Guidelines for Research Paper, Due Dates. and a Bit of Regrouping!

I hope this post and the post before this help clear up concerns you may have about grades and due dates for our upcoming project.   Because some of you have missed class due to activities that have caused your absence from class, and because of snow days and my absence,  the first area of concern is due dates.  I hope this helps, but I'm extending due dates for the annotated bibliography.

I'll give bonus points to those of you who moved heaven and earth to hand in your annotated bibliography on time, and I'll accept and grade bibliographies next week in an effort to provide enough time for reading.  I'll ask the substitute to mark those that were turned in this week.  You'll need to hand in bibliographies before the next due date, which is the first draft of your research paper due Friday, February 27th.  After that, we're moving forward.  Remember, no late work!



Guidelines for the research paper:

• 4 to 5 pages MLA format
• Minimum of three sources used with at least one citation for each of your three sources. This could be a paraphrase or direct quote for each.  Aim for a minimum of one direct quote.  You will no doubt use more.  Remember, you will write other pieces which can be informed by your other sources.  Your minimum is five sources for the whole project. 
• Paper to include an introduction, supporting body, and conclusion.
• First draft conference on Friday, February 27th.  Must be a complete paper, although it will be rough.
• Second draft conference on Tuesday, March 3.  This draft should include your citations.
• Third draft final packet due Thursday, March 5.

Because I've been grounded until the cast comes off (right after spring break), I've been worrying about how to help you with the writing.  Great news:  Ms. Reaves has agreed to come back on Wednesday, February 25th until my return, and she is looking forward to working on this project with you!

Have fun researching, my friends!

Update From Home! Miss Everyone!

Nothing like a snow day or two!  Congratulations, seniors, on shortening your semester!  As for me, I'm "on the mend" and working with the one-handed, hunt-and-peck system on the keyboard.  You don't want to hear about my silly accident, but it's enough to know that I broke several bones in my left arm/wrist/hand and am grounded now!

Olaf needs an arm,too!

What's due, you ask?  You've missed a class period, so I hope you have found and summarized your sources for your research.  Your annotated bibliographies are due today or by the end of the week.  You should be able to trade and conference your work today. Refer to the Purdue Owl for directions to the annotated bibliography. Remember we wrote annotated bibliographies first semester, so you also should still have those directions and samples!

Hand in your work at the end of class or by the end of the week.  You know you can use the comment box here, and that way maybe someone else from class can help you, too.

You can use class time to work on your first draft of your research paper.  Bring your printed articles or books or flash drives to class so you can get credit for your efforts during class. First draft conferences of the research paper will be next Wednesday.  Come prepared. A completed first draft is a complete paper, not a one-page brief attempt!

Sorry I'm not there.  Let me hear from you if you have questions.

A Note About the Research...

It's Thursday, and many of you are checking out books related to your research topics.  I hope this trip to the library helps you make the connection between research and fun!  Yes, it can be fun... Think about the number of times a day you make a quick check online for information on a myriad of topics.  I do. What I'm hoping for is that the topic you choose leads you to riveting reading, reading that you really want to do.

Next week's classes are devoted to reading workshop.  Bring your research materials with you to class.  If you have a topic the school system will be likely to block because of content, print it out at home or bring it on a flash drive to print for class.  Come prepared!  You'll get workshop participation points just for coming in prepared and working, reading, and writing quietly, making notes for your project.

The first due date is Feb 11th for the annotated bibliography writing conference.  The final draft of the annotated bib will be due on February17.  You'll remember you wrote an annotated bib first semester.   You will briefly summarize your sources, how they fit your topic and how you will use the information.   You will place your sources in alphabetical order according to the first word in the citation.

So...happy reading, researching, and writing!  You need to get started now in order to be able to make these initial deadlines!

Panning for Ideas, Finding Sources, and Narrowing the Topic

We have some very interesting reading to do in the next few weeks.  It'll be a joy to see what comes of your topics; there is such a wide variety.  We cover everything from the spirit world to mechanical engineering, from family history to poverty and education, and from eating disorders to sexual assault. Gosh, the list goes on, and I'm so pleased to think these are topics you want to learn more about.

I realize that requiring a primary source seems to baffle some of you, but I don't want that to keep you from the topic you would most like to learn about.  With your list of topics, I began to explore book titles, and I've asked the librarians for help.  Wouldn't it be more interesting to start off with a book, fiction or non-fiction, related to your topic?  For example, A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier would be an interesting place to start for the topic of boys in war.  For poverty and/or education, I am Malala may illuminate the importance of equal access to education.  We (librarians and I)  are compiling a list of books and ideas.  If you don't have a primary source for your idea, see me, and if we can't come up with one, that's OK.  We'll find other sources!

In the meantime, we will return to grammar today with a study of the comma and also parallel structure.  Friday your 2nd writer's notebooks are due.  In an effort to continue the idea of choice, I am offering the choice of a writer's notebook installment of 8 pages (or 4 front and back) or a reading response on a book of your choice.  By the time we get to next Friday, I hope you'll have a book related to your research topic that you could use for a book response.

Meantime, happy reading, writing, and researching!

