D#15, WP#1 Final Draft

• In my final copy of WP#1 I was happy with the results, but I still do note some room for improvement. the first thing I would revise if I had it to do over again, I would have chose a topic I had a little more knowledge in. The other major change I would have made for this is I would have planed my time a little better, as I got a late start in class I was playing catchup through most of it. These changes would have helped me achieve the first course outcome better as having more knowledge of the topic would have given me more insight of my audiance and also of the implications of the paper.
  

College Stress Research Proposal

For my research project I have chose to look at what forms of stress college students are under and if this stress is the cause of violence or suicide on college campuses. I will provide the details of my findings while looking at this topic from all sides of the argument. I will also look into the school shooting at Virginia Tech, and try to determine if this tragedy was related to stress. I am interested in this topic as I am now a college student having gone back to school, and I also have children in school.

Therefore the research question I am attempting to answer it. What is the result of stress on students and does it lead to violence? I will look at the recent and past shootings at schools, such as the Virginia Tech massacre or the Columbine shooting, to see if stress was a factor and try to determine if anyone has proven or if it can be proven stress was a factor. Since I feel stress was a factor I will also attempt to find information supporting the opposing view that these tragedies were not related to the stress the students were under.

I think this is a controversial topic because not much is really known about why these tragic events happen in schools. I will attempt to ascertain through my research what view of these tragedies people have formed, and to examine those views to see if a consensus can be made as to a reason for such events.

As a parent I do have experience with this, while not directly related, having to explain situations like these to my children when they happen. I also have experience with the stresses of homework and assignment deadlines on my children. If that was not enough already I have had to deal with my children being bullied at school, and know first hand the stress that brings them in their every day lives. I have also picked my children up from school after lockdowns, situations at school that required them to be locked inside a classroom, due to someone or thing outside being a direct danger to them. In one case with my eldest child it was due to the police chased a man on campus with a gun, all of these cases have stressed them greatly. I am also a student myself, as I have gone back to school, and I also have deadlines to meet. Finally on top of that my normal day to day work it all adds up.

The audience I am trying to reach with this paper is people starting college for the first time. I want to appeal to this audience because I think that it is in the first semesters of college that the reality of the situation sets in. This is the first time in most peoples lives where they are volunteering to go to school, and they have the ability to set their own schedule. It is because of that that people have a tendency to “bite off more than they can chew” or, like me, take more classes than they could handle and get a little overwhelmed by the work involved. What I hope these first time students get from this paper is the ability to recognize when they or their peers may be feeling overwhelmed and get help, or offer a helping hand.

While the class overall has a five week time line I do have to balance my time between homework assignments and the writing project. I plan on doing that by incorporating as much as I can of my paper into my day to day work. I have already started with a strong outline of where I want my paper to go. I will follow this outline and do the needed research step by step. First I will look in to specific causes of stress in college, especially for students starting college for the first time. Second I will examine positive ways to cope with stress in college life. Third I will look into if stress is a direct of college students committing suicide or acts of violence towards their professors and classmates. Finally I will put the information I have gathered together into my finished writing project and hope I receive a good grade for it.