Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Writing Project 2: Doing a Research Proposal


Write a Research Proposal

This Writing Project is due Wednesday, March 30 for the M-W-F class and Thursday, March 31 for the Tu-Thu class, at the beginning of class!

Effectively communicating your thoughts and ideas regarding research is a key component to getting funding for important projects in the academic and scholarly community. At some point in your academic careers, you may be asked to write a research proposal to fund your own research. 

The task for this writing project is to help your group put together an UNSOLICITED RESEARCH PROPOSAL to "study" your selected conspiracy theory. As part of this writing project, your research group should get together, in person or virtually, and plan out how to accomplish the goal of writing a research proposal and then give each member of your research group a section to write of the actual research proposal. 

Have a gander at the University of Illinois' page on research proposals for help if needed at: http://www.library.illinois.edu/learn/research/proposal.html 

As an example: one person in your group might write the abstract, table of contents, and introduction; while the next person in your research group might write the background on the topic, and the third member of your group might write the description of proposed research. Many of you have already done the #8, a description of resources, which is your annotated bibliography.

How your group splits up the division of labor is up to your group, but each research proposal MUST have numbers 1-6 of the University of Illinois (see above) parts of a proposal covered in your group's written research proposal. 

Then after each person has written their section of the research proposal, combine the various sections in numerical order (parts 1-6) and make ONE complete document that will be handed into me.

The "specs" for this writing project are that each person should write at least two pages, but no more than three pages for their section of the research proposal. Your group's research proposal should be double-spaced, written in 12 pt Times New Roman font with 1" margins. 

The goal of this writing project is to outline your future research as we move ahead in this course with your group's chosen conspiracy theories. This document will act as a guide for your group in the coming research phases of your chosen research topic. Spend some time together, again in person or virtually, going over sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary, and make sure to vet sources for ethos or credibility. Doing some good, solid work on this now will save time later in doing the research needed to write your FINAL research paper!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Be Sure to Post Your Thoughts on Conspiracy Theory

For posting your thoughts on the Teach the Teacher conspiracy theory, be sure to look for media and questions under your class' time slot, Section A, B, or C, in one of the three tabs at the top of this page.

The Tuesday-Thursday class' media and questions will be posted next week.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Writing Project 1: Annotated Bibliography


The initial due date for these writing projects is: for M-W-F classes, Wednesday, March 23 at the beginning of class; for Tu-Thu class Thursday, March 24!
https://rrcc.ims.mnscu.edu/d2l/img/lp/pixel.gifActions for Writing Project 1--Making an Annotated Bibliography

For your first writing project, I am asking each of you to compile an annotated bibliography on your research project--your conspiracy theory. So, essentially the job here is to locate at least 10 sources (remember no tertiary sources) and then construct a bibliographic entry for each, along with some narrative thoughts regarding each source. 

An annotated bibliography is a way for researchers to gather together and evaluate sources. It can be an essential part of the research project, especially for projects that require the assembly of a large numbers of sources. The basic idea is to list each source you are using in a bibliographic format and then write a paragraph (4 to 7 sentences) or so about the source, which should include any history regarding the source, the relevance of the source to your research, and its ethos or reliability. 

For information on how to format and assemble an annotated bibliography, check this link to Purdue University's On-line Writing Lab or OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/03/ 

Each person in your research group should come up with at least 10 sources, and the 10 accompanying paragraphs of analysis on each source.

These writing projects should be in 12 pt. Times/New Roman font with 1 inch margins all around. These can be either single or double-spaced. 

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Student Meetings--Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

REMINDER: student meetings are being held for all classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and your assigned meeting times are what you signed up for in class on Monday or Tuesday. In order to receive credit for attending the student meeting you MUST bring a hard copy of your essay with you to the student meeting.

Meetings are being held in H 106, otherwise known as my office.

Over and out.