See the Blackboard Course Documents page for final portfolio guidelines.

Happy Holidays!

Exploratory draft workshop for the seminar paper

You are engaged in an Inquiry Project that proceeds through a series of steps designed to bring you to your own idea, a logical idea founded on sound evidence (your sources), and presented convincingly. You have located a number of sources and drafted an annotated list of sources in order to engage with the ideas of others. The next crucial step is to identify and discuss your idea (or exploratory focus) and explain how your sources have led you to understand it. It is important that you primarily use your own words to do this, rather than relying too heavily on quotations from your sources. Your exploratory focus represents your unique perspective on the topic—your own well-informed point of view, based on your reading of multiple sources.

Exploratory Draft Assignment
Today, in class, please sketch out the overall argument of your entire seminar paper. You may use your annotated bibliography, notes, and reading responses in writing this draft, but please do not refer to the sources themselves. During this class period, write a spontaneous draft of the main points that you need to make in order to support your thesis or seminar paper focus (complete sentences and paragraphs, please--not an outline). This task demands that you understand and synthesize your ideas about your source material, formulate an exploratory focus (or thesis) for your paper, and discuss it without lengthy quotations and paraphrases. Please write a one- or two-sentence statement of your focus (or thesis) at the top of your draft.

You will have the entire 60-minute period to write this draft, and you should use all the time allotted for this task. At the end of class, print out two copies—give me one copy and keep one copy for yourself. You may use this draft to plan major sections of the seminar paper to write for the next two class meetings.

Assignment for Wednesday (11/21) and Monday (11/26): Using your exploratory draft as a guide, draft a section of your seminar paper. Bring the current version of your draft to class.

No Class Meeting Friday, November 16

Reminder: I will not meet with you on Friday, November 16 due to a professional obligation.

By Monday, you should be nearing completion of your research reading and note-taking--although, of course, your inquiry extends throughout the research and writing process. So, keep investigating your topic through primary and secondary research, and revise your inquiry contract and/or annotated bibliography in light of your emerging understanding of your topic.

Next week, please be prepared to move from the research phase to planning and drafting the seminar paper.

See you on Monday!

During the next two weeks, you will be responsible for independent reading and research for your final paper. On Wednesday, November 14, you will hand in a draft of your annotated bibliography. A revised version of your annotated bibliography will be included with your final research portfolio, which is worth 50% of your course grade.

Preparing your Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography is an opportunity to show off your current understanding of your topic and the research you have done so far. In addition, your annotated bibliography allows you to do some of the work of summarizing and synthesizing your sources before you begin writing a more analytical essay. As you prepare your bibliography, then, you will be inventing material and structures that you might use in your seminar paper.

Elements of the Bibliography

Your bibliography should have a title and a 1-2 paragraph introduction, which should give a bit of background on how your topic is usually viewed and studied, as well as an explanation of how the entries have been classified into at least two categories. Your draft should include a minimum of five relevant sources on your topic.

Each category should have its own heading and entries in alphabetical order. Each entry should consist of the source information in MLA format, followed by an annotation of the source. The annotation should comment on the content of the source as well as its significance to the topic and your research. You may want to review Chapter 2 of They Say, I Say on the “art” of writing strategic summaries, rather than the typical list summary. That is, summarize in terms of the specific issue that your argument focuses on.

Sample entry in MLA format

Bright, Sidney. “Ethical Behavior in Group Work in a College Composition Course: The Devil Never Took the Hindmost.” Journal of Collegiate Ethics 14 (1999): 12-27.

Bright found that her students showed advanced ethical development in social behavior in small groups in class. However, when these same students wrote essays, their ethical development did not appear as advanced. This research is significant because it shows how different contexts shape ethical behavior.

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Practice writing bibliographic entries and strategic summaries of at least two sources for your inquiry project. Please post your citations and annotations to your blog for review and response.

Wednesday: Workshop on annotated bibliography: MLA format

Developing New Knowledge: "Factness"

In his book, Inquiry and Genre, David Jolliffe proposes three criteria for acquiring new knowledge, which is the goal of the inquiry process. You can use these three criteria--"factness," comprehensiveness, and "surprise value"--to guide your search.

Today, we'll focus on his first criteria, factness, or the degree to which the material you learn can stand up to the scrutiny of careful questioning. We usually think of "facts" as information that can be verified by observation or experimentation. In other words, we know facts. However, "factness" can also refer to what other people think, feel, and believe about issues concerning your subject.

Guidelines for today's in-class writing:
Reread your inquiry contract proposal, noting any changes you want to make in its three sections (why the subject is important to you, what you know about it already, and what questions you need to ask about it). Then, respond to the following questions on your blog:

Whom could I talk to who could provide me with information that has factness about this question?

What could I read that would provide me with information that has factness about this question?

What else could I do besides talk to people and read to acquire information or factness about this question? (Jolliffe 75)

This week, schedule an interview with someone who can provide you with information about your inquiry project topic. See The Free Management Library for guidelines on conducting interviews.

Revisiting the Inquiry Contract

Part I: Reflecting on your own writing

In his book, Inquiry and Genre, David Jolliffe proposes the following questions to consider when engaging in scholarly inquiry. Reread your inquiry contract, then spend the first 20 minutes of class time writing in response to the following prompts:

When the general public considers the subject I’m working with, what are the issues, questions or concerns that they think are important to discuss? Do these questions and concerns differ from those of the scholarly discourse community?

In discussions of my subject, what are some of the status quo assumptions that appear to go unsaid but nonetheless seem almost universally believed? For example, if I am exploring how writing should be taught in high school, what do most people tend to believe about the kinds and amount of writing that high school students should do? What do people believe writing teachers should do to prepare students for the world beyond high school? How do people believe that teachers should respond to students’ writing?

In texts that people produce about my subject, what kinds of outcomes or results do they expect the texts to have with readers? Do writers about my subject usually expect a reader simply to consider their ideas, to believe in them strongly, to take some specific action? What?

Part II: Reading each other’s writing

Exchange your Inquiry Contract with at least two other students in class and read one another’s revised drafts. Discuss why the questions you’ve posed are important and what you’ve learned so far. What do you know now that you didn’t know before you began your research? What do you still need to find out in order to answer the questions you’ve posed?

Wednesday's Assignment:
Read one selection from Cross-Talk: either Trimbur (p. 461) or another article from Cross-Talk in Composition related to your research topic. Post to your blog a summary and response.

The revised version of the Inquiry Contract will be due Monday, November 5.

Inquiry Contracts due Monday

On Monday, you will review and respond to each others' drafts of the Inquiry Contract. Please bring two hard copies of your draft to class: one for peer review, and one to hand in to the instructor. (I encourage you to save a copy to a disk, USB, or some other media that you can access for in-class revising.)

As described in the Inquiry Project Description (on the Blackboard Course Documents page), the Inquiry Contract is a one-page (single-spaced) project proposal. There are three parts:

1. In the first section, explain why are you interested in this topic: What do you want to know? What motivates you to learn more about this topic?
2. In the second section, describe at least two things you already think, feel, or know about this topic.
3. In the third section, raise two questions that you could reasonably address in a seminar paper on your topic.

It would be helpful to attach a list of the sources you plan to consult in the course of the research. This may include secondary sources (such as books and articles), as well as first-hand sources (interviews, observations, and personal experience).

Drafts of inquiry contracts from last spring's English 401 students may be found on the Course Blackboard (Discussion Board--> Inquiry Project Topics and Questions).

As I announced Friday in class, there is no common reading assignment for Monday's class meeting. In lieu of course readings, I encourage you to continue reading and note-taking on the sources you've found so far on your Inquiry Project topic.

Peer tutor groups will meet on *Friday* with Ian Turner for focused group discussions of the practicum experience.