Stage Assignments

Stage I: Towards Our Own Understandings – Dispelling Myths, (Re)theorizing Writing

Common-sense myths of literacy are akin to other common-sense myths. The

truth often turns out to be more complicated than we thought.

                                                            Mark Richardson, Writing is Not a Basic Skill (1)

Constructs are mental frameworks that people build in order to make sense of the world around them. One of the key features of an effective construct is that it quickly begins to seem ‘natural’ or inevitable, rather than made-up.

--Downs and Wardle, Writing about Writing (35)

So far this semester, we’ve talked about what common-sense myths are as they relate to writing, why we form them, and what they can mean about our understandings of writing. We’ve also explored that, once held up to close scrutiny, these common-sense myths, these misconceptions, often begin to unravel. Some of the myths we’ve discussed are how writing is seen as a basic skill, that academic writing is somehow universal, that writing is an expression of thought – a container for ideas, if you will --, that grammar and mechanics are best taught through drills, that patterns of language usage are easy to change (as if they weren’t tangled up with identity!), that writing is about small considerations like word choice and vocabulary, and finally, that writing is something that can be developed, perfected even, within a short period of time. 

These are myths. But where’s the truth? For you, your classmates, your family, your community? Or how does writing work in your major, your profession? These are the big questions we’ll be tackling with our first writing assignment. It’s just the beginning of your journey through inquiry, towards a more realistic and individual theory about writing. Aren’t you excited?

In this assignment, I want you to focus on a single common-sense myth about writing, reading, or researching and analyze it in an essay (with other first-year writing students as your audience). It can be a myth that Richardson discusses in his editorial piece, or it can be, perhaps, something new you’ve discovered from your experiences with writing/reading/learning.  To do that, you’ll need to explore your own ideas about your chosen myth as well as see what others think about it. To get started with that, you’ll need to ask yourself a number of questions. What follows is a list of questions I wrote which would help you explore your own and others’ ideas about common-sense myths.  As a class, we will be generating a number of constructs and collecting a lot of sources. There will be opportunities to share info, sources, constructs, and myths among ourselves.

• Where does your common-sense myth come from? Why was it created?
• Where have your ideas about your writing myth come from? 
• Can you think of a time when this “common-sense myth” worked or didn’t work?
• What discourse exists about your myth? About your construct? You can think about the readings we’ve already done this semester, or perhaps there are other articles/sources of knowledge you’d like to tap into to enrich your discussion.
• What have other people experienced about your myth -- your friends, teachers, professors, people in your major, people in your profession, your family, your community? Here, you’ll need to engage in a little primary research (which can be, of course, as simple as texting your mom or posing a discussion on Facebook)
•  How is your myth constructed in different contexts? You might look at high school, at college, in the workplace, a particular online community, a culture, etc.
• Is this myth harmful in any way? Do we have to change our way of thinking about it? How can we do that? Why must we do that? Or, if it’s pretty harmless, discuss that.

Now, these questions are just designed to get you thinking. They’re not a template for your essay’s organization, nor should you feel compelled to write about each one, though some are more important than others (the third and fourth bullets, for instance, might not speak to your experiences, so you might choose not to end up writing about those in your essay). However, they are a good guide for what it means to do analysis.

When you write your essay, you’ll need to make sure you have a claim you’re trying to make. Perhaps you’re dispelling a myth, supporting it, creating a new one. You’re building a theory here, a way of seeing this construct, hopefully, in a more meaningful or useful (or healthier) way.

Length: Gwah! If you know me, you know I hate to give you a number. But let’s say three pages is a good ball park figure for this type of analysis. Of course, you can feel free to write more or less, and you’ll be getting feedback along the way. 

Stage 2-Question & Proposal: Asking Questions, Looking for Answers

Introduction

The idea of inquiry (asking questions to arrive at answers) seems logical and perhaps even commonplace. Yet, we don’t always think to ask questions or to ask the difficult questions. We don’t always think to ask in order to find (especially when we’re told to conduct research). My hope is that you’ll leave this course exploiting this idea of inquiry, and, thus, you will gradually master the idea of rhetorical awareness. I hope you’ll begin using inquiry to find answers for all the questions you face over the course of your life. I also hope that this approach to research will give you greater confidence in your reading, writing, and communication skills.

For Stage 2, I want you to think about how your interests connect to the field of writing studies we've been reading, talking, writing, and thinking about. What I want you to do is to develop a question you have related to writing studies as we are coming to understand it through our work so far in this class. Once we've discussed that question in several ways—class discussion, peer review, blog postings and comments—you'll investigate that question, and then write a report of your investigation.

