ENGL102 Writing Rhetorically with Sources
ASSIGNMENT: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROJECT
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LEE TORDA, PhD 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu lee.torda@gmail.com www.leetorda.com |
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Overview
Research is a complicated process that people often don’t understand as a process. In my experience as a teacher, many students reduce research to one of two things—citation practices or what you do to show that you didn’t cheat on a paper or they “quote load” which means that they write their entire paper and then cram in, any way they can, as many source as the teacher asks them to find and paste in quotes that maybe fit (although they often don’t).
THE ITERATIVE PROCESS
True research is very different. It starts with a question—one that you want to ask because you want the answer to it. And then you start to think about possible answers. And that’s where research comes in. You locate and read the ideas of others, other scholars and researchers, that are trying to answer the same or similar questions as the one you are asking. Sometimes you will find stuff that helps you prove your ideas about how to answer your question. Sometimes you will find information that goes against what you think the answer is. Either way, all that information is valuable. Then you must return to your original question and answer. How has the new information changed that? Have you figured something out? Do you need more information? The process of looking at new information, refining your question and answer, seeking yet more information, and then refining again is the iterative process of research—and it is very much like the process of drafting and revision you engage in when you write any paper.
KINDS OF RESEARCH
In the US classroom, when a class requires research, it typically means traditional print resources that you locate in a library. However, in the real world, research is conducted in a wide variety of ways in addition to book research. You can interview or survey people. You can observe a community going about its daily business. You can run experiments of kinds. You can look at big data sets and code for certain kinds of features that you are interested in knowing about. In our class, we will do both traditional book/library research, but we will also explore other ways to answer our questions.
WHAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Finally, because this is a shortened semester, rather than having you do a large number of short assignments, you will do one long assignment broken up into roughly four parts. You will start by determining your question, then seeking traditional book sources, then exploring other ways to collect data, and, finally, present your information to your classmates (and to me).
Each part of the assignment has specific requirements and are graded differently. You can read about each assignment by clicking on the links below and/or by using the drop down menu at the top of this page.
Positioning yourself as a Researcher/Formulating
Your Question (750 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part I (750-1000 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part II (1000 words) 10%
The Research Notebook /Research Presentation
And Final Research Report (2500-3000 words) 20%
Research is a complicated process that people often don’t understand as a process. In my experience as a teacher, many students reduce research to one of two things—citation practices or what you do to show that you didn’t cheat on a paper or they “quote load” which means that they write their entire paper and then cram in, any way they can, as many source as the teacher asks them to find and paste in quotes that maybe fit (although they often don’t).
THE ITERATIVE PROCESS
True research is very different. It starts with a question—one that you want to ask because you want the answer to it. And then you start to think about possible answers. And that’s where research comes in. You locate and read the ideas of others, other scholars and researchers, that are trying to answer the same or similar questions as the one you are asking. Sometimes you will find stuff that helps you prove your ideas about how to answer your question. Sometimes you will find information that goes against what you think the answer is. Either way, all that information is valuable. Then you must return to your original question and answer. How has the new information changed that? Have you figured something out? Do you need more information? The process of looking at new information, refining your question and answer, seeking yet more information, and then refining again is the iterative process of research—and it is very much like the process of drafting and revision you engage in when you write any paper.
KINDS OF RESEARCH
In the US classroom, when a class requires research, it typically means traditional print resources that you locate in a library. However, in the real world, research is conducted in a wide variety of ways in addition to book research. You can interview or survey people. You can observe a community going about its daily business. You can run experiments of kinds. You can look at big data sets and code for certain kinds of features that you are interested in knowing about. In our class, we will do both traditional book/library research, but we will also explore other ways to answer our questions.
WHAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Finally, because this is a shortened semester, rather than having you do a large number of short assignments, you will do one long assignment broken up into roughly four parts. You will start by determining your question, then seeking traditional book sources, then exploring other ways to collect data, and, finally, present your information to your classmates (and to me).
Each part of the assignment has specific requirements and are graded differently. You can read about each assignment by clicking on the links below and/or by using the drop down menu at the top of this page.
Positioning yourself as a Researcher/Formulating
Your Question (750 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part I (750-1000 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part II (1000 words) 10%
The Research Notebook /Research Presentation
And Final Research Report (2500-3000 words) 20%