there's research, and then there's research
As I mentioned on the main Sequel Project page, part of your research involves you familiarizing yourself with various things (setting details, situations, how things work--whatever you need to make the scene/chapter you are creating feel authentic. For example, if you have your characters catching Blackfin Snapper in Lake Shasta, any reader knowing much about fishing will know you got it wrong; the Blackfin Snapper is an ocean fish found mainly in the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Shasta is a large freshwater lake in Northern California.
Something as simple as having characters hide in an abandoned Carl's Jr. in Pennsylvania will get a savvy reader saying, "But they don't have Carl's Jr. in Pennsylvania; the chain is called Hardee's there.
However, these are just to help you with the final project (coming up); it is not what you are doing specifically for your research paper.
so what's the research paper about?
The research paper will be due prior to the Final Project (due date is on the Class Schedule). It is absolutely required and is worth up to 100 points.
If you did not read the lecture on How (and Why) to do a Research Paper very carefully, please do so now.
Reminder: if you did not yet get your Sequel Project Proposal APPROVED, then you need to do that now. I will not read or grade your Research Paper until both of those have been checked off. And late papers are penalized 10%.
The general research on geography, living conditions, clothing, and so on is just that--general, and writing about everything in your paper 1) would make the research paper unfocused/choppy (and probably pointless), and 2) would make the research paper a hundred page assignment. You do not want to have to write a book. You are going to focus on just one key element of setting or of situation or of activity that will make the scene you are writing feel authentic.
For example, if you are writing about a couple trying to survive the plague by living in a remote Colorado earthship that is totally off the grid, you will research the Colorado, earthships that are off the grid. Your thesis will be whatever unique element(s) an earthship in Colorado have to help the couple succeed (or it might put them at a real disadvantage trying to survive).
Here are a couple of specific examples:
Imagine you are writing about a small group that is protecting a water source and some other resources. They are in a cave above a valley, and marauders keep trying to attack them to get their resources. A sequel might involve just one chapter where the cave dwellers are outnumbered and are fortifying their cave and laying traps. Research (and there are some great books on this), would involve how people fortified and laid traps to hold off large forces in the past; you will probably find books on castle fortifications and on specific battles long before there was electricity.
It is soon after the plague has been discovered, and four people are surviving in a rocket silo bunker in Kansas. What is it like inside such a bunker? What stores/provisions are there? What would a floorplan look like? What would the daily routine be like? You would have to research that (just as the creators of 10 Cloverfield Lane had to research life in an underground bunker to make their movie [partly] believable.
You follow the pilot who left Severn City to go see what his home is like. Perhaps he has crashed in the Colorado Rockies. What is that geography like? What would be available to him in his plane? What resources are there around him? These are the things you would research.
Fortunately, you actually selected a narrow focus for your research paper, when you turned in your Proposal, and as long as it was APPROVED, it should work fine :)
The paper must be in current (8th edition) MLA format and will be about four-to-eight pages (with an additional page being he Works Cited page).
Papers that are less than four FULL pages will not be accepted
papers that are less than five FULL pages are trying for a "C"
five FULL pages or more are required for your paper to be considered for a higher grade
You should have at least four sources, but you will probably have more, and at least one source must be a book.
You are required to have direct quotations from all of those sources, and those direct quotations must be followed by parenthetical citations. Overall, about 1/3 of your paper should be documented quotations from the sources.
If appropriate, do include pictures if possible, but remember that pictures do not count as pages of text.
You will e-mail the Research Paper as an attached Word (.doc, .docx, .pdf or .rtf) file.
you are not alone
Be sure (before you submit a proposal) that you look at the Sample Sequel Resaerch Paper on Etudes (in the Resources > Essays > Station Eleven section.