Today’s Plan:
- What We’ve Done and Where We Are Going
- Second Annotation Feedback
- Homework
What We’ve Done and Where We Are Going
So far this semester, my focus has been on introducing you to a topic. You’ve had an opportunity to explore some scholarly research on a particular problem. By this point you should have at least read:
- One Scientific American article that either delivers an overview of a topic or a pointed opinion on one
- A first scholarly research article (Worknet #1)
- A second scholarly research article (Worknet #2, Annotation #1)
- A third scholarly research article (Annotation #2, due today)
I doubt you consider yourself an expert on whatever you’ve been reading about, but my guess is that you know more about it now then you did a month ago.
Beyond the content you’ve been reading, I’ve been trying to introduce you to a few of the common moves you’ll be asked to perform as academic writers. Of course, writing looks different in every field. But the ability to read difficult material and condense it, to turn a couple dozen pages into a few short paragraphs (and, at higher levels, a few short sentences) will likely be useful whatever your major. We’ll continue to work on direct quotation and paraphrase in the coming weeks.
I’ve also tried to introduce you to the structure of academic articles. Again, articles differ greatly by discipline–most humanities papers don’t have a “methods” section, for instance–but understanding the general layout of an academic paper should also be useful. That is:
- Introduction (lays out a problem, states findings of paper, road maps the sections of a paper)
- Literature review (survey previous literature on a subject, tries to identify a “gap” in the literature, a hole that the current study can fill)
- Methods section (details how subjects/texts were gathered, the method of experiment or analysis, and the measures taken to ensure findings are valid and reliable)
- Findings / Discussion of Findings (sometimes one section, sometimes two–the discussion generally reflects back on the lit review. Does your findings line up with previous work? More importantly, what is different? Why do you think you found something different? What does that tell us?)
- Conclusion
The research work you are doing now will (hopefully / eventualy) populate your literature review. It might also help you develop a methodology section. Say you later poll people on their views on climate change–the readings you are doing might help you craft more grounded and detailed questions.
So that’s what we’ve been doing so far. What will we do next? Here’s my plan:
- This Wednesday, in the computer lab, I’m going to ask you and your teammates to draft up a quick 4-5 minute presentation on the research you’ve done so far. Those presentations won’t be on specific research articles–rather they will circle around a few commonalities you’ve found across your articles. I’ll explain this more on Wednesday, and then give you 30-40 minutes to work in groups on the presentation.
- In Friday’s class, groups will give their presentations. We’ve got five groups–so I am guessing that we’ll only have about 15 minutes of class time left after the presentations. I’ll use that to introduce a reading by Wayne Booth on developing a research question. There will be an assignment in Canvas, due next Monday, on the Booth reading.
- Next week we will return to reading research articles. After you’ve finished the Booth article, I’ll ask you to locate and read 2 more research articles that somehow line up with your developing research question (I doubt the Booth activity will yield a complete research question, but it should push you closer–this will make more sense after we discuss the Booth next Monday).
- After you have given your presentation, done the Booth assignment, and conducted a bit more (hopefully pointed) research, you’ll draft a project proposal for the rest of the semester. This will involve doing more research annotations and developing a primary research study.
Second Annotation Feedback
I’ve seen some general improvement in the quality of your annotations, but I also see a need for people to invest a bit more time and provide more concrete details.
I realized I didn’t indicate where to put these annotations. Most of you haven’t done them [stern look]. Those who did them put them in their own personal workspaces (that’s where I figured you’d put them). A few put them in your collaborative team workspaces (fine with me, that’s where they will eventually go).
If I submitted a score to Canvas, and you do or redo something, please just resubmit the link to your workspace to Canvas. Canvas will alert me that you’ve submitted something new.
At some point, we are going to discuss this article.
Recap
- There’s no homework due on Wednesday (but I will be closing all previous reading / annotation assignments, so if you are missing something, then this is your last chance to get it in–many of you owe me a second research annotation)
- 4-5 minute class presentation on Friday
- Booth reading and post due next Monday
- Two more article annotations (#3 and #4) due next Friday
- No class on Monday September 26th
- Proposal assignment due Wednesday September 28th
