I will try to prove that advertising, both obvious and non-obvious, has a profound effect on our values, but one that we might not always see right away.

Sylvia's Prospectus

The topic that I have chosen to research is the effects that violent video games have on children.  Not only will I research the immediate possible negative and positive effects of the video games, but I will also research the influence the violent games have had on public policy.  The research conducted will also analyze the marketing techniques used to promote such games and the reasons the games are popular.  The ratings of the games will also be an aspect as to how each game is considered "violent". I will investigate the effects of violent video games in order to help my reader better understand the danger in the violent games.  I will also analyze studies in which not only children were affected, but also older individuals.  I will use this research to discuss the greater impact that the violent games have on a "young mind" and the type of behavioral effects the games seem to have.  Within the research I will also try to compare recent studies with more dated studies to analyze the differences between present "violent" games and ones of the past.  

John's Prospectus

There is much talk in the American media of China’s status as an emerging global superpower, of China’s rapid economic growth and of its expanding political influence in Asia and throughout the world. Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, and National Geographic have all dedicated entire issues in the past couple of years to the subject of China’s rise, and the implications that its growth will entail for America’s position in the world. But the rhetoric employed by the American media when it discusses the rise of China does not lead the reader to a complete and accurate picture of the significance of China’s rise. Rather, the American popular media frames China’s rise as a problem that Americans should fear. The negative language and the constant associations employed by the American media between China’s ascension and America’s decline create a subconscious anxiety in the American public concerning the subject of China and its growth. The American media uses a rhetoric of fear and foreboding when writing about China’s rise, and the American public thus learns to associate China with danger.