Thursday, November 30, 2017

HW for 12/4

Due:  
  • Outline and first three paragraphs of research draft
  • Library Day 1 handout

1. Review the "Academic Literature" link to help you find your book at our CSM Library.

2. Fill out the Library Day 1 sheet and bring the sheet and your book to start of class on Monday, 12/4



Monday, November 27, 2017

HW for 11/29 (and remaining schedule outline)


Week 13
Mon., 11/27
   Review research in progress, including sources
Wed., 11/29
 Meet in class to get Library Day 1 handout (due date); individual conferences with 5 students in classroom.
Week 14
Mon., 12/4

Meet in class to get Library Day 2 handout (due date); individual conferences with 5 students in classroom.

Due: Argument Based Research Essay Outline and Introduction (first three paragraphs of essay).
Wed., 12/6

Review Chapters 15, 16, and 17
Due: Argument Based Research Essay, completed essay draft, uploaded to myLearning Unit 6
Week 15
Mon., 12/11
Class Presentations of their Argument Based Research Essay
Due, 12/13: Final Argument Research Essay, revised and edited
Wed., 12/13

Research Essay Presentations Guidelines

Visual Presentation (50 points):

Each of you is expected to give a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation on your cultural findings related to the book, in which you explain your main claims, provide some supporting examples of those claims, and provide visual and/or audio supplements.

You are expected:

·       to answer student questions, if asked
·       to exhibit knowledge of topics covered
·       to prepare a clear, focused, organized presentation
·       to practice the length of your presentation, as rambling past or stumbling short of the 10 minutes will affect grade for assignment
·       to cite your work using in-text MLA and include a Work Cited page as last slide
·       to have considered design elements in your PowerPoint

You are required:

·       to present for 10 minutes
·       to present 4-6 PowerPoint slides, approximately
·       to have at least three visualizations that relate to book and/or culture/topic (video clip, photos)
·       to summarize key elements (defined by your research) of the book that lead to investigating cultural subject matter
·       to present your thesis and main topical claims
·       to discuss at least one of the secondary sources and why the author’s ideas are important to your research
·       to correctly use MLA in-text citation and include Work Cited page


Here are some suggestions for the supplemental visuals to include in your PowerPoint:

·       Videos: interviews, clips of critical reviews/discussion (Think of Library Treasure Hunt 2)
·       Collage of photographs from culture, with accompanying copy
·       Audio – music, interviews, etc.

* The presentation is a performance in which quality of content and creativity of delivery is equally important. All choices made in the performance should be towards enlightening reader on your research. Warning: flash with no substance will lower ones grade dramatically.



***Submit your PowerPoint to myLearning assignment dropbox in Unit 6 by Monday, 5/8, at 10:30am, so that I can check it on the school computers. ***

·       You may visit office hours to show PowerPoint in progress, or you may e-mail me to get some very quick feedback over the week


·       Make sure you have back up copies of your file (e-mail, USB), as there is no excuse to not have presentations ready on Monday

Literary Analysis Research Examples (in myLearning Unit 6)

Our research essay projects will focus more on the culture represented within the text, but these serve as solid resources for:
  • basic form/organization
  • basic citation
  • models for thesis and topic sentences dealing w/ literature  (What's also great about this essay: in 1020, you read about analyze literature the entire semester!)


1. Here is a literary analysis essay that is similar to ours in form.

  • This one introduces criticism (secondary sources) in the introduction. Though not a 100% necessity, doing so can help you frame your own research arguments going forward. 
  • The danger, of course, is going into too much depth with too many sources. Nonetheless, consider doing this if you have a "thin" introduction.


  • This essay assumes the reader knows the play; therefore, the thesis is the only time they mention Shakespeare and the play. 
  • In my experience, teachers are 50/50 on whether or not you can assume information--so clarify that with them. I tend to ask you, my students, to outline your subtopics in your introductions, unlike this one. I find writing cautiously with context more effective than "leaving ideas off the page." 


  • They summarize the beginning and end of the plot because their GRQ and thesis is to analyze with research the cause of the character change. 
  • This analysis does not have any source material within the intro, and that can work. Notice, however, that the writer tends to use signal phrases in topic sentences to frame their own answers in context of research sources.
  • With a collection of poems, you will want to list a few poems that represent the collection--poems which you explicate in the essay in order to support your research argument! 

  • This writer organizes sources as support for their own claims! Rather than framing the argument using sources, the researcher transitions to sources once they have outlined their own claims. This organizational method (writing behavior) connotes a lot of authority in the researcher.




