It is week nine, which means of course that we have just two weeks to completion of the quarter. Thus far you have been assigned a total of 7 essays; your research essay of 700-750 words (#7) is due next week (or week 11, if you must have extra time). I will return all the papers submitted last week today. The field reports (6) are due today.
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Review:
Next week, or the next, a short essay final of 500 words will assess key composition skills. The final will be done during class time. I here post the URL with source reading: at Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2012/06/03/your_words_matter/
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Review:
The research process begins with your having identified a topic that intrigues you, and with questions: the who, what, where, when, and why of any story is a start. You are to be guided by your questions about the topic and its essential significance.
Discovery Checklist:
- What recent personal experience or observations–at school, on the job, in the culture at large– raise intriguing questions in your mind?
- What stories or events have garnered much attention locally, nationally, or globally that speak to your concerns and interests as a young adult today?
- What problems confront a particular set of individuals or the world today? What in terms of media coverage is reported of them?
- Who are the people making an impact or shaping our perspectives on issues or events?
- What have you read about recently that seems a subject interesting and important enough to merit closer study and understanding?
Browse the Internet to discover the issues and themes of a subject you find interesting. Prepare a working list of articles and associated images and voices that speak to your particular questions and concerns.
Establish your purpose and audience as you consider what you would like your research to accomplish. Your curiosity and interest and focused intent will provide a means for engaging an audience and provide direction to the course of your research work. In the end, you may find yourself doing one or more of the following in bringing the paper to completion:
- Introducing readers to an interesting new field of study, a long-standing issue or an emerging issue.
- Analyzing a situation, event, or issue and identifying its key components and significance.
- Offering a new perspective on some matter that you have come to understand well.
- Supporting a position or substantiating a conclusion.
- Solving a problem or making a decision.
- Advocating for change.
Generate ideas by or brainstorming the topics and questions that come to mind, and then list those that appear promising leads. Use the terms and questions to proceed with your search for information and answers.
Identify key words and links to use in your search of the literature available online or in the library.
Survey your resources and identify those that will provide enough ideas, opinions, facts, statistics, and expert testimony to address your needs and purpose in writing the paper.
Keep a detailed list, in MLA format, of the sources you might use in the paper, for all sources cited in the paper will be itemized alphabetically on the Works Cited page of the paper.
Sort the research items in terms of relative strength, timeliness, and specificity.
Avoid looking for information that only serves to support a preconceived notion. In so far as possible, examine as many perspectives on your subject as fairness and integrity allow so that your comprehension of the subject and your eventual coverage of it have scope and balance.
Keep copies of the sources used in the research paper, and mark those passages used in direct quotation or summary inclusion. Plagiarism is to be avoided, and I ask that you submit copies of your sources along with the essay.
Peer Review: Ask a friend or peer editor to answer questions such as these:
* What is the research question or thesis point being developed?
* Do you know which ideas are from the writer and which from the reference sources?
* Does the writer use quotations to effectively illustrate or document key supporting evidence?
* Do you have questions about the sufficiency of evidence or the conclusions drawn from the evidence?
* How does the essay begin and end? What attempts have been made to show the interest and importance of the subject addressed?
* Has the writer edited sentences for clarity, correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc.?
Peer Review: Ask a friend or peer editor to answer questions such as these:
* What is the research question or thesis point being developed?
* Do you know which ideas are from the writer and which from the reference sources?
* Does the writer use quotations to effectively illustrate or document key supporting evidence?
* Do you have questions about the sufficiency of evidence or the conclusions drawn from the evidence?
* How does the essay begin and end? What attempts have been made to show the interest and importance of the subject addressed?
* Has the writer edited sentences for clarity, correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc.?
Citing Sources in MLA Style: Read the following carefully:
To document your research sources, whether from an article in print or online, an encyclopedia or dictionary item, an interview source, a film, photograph, illustration or other visual material– there is a standard means. The primary reference is the author of the source, whose last name provides the key or first word to an itemized alphabetical list on the last page of the report (called the Works Cited page) that contains the full bibliographic information of all the sources referenced or cited in the text. An author's name and the title of the work referenced must also appear in the body of the essay. Thus, any directly quoted, paraphrased or summarized information should be referenced or cited in text and included on the Works Cited page. The author’s name and the title of the piece should be included in the essay text along with whatever item you have borrowed or used. Sometimes an article or source may have no author credit; in such instances, use the title as the key term.
Checklist:
- Double-check to that you have acknowledged all material from a source.
- Identify the author of each source in text or in parentheses following the information item.
- Use the title as a source reference for works without identified authors.
- Follow the basic pattern for creating entries on the Works Cited page, and be sure to alphabetize them.
The following URL displays the MLA guidelines and illustrations for integrating sources:
Individual Author of a Book
Hazzard, Shirley. The Great Fire. New York. Farrar, 2003. Print.
Article from a Printed Magazine
Jenkins, Lee. “He’s Gotta Play Hurt.” Sports Illustrated. 26 Oct. 2009: 42-3. Print.
Article from an Online Magazine
Bowden, Mark. “Jihadists in Paradise.” The Atlantic.com. Atlantic Monthly Group, Mar. 2007. Web. 8 Mar. 2007.
Article from an Online Newspaper
Richmond, Riva. “Five Ways to Keep Online Criminals at Bay.” New York Times. New York Times, 19 May 2010. Web. 29 May 2010.
Selection from an Online Book
Webster, Augusta. “Not Love.” A Book of Rhyme. London, 1881. Victorian Women Wrtiers Project. Web. 8 Mar. 2007.
Organization Web Page
“Library Statistics.” American Library Association. Amer. Lib. Assn. 2010 Web. 26 Feb. 2010.
Film
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2003. Film.
Program on Television or Radio
“The Wounded Platoon.” Frontline. PBS. WGBH, Boston, 18 May 2010. Television.
Advertisement
Feeding America. Advertisement. Time. 21 Dec. 2009: 59. Print.
Comic or Cartoon
Adams, Scott. “Dilbert.” Comic Strip. Denver Post 1 Mar. 2010: 8C. Print.
Personal, Telephone, or E-mail Interview
Boyd, Dierdra. Personal Interview. 5 Feb. 2012.
Class Exercise: read the following article(s) : TBA (handout)
Next:
1. Summarize the key content of each article and then draw a draft essay with a thesis you can support by means of reference to the two articles. Quote one key item of fact or information from each in support of the thesis. Include the necessary in text source information required by the MLA format, and the source information as it would appear on a Works Cited page.
2. Compose an informal list of associated topics or key words that come up in this piece.
3. Using the topic or key words generated from the reading, find two related articles in a search of the Internet. Identify by author and title the two or three that appear interesting, and the MLA information for each.
4. Submit the exercise to me for review.
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