Today’s Plan:
- Attendance
- Review Topic Exploration Paper
- Booth Exercise
- Working Knowledge Assignment
Review Topic Exploration Assignment
The first major assignment, the Topic Exploration Assignment, is due tomorrow at 11:59pm. This paper should be 500-600 words. Note that this assignment passes through VeriCite, and therefore has to be a file upload.
Let’s take a look at the grading rubric:
- Identifies a focused issue and explains its importance; develops kairos by indicating why this topic is relevant now
- Presents relative background information (such that an outsider can follow the controversies below, e.g., who are the major voices, where do they conversations happen, what are significant events, etc)
- Provides a sufficient discussion of major conversations, keywords, and controversies
- Provides a working research question (with elaboration, see Booth exercise below)
- Incorporates sources into the text (using transitions, see my magic sentence transition)
- Contains MLA (or APA) Works Cited (or Reference List). Be sure to consult the OWL MLA or OWL APA page for formatting your papers (see below)
- Uses grammar/mechanics/syntax correctly
Response to Topic Worksheet #2
I had one response to multiple turn ins that I wanted to share with the class–and that is the importance of making sure your final paper had some kind of argumentative angle to it. I wrote nearly the same comment on two *very* different proposals: one on rape culture, and the other on the rise of K-Pop.
In both cases, I stressed making sure you enter deep enough to recognize what scholars in the field disagree on. For instance, do not write a paper that merely defines rape culture or argues for its existence. Go deeper. Write a paper that argues how different people urge us to combat rape culture, or that contrasts different reasons for the cause of rape culture. Similarly, but obviously very different, don’t write an essay that describes K-Pop or gives me a history of K-Pop. That is boring. It is essentially re-writing the Wikipedia page. Rather compose an essay that offers different perspectives on the value of K-Pop. Whatever your topic, make sure you drill down enough to find the things upon which *experts* disagree.
Incorporating Sources into Academic Writing
First, I want to cover again the importance of using a transition that introduces and builds some credibility for a source. It can be really jarring to a reader when you just throw a quote at them. Taking some time to provide a summary of a source before the quote helps them digest it.
[Author’s] [time period] [genre] [title] [verb] [purpose].
As I indicated above, it is the verb that is the silent star of the show here. Consider for a minute the following example:
Malcom Gladwell’s 2005 book Blink exposes how subconscious part of our brain think in ways we are not consciously aware.
Exposes. How does the meaning of the sentence change if I use the verb:
- suggests
- argues
- questions whether
- supposes
- explicates
- details
- reveals
- offers a theory of
- explores
- claims
Each of these verb choices subtly alters the way I approach the work discussed. Exposes suggests something secret and perhaps mysterious is being uncovered. Suggests suggests that an amount of doubt surrounds the issue. Supposes implies that I am hostile or at least quite skeptical toward the idea. This subtle indicator allows my an opportunity to softly align or distance myself from the source I am using. Good authors do this all the time to subconsciously prepare readers for their arguments.
Examples from Topic Research Assignment:
- An Article written by Francine D. blau and Lawrence M. Khan explains and discusses the pay gap and why there is such a gap.
- In a CNBC article by Kate Rogers “Small Businesses look ahead to a trump presidency in 2017” Rogers talks about the optimism small businesses have for Trumps presidency.
- In Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, a book from 1993, Takaki discusses the history of america through the perspective of multiple cultures.
- ‘What Works’ rehabilitation programs work better in prisons that have a positive social climate?”, offers insight on whether rehabilitation programs can positively affect the lives of the prisoners in the programs.
- John D. Rummel’s March 2016 Scientific article Planetary protection for human missions: Options and implications conveys to the readers the plans and long term goals and achievements needed for colonization of Mars
- In Cris Rowan’s 2013 article “The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child”. Rowan argues that technology’s impact on the 21st century family is fracturing its very foundation, and causing a disintegration of core values that held families together.
- In Jane Morris’s 2011 research article “A semi-quantitative approach to GMO risk-benefit analysis,” Morris argues that although GMOs are originally used as a way to help society, GMOs are doing more harm than good.
Just as important as what you do before a source (whether it is a direct quote or a paraphrase), is what you do after it. In They Say, I Say, Graff and Birkenstein provide a list of “templates” that can help writers respond to sources–either agreeing, disagreeing, contributing, etc. The reason you should never end a paragraph with a quote is because you should never leave it to a reader to interpret what a quote means or why it is important–be sure to follow up on all sources (again, whether a quote or a paraphrase).
MLA / APA Formatting
Before you turn in your paper, go over Writing Commons’ MLA Checklist. (Note that if you are using APA, then check out Ashford University’s checklist).
If you don’t know what style format to choose, here is a rough guide.
Wayne Booth: From a Topic to a Question
To help focus your research question, I want to work through an exercise developed by Wayne Booth for focusing research projects.
Pages 20-22, your relationship to your reader
Page 30, dealing with inexperience (Burke’s Parlor)
Pages 14-15, finding a topic in four parts
Page 41, 3.1, from an interest to a topic
Page 43, 3.2, from a broad topic to a focused one with four key terms: conflict, description, contribution, development
- How does X’s description of Y differ from A, B, and C?
- How could X contribute to our understanding of Y?
- How has understanding of X developed over time?
- How does X’s understanding of Y differ from Z’s understanding?
What are 3 different ways of fixing X problem?
Page 45, Page 49: make sure you ask a question worth answering
Page 52, one sentence, three blanks:
- I am studying…
- Because I want to find out…
- in order to help my reader better understand…
This Booth exercise should help strengthen your working research question.
Working Knowledge Presentations
After you have completed your Topic Exploration paper, I will ask you to prepare a one-minute “Working Knowledge” presentation for Thursday’s class.
According to rhetorician William Badke, “’working knowledge’ is the ability to talk about a topic for one minute without repeating yourself” (qtd. in Ballenger 36).
Composition theorist Bruce Ballenger elaborates on the reasoning for Badke’s process, explaining that having a “working knowledge helps you understand how your topic fits into the context of other subjects and [gives insight about] some of the areas of controversy, debate, questions, or unresolved problems that ripple through expert conversations about your topic” (36).
Give a one-minute presentation of the working knowledge you have developed about one of your chosen topics. Make sure that your presentation answers the questions of “What?” “Who?” “When?” and “Why?” As you listen to each person’s presentation, let him or her speak the full minute without prompting or interruption. As the person is speaking, write down any unanswered questions you have and note where the speaker fumbles or reiterates a point.
Note: the challenge of these presentations is to “speak” rather than “read” (which demonstrates that you have sufficient command of your topic to talk about it from memory).
Homework
Complete Topic Exploration Paper and submit it to Canvas.
Prepare Working Knowledge Presentation for Thursday’s class.
