Part 1 – Research Paper Topic and Outline

NOTE: my topic I want to do is “Why the NLRA Act Has Failed”, “Right to Work Laws: What do They Really Mean?” or “Unionism in Professional Sports”. You can pick one of the 3.

Begin to think about the topic for the research paper that is due in Lesson 12. The paper provides an opportunity for you to explore in some detail an issue within the broad topic of employment relations or labor-management relations that particularly interests you.

Any issue that has appeared in the textbook, the supplemental readings, or the lesson commentaries could potentially serve as the topic for your paper (in thinking about an issue you might want to review the material we have covered to date and also look at the syllabus to get an idea of material we will cover in the remainder of the course).

It is important that you choose an issue that can be reasonably addressed in a paper of approximately 2000-2500 words. Issues such as labor history, labor law, union organizing campaigns, strikes, arbitration, labor-management cooperation, or public sector labor relations are much too broad to cover in such a paper, but you might use such broad categories to begin to narrow your search for a topic. For example, if you were interested in the subject of union organizing campaigns, you might review the material on that topic.

“One study of over 22,000 petitions for certification elections filed with the NLRB found that only 8,100 resulted in union election victories and only 4,600 resulted in signed contracts within a year of victory. In other words, unions need to file five petitions to gain one new bargaining unit… (Budd 216).” This issue, its causes and implications, would be appropriate to explore in the research paper.

You also might want to consider a topic that is related to your industry or employer, or in some way potentially useful to you professionally.

Click the following for a list of potential topics. You are welcome to choose one of these topics but they are presented primarily to give you a sense of the range and nature of topics appropriate for this assignment.

• This week at a minimum, submit your paper topic with an explanatory paragraph.
• If you have prepared an outline of the topics to be addressed in your paper (optional but recommended), submit this with your topic and paragraph.
• Review the Research Paper Schedule on the Course Syllabus to see the deadlines for this paper.
• Your instructor will give you feedback on the topic/outline, which will explain what you will need to submit in the Week 7 Research Paper drop box. Your paper topic must be approved before you begin in-depth work on the project.
• Make sure to use APA Style (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for your Research Paper.
• Access an additional helpful resource (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.for writing your paper.

I will indicate approval when I respond to your paper topic submission.