Dan333-
First of all I wish you the best of luck on your research paper. I have written many as well and although you may reach peaks of frustration in the process, the learning experience is incomparable. The list of books in post #6 are great suggestions and I highly recommend reading Como hablamos los dominicanos. I read it twice and I also provided my feed back in the thread. I could have easily written an essay on the book. It touches on several linguistics aspects of Dominican Spanish that are speech characteristics that define or set Dominican Spanish apart from Spanish spoken in other countries, however, very characteristic of the Caribbean region i.e. Puerto Rico (identical) and Cuba (very similar).
Regarding dialects etc. I am not sure what your area of study or concentration is but speaking from my own academic background and professional experience if you are a linguistics major or a translation major you should be well aware of the definitions of certain concepts in linguistics terms. It's important to understand the difference between for example 'dialect', 'pidgin', 'creole', 'patois', and 'language' before even starting your paper. If you have the slightest doubt send me a pm (private message). There should be no speculation here at all and whatever you choose as your topic of discussion, you must be able to refer back to your thesis throughout your paper to validate your theory.
For example one poster stated that Catal?n is a dialect and it's not. Catal?n is a language spoken in Spain (in Catalu?a) and two of the key markers of a language are: it has its own set of verb conjugation rules and its own grammar. Catal?n is also offered as a language of study in many universities. Now compare this to Spanish spoken in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic, which by definition is a dialect because it is "a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties ". Using this definition Spanish spoken in the Cibao region (el cibae?o) is distinguishable by its vocabulary, phonetic characteristics (pronunciation) but not by syntax or any other linguistic feature which remains identical to Spanish spoken in the rest of the Dominican Republic but differs from regional varieties of other countries.
As I said feel free to contact me via PM if you need any suggestions.
Regards,
-LDG.