Monday, November 20, 2017

HW for 11/27


1. "working" Work Cited page due to myLearning Unit 6 dropbox by start of class. 
  • A majority of you have not done research so far, from not submitting Guiding Research Questions on topic in late October, to not submitting the class replacement assignment for 11/13. Some of you are not even looking at the due dates for those missed assignments.
  • Tomorrow, a working Work Cited page is due, and the instructions--including number and types of sources--are clearly spelled out within the dropbox assignment in myLearning Unit 6.

2.  Read this link from Bowling Green State University on synthesis

  • From the source, our mantra should be: "If you are breathing, you are synthesizing" (Warwick).
This reading is meant to help you with both of your current essay assignments--as the scholarly behaviors that you need to fulfill each project overlap in general
  • critical thinking and reading of secondary sources
  • pulling out relevant evidence
  • "eating a text" and "rubbernecking" -- two concepts we will cover on Wednesday with regard to finding related subject matter and starting analytical synthesis


Wednesday, November 15, 2017

HW for 11/20 (and lecture on Looking for Research Sources In An Organized Fashion)

1. Upload a revised and edited Ethical Evaluation Essay (will grade the electronic version during week off!).

2. Work Cited draft due by start of class to dropbox (again, will review during Turkey Break). I will assign part of the final research essay to be due after you bet back from Thanksgiving Break.

3. Read the lecture below, as well as the three handouts in Unit 6 of myLearning: these are all meant to give you strategies for how to organize and integrate multiple sources at different content-levels:
  • "Organizing Sources Synthesis Chart"
  • "Student Hot Take On Framing Evidence"
  • "Research Paper Outline Template"
-----

Looking for Research Sources In An Organized Fashion (Review)

1. Have your Guiding Research Question Handy

Do Pride and Prejudice's Eliza Bennet's challenges of being seen as family property in represent the typical life path for young women in Victorian England?


2. Create/Develop a Research Word Bank  (Vocabulary=Ideas=What to look for!)

Empathy
Arranged marriage
Family property
Feminism
Victorian England
Conventions/ customs
Gender roles
Bridehood (added from searching sources)
Cultural compatibility



3. When researching…some basic tips

1. Combine different terms from Work Bank   ( add ‘and’  )

2. Put quotes around compound phrases like “arranged marriage” or “cultural compatibility”

3.  Add terms from scanning the lists and “eating the texts” and apply those to new searches.

4.  Create topical goals for the search—Are you doing a lit review, history review, looking for discipline-specific analysis (sociology), looking for theory-specific analysis, etc.?

·      Again, research is all about applying organization to your thought process. 

o   Time management and ability to find sources depends on ability to focus on different areas of research at a time; you do not want to be searching for “everything” at once.

5. Use different libraries and different databases.  

Google Scholar (linked through myLearning, too)




Monday, November 6, 2017

HW for next two classes: 11/8 and 11/13

HW for 11/8

1. Review UNHCR's website, particular the "Latest News Section" (multiple stories on Syrian Refugees)



HW for 10/13

1. (Re)read the Proposal Argument essay prompt. Choose your subject matter. Go to the HRO website.
  • Evaluate your source HRO website
    • Mission
    • Policies/programs
    • Current issues
2. Read over Chapter 14: Proposal Arguments. This chapter will guide you through the structure, the critical thinking, and other rhetorical strategies for writing our next argument essay.
  • Note down three-part structure of Proposal Arguments (306; 309-311).
  • Define a Policy Proposal (306).
  • Review the Toumlin Analysis Schema  (307) to set up your essay.
  • Understand "The need to overcome people's natural conservatism" (308) and its role in your drafting this essay with the mindset of (hypothetically) being involved with your HRO.
  • Focus on the charts on 312 and 313 for writing strong thesis and subtopic sentences. 
3. Read the Following our Class Discussion Model of the Proposal Argument Essay

Read through the Standing Rock Syllabus, which is linked here through Wordpress.  Within the syllabus, identify a few HRO's that are being cited (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc.)
  • Which aspects of the larger problem are these HRO's involved within?
  • How are these HRO's trying to aid the Standing Rock Collective?
  • What terms within the "Key Terms" section may help you most if you were trying to do the Proposal Argument on this large contemporary problem?
  • What are some of your own scholarly takeaways from looking at this material as a model for how to approach answering the prompt? 
  • What are some of the things you would topically focus on?
  • What are some of the ways this inspired you to make larger connections?
  • What would you do next? 


4. For the Final Research Argument Essay: 
  • Review pages 340-347 of Chapter 15. Pay special attention to "Formulating a Research Question..." (341). 
  • Read the article, which inspires and frames our mindset for the research essay, by clicking on the following excerpt: