Agenda

Writing Prompt/Discussion

Presentation

Closing

HW:

1) Read Models for Writers Intro pp. 7- top of 18

2) Read Models for Writers “Arguments” 539-546

3) Review/Study Presentation on the blog

WRITING PROMPT

How will the skills you learned during the Rhetorical Analysis help you with the final research paper? Be as specific as possible.

How will the skills you learned during the Exploratory Essay help you with the final research paper? Be as specific as possible.

Study/Support Groups

To help us all complete this final research paper, we will be working in groups.

Nearly every day for the rest of the term, we will be updating members of our group on our progress, giving and getting feedback, discussing the research and writing process and generally providing both academic and attitude support.

I encourage you to meet with your group outside of class as well.

Group Selection

Random selection of groups.

Sit with your group.

Exchange TCC contact information

Discuss your response to the writing prompt.

Research Paper

What is a research paper?

Research Paper

Why do we assign a research paper in an English Composition class?

What are the skills involved in an English Composition Research Paper?

Research Paper

Why do instructors in other subjects assign research papers?

How do we start?

What are the steps in the research paper process?

The steps

One: Choose a subject area and focus on a topic

Two: Get ideas and collect information (inc. research)

Three: Establish your Thesis Statement

Four: Determine your structure

Five: Finding, Skimming, Selecting, Reading & Annotating, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting, Interpreting, Critiquing and Citing your Sources

The steps

Six: Layered Outlining

Seven: Drafting

Eight: Revising

Nine: Editing

Ten: Citing per APA (abstract)

Step One

CHOOSE A SUBJECT AREA, AND FOCUS ON A TOPIC.

Make sure the scope of your topic is appropriate for the length of your paper.

Move from broad to narrower to just right for your essay.

For example…

Farming--livestock--cows-dairy cow disease--parasite control in dairy cows

Advertising – T.V. advertising – T.V. advertising of food – T.V. advertising of cereals – T.V. advertising of high fiber cereals

Where does your topic fall along this spectrum?

Step Two

GET IDEAS AND COLLECT INFORMATION

A. Ask questions about your topic. Once questioning starts, it leads to more questions, and the answers to these questions ultimately form the basis of your writing. This is especially true for those of you who are worried about writing long enough or selecting enough Subsections.

What questions do you have about your topic?

Step Two

GET IDEAS AND COLLECT INFORMATION

B. Brainstorm – jot down ideas – free associate. Good ideas come from this. What do you already know about your topic that might end up as one of your subsections?

C. Cluster –a form of brainstorming in which put topic in a circle in the middle of a piece of paper. Draw lines from that circle to others in which you write key words or phrases.

Cluster

Step Two

GET IDEAS AND GATHER INFORMATION

D. Research

Databases (we review these tomorrow)

Interviews

Careful Notes!!!!!!!

Step Two

GET IDEAS AND GATHER INFORMATION

E. Think Creatively. This connects back to questioning. Ask a question about your topic that no one else would. Try to view it in a new light. This is how we fulfill the academic mission of creating new knowledge.

Einstein

Step Three

ESTABLISH YOUR THESIS

In one or two sentences you will declare your thesis statement. This is the controlling idea, the main point you are trying to make and prove. It must be an assertion (claim, argument) and it must be debatable. This means a reasonable person has to be able to disagree with you.

Sample Thesis

The so-called serious news programs are becoming too much like tabloid news shows in both their content and their presentation.

What a thesis is not

Your thesis should not be confused with the purpose of your writing. Your thesis is a claim. Your purpose is to both inform and persuade.

Purpose of the essay for the previous thesis statement:

By comparing the transcripts of news shows like the CBS Evening News and tabloid shows like Entertainment Tonight, I will show troubling parallels in what the two genres of programs find “newsworthy.”