You will live and work with this inquiry for the rest of the semester, so it's important that we work together to find a question that you care about, one that will challenge both you and me, and one that you will be able to satisfactorily investigate in the time left with immediately available resources. Our aim is to arrive at a question worth exploring, conduct secondary and empirical primary research, evaluate our results, and turn them into an argument worth making while using our secondary and primary research results as evidence to support us. But, first thing’s first. Start with a question and a plan of action.

The Question

You might be asking yourself how to come up with a question that is specific and interesting enough to work with for the rest of the semester. So, let’s start slow.

1. Find an interest in a broad subject area.
2. Narrow the interest to a plausible topic.
3. Question that topic from several points of view.
4. Consider the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your topic.
5. What are the parts of your topic and what larger whole is it a part of?
6. What is its history and what larger history is it a part of?
7. What kinds of categories can you find in it and to what larger categories does it belong?
8. What good is it? What can you use it for?

They could involve:
•       Questions about writing theory/pedagogy, literacy, literacy practices, academic discourse/conversations, rhetorical awareness, rhetorical reading, rhetorical writing, audience, arguments, peer workshops, revision/editing, grammar, content vs. context, cultural and social funds of knowledge, or anything else we’ve discussed in class so far.
•       Questions one of the readings has left you wondering


The Proposal
After you’ve discussed your question with your peers and gotten it approved by me, it is time to develop a logical plan of action to tackle this question. This plan is a very particular type of document, “the proposal.” And yet not all are the same. For other classes and teachers, you may find yourself writing something that looks an awful lot like an essay with mandatory subheadings. For this project in this course, you will have four parts taking up probably no more than two double spaced pages. How you choose to organize it is completely up to you. You may choose to address the four things as a synthetic piece of writing OR divide your proposal up into four sections divided by four subheadings. Just make sure it addresses the following information:

·  Interest, in which you explain what has piqued your interest, a small part of writing studies you are curious about;

·  Question, in which you draft a version of the question you would like to answer about writing, reading, and/or thinking;

·  Hypothesis, in which you tell me your best guess for an answer to the question right now, what you think you will find to be true; and

·  Research Sources, in which you list the readings, people, and things you will tap and/or create to learn about your question and try and answer it.

Stage 3-Finding & Documenting Secondary Sources (Annotated Bibliograhy)

The next step in your research is the Annotated Bibliography. What is an Annotated Bibliography?
A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "references" or "works cited." A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.) in MLA citation format. An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, your annotated bibliography should include a citation and summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Your annotations should do all of the following (in 300-500 words for each source):

• Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?
• Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?
• Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

I’ve posted a sample annotated bibliography on our blog. You should use this as a model.

Your Annotated Bibliography should include at least three (3) sources – either books or scholarly articles from the library online databases or Google scholar. After you’ve met this requirement, you can include other sources as long as they are reliable. If you’re unsure about a source’s credibility, talk to me.


Requirements:

• minimum THREE (3) sources
• 300-500 word evaluation of each source (summary, assessment, reflection)
• should be single-spaced
• citations should follow  MLA format
• should follow all other MLA requirements
• should include only secondary research (not your interviews or surveys)

 Stage IV -- Conducting and Documenting 

Primary Research


 Now that you've completed your secondary research, it's time to begin your primary research phase of this project. For this stage, you're required to create an original research instrument to use to pursue your question further and act as a knowledge creator. Remember, we're researchers, investigators, truth-creators, experts, writers!

That's an important job. You'd better do it justice. 

How? Why -- here are a few tips, snapped up from the wonderful Owl at Purdue:

 Creating Good Interview and Survey Questions

If you are conducting primary research using surveys or interviews, one of the most important things to focus on is creating good questions.

When creating questions you want to avoid:

Biased questions

Biased questions are questions that encourage your participants to respond to the question in a certain way. They may contain biased terminology or are worded in a biased way.

Biased question: Don't you agree that campus parking is a problem?

Revised question: Is parking on campus a problem?

Questions that assume what they ask

These questions are a type of biased question and lead your participants to agree or respond in a certain way.

Biased question: There are many people who believe that campus parking is a problem. Are you one of them?

Revised question: Do you agree or disagree that campus parking is a problem?

Double-barreled questions

A double-barreled question is a one that has more than one question embedded within it. Participants may answer one but not both, or may disagree with part or all of the question.

Double-barreled question: Do you agree that campus parking is a problem and that the administration should be working diligently on a solution?

Revised question: Is campus parking a problem? (If the participant responds yes): Should the administration be responsible for solving this problem?

Confusing or wordy questions

Make sure your questions are not confusing or wordy. Confusing questions will only lead to confused participants, which leads to unreliable answers.

