Many of the papers that you will be required to write in college will be research papers, a form of argumentative essay. "Argumentative" in this case simply means that you have a main idea (a thesis) that you are seeking to prove through supporting details that you have gathered through research.
Therefore, writing a research paper will require you to do the following:
1) Select a general topic about which you could conduct research, and which satisfies your professor's requirements for the assignment.
2) Narrow your focus by asking a question about your topic. For example, if your topic was "opioid addiction", you could write a paper to address the question "Is opioid addiction increasing in the US, and, if so, what are the main reasons for the increase?"
3) Make an argument in response to that question. This argument will be stated in your thesis and supported by the evidence that you find in your research.
You will craft this argument by turning your research question into a thesis statement to put at the end of the introduction to your paper, such as "Opioid addiction has increased by X% in the past 10 years in the US. The primary reasons for this increase are A, B, and C."
This week you will do #1 – select a topic. You will also do some prewriting that will help begin to narrow your focus by helping you think about what you already know.
Next week you will narrow your focus on your topic, and then in weeks 4 to 8 you will do the research to create a 10-page research paper.