MULTI-GENRE RESEARCH PAPER

            Friday's class is devoted to the project proposals.  Your task is to read each project proposal and make thoughtful, helpful comments.  Ask questions if you need further explanation.  Make suggestions for sources and share any connections you have.

           This project provides a chance to pursue a passion in your intellectual/emotional/spiritual life, a chance to strive to answer a question involving a topic of consuming interest to you and to communicate your learning through a multi-genre research project, where you get at the factual, the emotional, and the imaginative.  

            
            Choose a person, idea, topic, trend, era, cultural phenomenon, movement, thing, place . . . and become the quintessential mad researcher!

Required Research Sources Of Your Inquiry:

·        At least one book (or two, or three. Read fast, become an expert)

·        Articles

·        Primary material:  interviews, testimony, observations

·        Internet sources*

*The Internet contains both the good and the bad. Evaluate the quality and the depth of what you find.  Utilize the databases Parkview and MSU offer.    This is a chance to challenge yourself, to stretch and refine your writing skills and powers of communication.

Genres or pieces your multi-genre project must contain:

·        Brief informational research essay, four to five pages.  Make this vivid, informational, straight-ahead writing.  Boil your topic down to essentials.   

·        Preface/Introduction/Dear Reader

·        A visual element/the arts

·        Works Cited

·        Note Page

·        Unifying elements 

            Include in your paper all six bulleted items, but you’ll need to write more genres than these to create a fully realized mgp.  Wherever else you go in the writing is up to you. Range as widely as you want in creating this paper. 

            Begin your research soon, make it part of your academic life, take notes and gather bibliographic information.  

Multi-Genre Project Proposals - and One More Idea Before We Begin!

What's the purpose in the last blog assignments?  I hope you find topic ideas for your research project.  Up to this point, we have looked at videos and articles about service projects that give back to the community (Do Something that Matters) , be it global, national, or local.  We have perused the United Nations goals, looking for an area you may feel passionate about.  Our last post focused on sample projects from two college classrooms. These projects focus on literature and connections to the world, they focus on action research, and they even include more straightforward themes (alcoholism, eating disorders, and more).  Some were no doubt more powerful than others, some more professional than others, but the purpose in this was to help you find a topic or area you'd like to research. 

Even if you think you already know what you'd like to research, you are still asked to keep an open mind on this journey.  What I ask you is challenging.  You are finding your own research topic, and you are designing your own project (while fulfilling the general requirements stated in the project outline).  Don't bore yourself with what you already know.  Don't fall back on the familiar because it feels safe.  This is a quest for the unknown, the fascinating, the riveting!  

You will be using some of our class time to find and read sources, so you will need to plan on using class time for this project.  That means you need to bring your articles and books and notes with you to class. The great news is that you will earn participation points for staying quietly on task during our class.  If the laptops deter you from getting your work done during class, plan on researching the old fashioned way:  paper, pencil, printed out articles, magazines or books. 

Today in class we will peruse one more category of research:  family history.  We will view Faces of America together as a class, and we will discuss ways this could become your research project.  This is linked on our home page. 

Just so you know, your research will spring from both primary and secondary sources!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Multi-Genre Research Proposal – due beginning of class on 1/30

For your multi-genre research,  you will submit a proposal  blog post comprised of at least one descriptive paragraph.

A Descriptive Paragraph

In the paragraph briefly tell:

• Which type of project you are doing: Family, Neighborhood or Community, Career Interest, Cultural Interest.  What is your topic?

• The names and relationship to you of two or more people you can interview and the proposed dates when you will interview them over the next two weeks. Be sure that these dates fit with your work schedule.

• Describe what you already know about your topic.
*Tell what you want to learn about.

• Describe your plan for collecting information about your topic.  Include sources you already have and places you will look.

• Tell why you find this topic personally meaningful.

Multi-Genre Projects: Your Next Creative Adventure- Read for class Monday, Jan. 26

Our next creative project looms, and I hope you are thinking about an area of interest to research.  Choose a topic you really care about.  Be thinking about something that relates to your life, your family, your future, or the direction your life will take you.  I'll have some examples to share with you, but in the meantime you can be exploring your own ideas.

The cool thing about a multi-genre project is that it allows you to present your findings in many different ways, ways that may reflect a better understanding of your topic.  You may include a variety of texts, visual and print.  You may use music, art, video as well. 

Here is a link to an introduction to the Multi-Genre project created by a teacher at Colorado State University.  The opening quote justifies its importance:

"A multigenre paper arises from research, experience, and imagination. It is not an uninterrupted, expository monolog nor a seamless narrative nor a collection of poems. A multigenre paper is composed of many genres and subgenres, each piece self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected by theme or topic and sometimes by language, images, and content. In addition to many genres, a multigenre paper may also contain many voices, not just the author's. The trick is to make such a paper hang together."

~~ (Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style i-xi)

 Stay tuned.  We'll be sharing ideas first.  You'll have an opportunity to write proposals for this next adventure.http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/multigenre/introduction.htm

 Today's class should be devoted to pouring through the projects.  Go to the link listed on our home page for multi-genre projects and click on Tom Romano's menu where it lists "Multi-Genre papers."  There you will find different kinds of project ideas.  Just so the rest of us can know, please create your own reflection post by telling us what you found interesting, why, and how that might lead you to your own project. What do you want to research?