Confusing questions: What do you think about parking? (This is confusing because the question isn't clear about what it is asking--parking in general? The person's ability to park the car? Parking on campus?) Do you believe that the parking situation on campus is problematic or difficult because of the lack of spaces and the walking distances or do you believe that the parking situation on campus is ok? (This question is both very wordy and leads the participant.)

Revised question: What is your opinion of the parking situation on campus?

Questions that do not relate to what you want to learn

Be sure that your questions directly relate to what it is you are studying. A good way to do this is to ask someone else to read your questions or even test your survey out on a few people and see if the responses fit what you are looking for.

Unrelated questions: Have you ever encountered problems in the parking garage on campus? Do you like or dislike the bus system?

Contributors:Dana Lynn Driscoll, Allen Brizee.
Summary:
Primary research involves collecting data about a given subject directly from the real world. This section includes information on what primary research is, how to get started, ethics involved with primary research and different types of research you can do. It includes details about interviews, surveys, observations, and analysis.

To summarize, here are the requirements of Stage IV:

• Draft a set of interview/survey questions
•  Workshop your questions in peer review
•  Revise your questions based on suggestions
• Conduct your research! We're doing this for a reason, you know.
•   AN AMENDMENT TO STAGE IV: Please also include a brief explanation about your primary research plans and your process so  far. This doesn't have to be hugely long or elaborate, but it will help me to better access what you're doing.

<sup>Stage V: The Big Shebang -- Synthesizing  Your Research (And Communicating Them, Of Course!) 
 
We’ve reached the point in your research where I now have to ask you to write a formal draft of your final essay. You may be asking: How do I synthesize all my research and thoughts into a formal draft?! Do not freak out just yet. This prompt will help guide the organization of your essay.

This essay is not your average essay. It is a far reach from the thesis at the end of your first of five paragraph style essay. You should consider yourselves scholars now who are making contributions to the discipline of Writing Studies. Therefore, this essay will look a lot more like the articles we’ve read in class (refer back to their structure as examples) than the essays you’ve written in previous composition courses.
This essay is a synthetic piece of writing. You’ll need to explain the research you did, the different ideas you learned, try to make sense of your research question, your research process, and your conclusions for someone who didn’t go through the same experience.

Your paper should therefore include the following:</sup>

1. explain how you came to your question, why it is important and what it involves
2. describe how you investigated, both in terms of the strengths of your design an its limitations
3. discuss your findings and their significance for one or more invested stakeholders
4. brainstorm about possible ways to adapt what you’ve learned in your investigation into a public project that puts your findings and theories to work in the “real” world

You are free to present your sections the way you want, either like a report (with subheadings) or something more elaborate. When writing, bear in mind that each section should transition from one to the next cohesively and cogently and always be mindful of your overall purpose, your research question, and the conclusion(s) you’ve reached through your research. More importantly, make sure your essay meets all of the requirements of this project [they are at the bottom of this prompt]. Please keep in mind that you’re writing for an academic audience (your peers and your instructor). And, remember it has to be 6 to 8 pages long.

So, how should you organize your draft?

Part 1. Interest & Context - Your first part requires you to provide the context for your research project: It’s a bit like your proposal, but more elaborate. Remember that you are entering conversations that other scholars have started. But, your readers may not be aware of this conversation, its importance, or the problems it poses and attempts to solve. You will need to explain to your readers how you came to your research question, why your question matters, and what this question involves. Further, answer the big-picture question that plagues so many writers… “So what?” (1-2 pgs double spaced)

Part 2. Methodology - The second part is the section in which you will describe for readers how you investigated your question. You need to help us understand why you chose to conduct one kind of primary research over another (e.g. why you conducted surveys rather than interviews or vice versa); how you determined the questions you would/would not ask, why you selected a particular subject population. You will also need to consider the strengths and limitations of your design, and think about changes you would make if you were to undertake the project again. (2-3 pgs double spaced)

Part 3. Findings - The third part is the findings discussion. Here, you will tell your readers what you learned from your research and explain the significance of these findings for one or more investigated stakeholders (high school teachers, college composition instructors, parents, students etc.). Here, your goal is to put your information in direct conversation with the sources in your annotated bibliography and use the results of your primary research to formulate and sustain an original claim. (2-3 pgs double spaced)

Part 4. Application - Your last part will be about thinking about how your findings could benefit real people in real situations. You will have to imagine an audience (outside of this class and/or outside of UTPA) for which you will design a “thing” (a workshop, YouTube video, website, lesson plan, or conference presentation to name a few examples) informing them of the results of your research and how things could be changed, according to your conclusions. (1-2 pgs double spaced)

Requirements

• Include all four required sections (Interest & Context, Methods, Findings, & Application)
• Incorporate empirical primary research in addition to secondary source research in order to sustain an original claim
• Follow MLA guidelines
• Include a Works Cited (no fewer than 3 sources)
• 2000+ words (6-8 pages double-spaced) for the “final” draft.
• Failure to complete any of the above requirements will significantly lower your grade.

