Your research process begins with an assignment designed to provide background on your chosen topic or subject. You will research and write an 800-1200-word paper that outlines the main facts of the chosen topic and explores current issues/ problems and or opportunities related to the topic. The intent of this first paper is to provide information necessary to formulate an informed thesis, and to provide a scaffolding for subsequent more specific research. 1. After deciding on your topic use a variety of reliable sources -- include textbooks, trade, and books published by academic presses, government websites, trade periodicals, academic journals, and newspapers -- to understand the context of your topic. So, for example, if you choose to write about marketing hotels through social media, you need to understand (a) the purpose of marketing and (b) how this used to be done prior to the advent of social media. If you are looking into locally sourcing food for restaurants, you need to understand how restaurants source their food conventionally. 2. Once you have researched the background of your topic, you will write the paper. It should contain an introduction, body, and conclusion. The conclusion should discuss the issues, problems or opportunities brought up by the topic. So, using the first example above, what are the opportunities or problems presented by marketing hotels through social media? Who might win, who loses out? In the second example, you might consider the ethical, business, and cost implications. Make sure to format the paper in APA style. 3. The paper should include statistics, dates, and facts, and indicate their source in APA style. For example, you might write “according to Doe (2014), hotel chains now employ dozens of specialists to handle social media (pp. 67-68)” or “New York’s Greenmarkets define local as within an approximate 200-mile radius of New York City (Greenmarket Rules: April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017).”