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STASIS MODEL
The goal of this assignment is to give purpose to each step of the research process, and to ensure
that your topic and research question are both sound. A conversation with no agreed upon
middle ground becomes an Im right, youre wrong fight, and is what is referred to as a
pseudo-argument. Passing through the five stases (Greek for stopping points) helps weed out
ineffective dialogue.
To complete this assignment, you will pick a research topic (a specific issue that is a problem)
and use five stopping points to finalize a thesis. The five stopping points we will use are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Facts
Definitions
Causes/Effects
Value
Problem Statements

What happened or is happening? What are the relevant facts?

How do we define the subject and its parts?
What are the causes, and what are the consequences?
What are most important items/causes/effects to consider?
What problems & questions can be explored in an essay?

ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS
Because we are working with page lengths, and not a words count, the formatting
requirements for this assignment are very strict:
One-inch margins
Times New Roman, 12-point font
Spacing should be exactly as in the example given on the Canvas assignment
page (no extra spacing)
Incorrect formatting will severely impact your grade.

STOPPING POINT: FACTS (75 points)

You will compile four pages of facts about your issue. These pages will be single
spaced, and will have a minimum of eight sources for this assignment, but more are
recommended.
These pages will basically be raw data; you do not need to interpret information or make
commentary. You may simply include relevant quotes or paraphrased information, in
addition to a bibliographic entry in MLA format. A sample entry would look like this:
Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the
Novel. Oxford University Press, 1987.
Writers like Richardson, Defoe, and Swift did not confine themselves to merely
fiction or their normal modes of writing (65).
Conduct books addressed a readership comprising various levels and sources of
income and included virtually all people who distinguished themselves from the
aristocracy, on the one hand, and from the laboring poor on the other (62).
Pamela can be supplanted by Austens minimalist representation precisely
because the rules laid out in the conduct books could be taken for granted.
Austen could simply allude, where Richardson had to elaborate for hundreds
of pages (63).
A concerted effort should be made to not compile facts at random; a good approach is to
try to answer specific questions: What is happening or did happen? How, why, when,
where, and by whom is the issue happening? Are there facts in dispute? What facts can
be agreed upon by all parties? (Dont stop with these questions; the more relevant
questions you can think of, the easier your work will be.)
As an extremely general example, imagine we are exploring the issue of illegal
immigration. We would want our facts to try to answer all of the questions surrounding
the debate: What is illegal immigration? How are people immigrating? Why? When does
most immigration occur, illegal or otherwise? Where are the most immigrants coming

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from, where are they entering, where do they go, etc. What facts about immigration are
being disputed? What do people agree on? What are the economic implications? Social?
Health? (We could keep going. Once an issue topic is selected, it becomes easy to tailor
many questions to the investigation.)

STOPPING POINT: DEFINITIONS (20 points)

In this section you will need to define all of the terms and concepts associated with the
issue. Remember, the purpose of stasis is to try to agree on basic principles; you need to
define terms in a way that both sides of the issue can generally agree. This section will
be minimum one page, single spaced. Do your best to create a list of as many terms as
possible.
Again using the example of illegal immigration, try to think of all the terms and
concepts that surround the issue. Immigration, deportation, self-deportation, amnesty,
ICE, undocumented worker, identification card, alien, anchor baby, nativism,
naturalization, nationalism, and so forth. The list goes on.
Use your sources (and new sources, if needs be), including quotes, to define these terms.
Again, remember this is not the time for debate; try to assign definitions that most
people can agree with.

STOPPING POINT: CAUSE/EFFECT/VALUE ESSAY (25 points)

This section will be an essay. It will be, at a minimum, two pages, double spaced (there
will be no regular title block: just your name and a title). This will be your opportunity
to begin to insert your own commentary and judgment. While most of the causes and
effects are factual and less-disputed, you will need to assign values to each of them, and
values are up for debate. As you determine each cause and effect, determine what
matters most in the conversation; this is where you will begin to narrow your focus and
angle of vision. Try to get away from including all possible information, and work
toward pushing the most important ideas and information.
Cause: Why do people immigrate? Why do they do it illegally? Why is it illegal to begin
with? What economic factors lead to immigration? Why do some families split, and
some immigrate together?
Effect: What are the effects of illegal immigration? What does it do to the economy?
What is the effect on politics, families, the job market, social issues, etc.?

STOPPING POINT: PROBLEM STATEMENTS (30 points)

To conclude your Stasis Model, make three problem statements to study within the
issue. Each statement will be a full paragraph and will demonstrate a specific problem
and research question to be explored in an essay. We will know your essay has
concluded and been successful when your research question has been fully explored.
Each of these statements will be multiple sentences long, and will demonstrate a very
specific problem and research question that can be explored in an essay.
One of these statement will be the first draft of your essays introductory paragraph.