Stage 6: Reflecting on Reading, Writing, Research and Learning in Your Portfolio

A Reminder of My English 1302 Goals
Through your work in this class, you should begin doing the following things:

• Develop and build confidence in your abilities to create, interpret, and evaluate texts in all types of media.
• Develop knowledge and inspire new ideas through writing.
• Become a rhetorically effective writer who can respond credibly and accurately to a variety of writing situations.
• Learn to write with a purpose.
• Develop an awareness of how and why you revise your writing.
• Develop an understanding of the importance of getting feedback from others when writing.
• Develop habits for thoughtful and effective questioning.
• Develop reading strategies for analyzing texts (your peers’ papers as well as the readings you’ll be working with).
• Learn how to work constructively with each other through group work.
• Learn how to creatively take risks.
• Become familiar with appropriate style guidelines for class projects.

Epithets

As teachers of college composition and researchers of writing, we want—and are taking—license to decide that what students like Jack know to do in order to conduct critical, researched inquiry at the college level is more important than whether they master APA format or produce marginally more fluent writing.

--Downs and Wardle, “Teaching About Writing”

Human beings are far more likely to move to higher learning if they understand what they’ve already learned; that is, if they know what they know.

--Elbow & Belanoff

Introduction

The readings we’ve had this semester have shown us that the ability to read and write effectively are complex issues affected by a variety of different sources. The purpose of this final project is to give you the opportunity to reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself is a reader, writer, student, and thinking person living in a complex world. Use your experiences in class this semester to tell about yourself as a writer. How do you see yourself as a writer? Is that self-perception helping you be the best writer you can be? The purpose of this assignment is for you to apply what you have learned this semester to help you better understand why and how you write in order to produce an insightful reflection of yourself as a writer now.

Brainstorming

Try the following to generate material for your assignment:

• Go back to your stage drafts, group discussions, Q&Rs, in class writings, etc. What did you learn about yourself and your writing processes there?
• Consider what you write and don't write currently.
• Consider how you prepare—or don't prepare—to write a paper.
• Consider what you learned about preparing a research project and conducting research.
• You should spend a substantial amount of time reflecting on yourself as a writer using the concepts and ideas that you learned this semester. Even if some or most of your brainstorming doesn't end up in your paper, the act of reflecting should be useful to you as a writer.

Planning

Look at all the notes and free-writing that you did during the brain-storming, and consider:

• What's interesting here?
• What catches your interest the most?
• What is new or surprising to you?
• Settle on a few of these surprises or "aha!" moments as the core of what you will write for this assignment. For each of these core elements of your essay, brain storm examples, details, and explanations that would help your reader understand what you are trying to explain about yourself.

Drafting

Write a three- to five-page essay in which you describe your view of yourself as a writer, using examples and explanations to strengthen your description. As appropriate, you might refer to the authors of texts you’ve read this semester to help explain your experiences, processes, or feelings. Conclude the essay by consider ing how or whether the things you have learned this semester might change your conception of yourself as a writer or your writing behaviors.

Audience

The audience for this project is your instructor and yourself.

What Makes It Good?

The purpose of this assignment is for you to step back and consider yourself as a writer, applying what you learned this semester to help you better understand why and how you write—and how you might write differently, or perhaps even understand yourself differently as a writer.

When you've finished it, ask yourself:

• Does your paper demonstrate that this purpose was achieved?
• Were you able to apply what you learned this semester to understand yourself better as writer? (If not, that will likely show up in the depth of your writing.)

A Caveat

Some students just "go through the motions" when they complete this assignment, and don't make an attempt to learn some thing about themselves as writers. When those students write their papers, they have very little to say about results or insights. They tend to say pretty clichéd things like "I am distracted when I write. I should try to write with fewer distractions." In general, if the insights of the paper were obvious to you before you ever sat down to reflect on your experience this semester, then you have not fully engaged in the project and are unlikely to receive a good grade on it.

Conclusion

Good luck, good writing, and kick some...well, you know how that one plays out.

Requirements

• Incorporate personal experiences, readings, writing assignments, and course goals from this course in order to say something about how you view yourself as a writer now.
• Follow MLA guidelines. 
• Include a Works Cited.
• 900+ words (3-5 pages double-spaced) for the “final” draft