Wednesday, October 22

Today was question day, and we spent the first half of class talking about your research questions and how to develop and organize your research project.

There are two handouts on the research project posted on this blog: the handout on Developing a research plan, and the Assignment sheet. The Handout provides a step-by-step process for developing your project; and the Assignment sheet is a list of the criteria and the important dates. You will notice that writing for components 1,2&3 of Developing a research plan is due on Wednesday, along with 2-3 pages of notes from your observations of tutoring sessions. This work is so we can assess: 1) whether you have a viable project, and 2) whether you are taking the kind of notes that will give you a basis for a research project. With respect to the notes it is not so important that you are taking noted ON your topic, as it is that you are writing down detailed observations that can support analysis => objective statements about actors, actions, interactions + context.

We also talked about the overall organization of your paper. If you read through the sample research papers posted at your site and in your text book you will notice that they have the following general form.
1) Introduction, overview of problem/issues; =>statement of your research question
2) Background information, review of the research literature (what others have written about your question)
3) Methods: description of how you collected your data, what methods for analysis you used to evaluate your data, explanation for why your methods are appropriate to your work.
4) Presentation of data + analysis
5) Conclusions

During the second part of the class we talked about how to write a critique - a literary form frequently assigned. Handouts from this discussion are in my box if you missed class.

For Monday:
1. Read Newkirk, "The First five minutes: Setting the agenda in a writing conference."
2. Post a critique of Newkirk on your blog.


Also - work on your research question & other writing due for your research project (due on Wednesday =>see the Assignment Sheet for the Research Project & Developing a Research Plan Handouts posted on the site).

I will be providing feedback on your blogs over the weekend - so make sure you have an up-to-date version of what you want me to read about your research questions. Have a good weekend and see you at the CAS on Monday.