Your Turn

Take a moment to write a “purpose statement” for your research paper. Be sure to indicate how you plan to achieve your purpose. Remember, your purpose statement does not appear in your essay; it just helps you shape your thoughts. Here’s that sample purpose statement again:

By comparing the transcripts of news shows like the CBS Evening News and tabloid shows like Entertainment Tonight, I will show troubling parallels in what the two genres of programs find “newsworthy.”

Thesis

Now go back and look at your working thesis statement. Would you alter anything now that you’ve written a purpose statement? Here’s that sample thesis statement again:

The so-called serious news programs are becoming too much like tabloid news shows in both their content and their presentation.

Thesis vs. Research Q

There is a helpful working relationship between your thesis statement and research question(s).

Remember those questions you were asking about your topic a few slides back?

A Research Question can help you get to your thesis by guiding and forming your pre-research reading.

Once you have your working thesis, a Research Question will help you find sources.

Search Terms

You need to break your research question (and maybe even your thesis statement) into search terms that you will then plug into research databases like Academic Search Premier to find sources. Not all sources use the same terminology, so it’s important to find different ways to say the same thing.

Search Terms Examples

Not all sources use the same terminology, so it’s important to find different ways to say the same thing.

Q: Why was the draft so unpopular during the Vietnam war?

Search terms: draft, conscription, draft dodger, unpopular, controversial, Vietnam War, Vietnam conflict, ‘Nam.

Practice

Tomorrow we will be in a computer room in Building 16, so be sure to think about search terms for your thesis/research question tonight.

Step Four

DETERMINE YOUR STRUCTURE.

Introduction (thesis statement towards the end)

Body Section One

Body Section Two

Body Section Three

Refutation

Conclusion

Step Five

FINDING, SKIMMING, SELECTING, READING & ANNOTATING SUMMARIZING, PARAPHRASING, QUOTING, INTERPRETING, INTEGRATING, CRITIQUING AND CITING YOUR SOURCES.

It is essential that you take excellent notes (even if that is annotations in the margins of your sources) throughout this process.

I will have “worksheets” for you in which you explain how your source contributes to your essay.

What is the logic behind this order?

FINDING

SKIMMING

SELECTING

READING & ANNOTATING

What is the logic behind this order?

SUMMARIZING

PARAPHRASING

QUOTING

INTERPRETING

INTEGRATING

CRITIQUING

CITING YOUR SOURCES.

STEP SIX

LAYERED OUTLINING

We will be completing and turning in several “layers” of outlining. Each outline layers on more information and becomes progressively more detailed.

Step Seven

DRAFTING

Draft One – Shitty First Draft – use your detailed outline to simply get your ideas down.

Draft Two – Weave in more Source Material through Introduction Summary, Detail Paraphrasing, and the occasional Short Sparkling Quote.

Draft Three – Take a Walk. Play with your kids. Read a chapter from a trashy novel. Your brain is percolating.

Step Seven

DRAFTING

Draft Four - Synthesis through Interpretation, Analysis and Commentary. This means that… This is important because…While the author paints a realistic picture of life on the streets, he fails to…

Draft Five – Refutation

Draft Six – Introduction/Conclusion

Step Eight

REVISIONS

Structure and Sequencing – does it still make sense to have your body sections in the order that you originally put them? Or, upon further reflection, has a better, more convincing sequence presented itself?

Rhetorical Strategies – have you used appropriate amounts of ethos, pathos and logos?

Tone – have you maintained consistent, academic tone while remaining true to your own voice?

Step Nine

EDITING

Have you hunted down and killed all fragments and run-ons? Read the last sentence. Then the second to last sentence. Then the third to last…

Times New Roman, 12 pt font? Double spaced? Margins correct? Heading?

Step Ten

CITATIONS

Are all your in-text citations correct for APA format?

Is your Works Cited page correct for APA format?

Do you have your abstract, as per APA?

Homework

Read Models for Writers “Intro” pp. 7-top of 18.

Read Models for Writers “Arguments” 539-546

Review/Study this Presentation

Compose a Research Question. Break it into search terms and bring those to class tomorrow