End of Quarter Rundown

Here's what's going on for the rest of the quarter, for those who weren't in class Friday or those who just weren't paying attention.

Mon. - Final draft of the Research Paper is due, with at least eight full pages. Put in a good effort, this is a final draft. Any essay that looks slapdash and thrown together banking on revision will not be up for revision at all, you'll just find you've got a failing grade. Write a great paper and you'll never have to work on this essay again. We will also introduce the final Reflection essay and begin working on it in class.

Weds. - Optional class- meaning, I won't be taking attendance. Grades for your final essays will be up by this time and if you don't like the grade, show up for some in class revision work. If you're happy with the grade, take the day off. This is also a good way to get some participation points if you've been too shy to speak up in class, you'll get points just for showing up.

Fri. - You fill out the course evaluation. That's it. If you've finished a revision or Reflection paper, feel free to turn them in at this point and be really, really done with 102.

3/19 - Email me your final Reflection papers or any revised essays by 4pm. Anything sent in after that will not be accepted. Do not turn papers in to my mailbox as I might not stop by and pick them up as I won't be on campus much during exam week. Email your work to me if you've not yet placed it in my hands! No digital dropbox, please.

After that's done, enjoy your spring break! Final grades should be in fairly early this quarter as I'll be done with my own work fairly early as well.

Research Steps

Remember that research steps are worth 15% of your total grade. Make sure you've got copies that I've marked graded of the following things:

Your possible topic
Sources
Annotated Bibliography
Research Question
Proposal
Outline
Abstract

(Clearly, these are not all finished at the time of this posting- do not panic!)

Aside from hard copies, you should have these steps posted to your research journal to record your progress in working on your paper. Keep in mind, the journal is to help you keep your thoughts together- if you find yourself working on the paper and want to post some interesting new findings, the blog is the place to do it!

Also included in points for the research steps are the blog itself, and the rough draft. The grade for the research steps will go up once the rough draft is handed in.

I want to see you making use of the research blogs- if you want full points for that aspect of the project, make sure you have all the posts included that we've done in class, or as homework, and I'd love to see a few extra posts here or there showing you've been working on your paper even when you didn't need to.

Homework for 1/27

Post your selected topic in your blog using the format from the homework for Monday. Add a paragraph explaining why you selected that topic of all the topics you considered. Also print out a copy to turn in during class.

Picking a Topic

Here are a few topics I don't want to see you pick for your researched essay, simply because I think it would be hard to write an objective essay on these topics, and it would be hard, in a few cases, for me to grade them objectively. Also, some of these topics I've read a lot of papers on, and while a four page essay is okay, I'd rather not read longer essays on these topics.

1. Abortion
2. Gay rights
3. Global Warming
4. Legalizing marijuana
5. Lowering the drinking age

If you have an interesting new angle on any of these things, please feel free to run it by me, but otherwise, please avoid using these topics.

When picking a topic, try to settle on something you find interesting, but not necessarily something you're passionate about- when you're presenting an argument with research, you want to be sure you've got room for the actual research, and you're not just ranting, which it can be easy to do when you feel strongly about something. Even better if your topic isn't something you know all that much about- all the information will be new and interesting to you.

In class today, pull up your blogs with your peer review group and discuss the three topics you were considering. Get their feedback to help you settle on the topic you'll be working with.

Homework for 1/25

Title a post "Research Questions"

Come up with 3 possible research topics following the format on page 175 of your Student Guide. However, you are to include a brief paragraph after each topic explaining why you think it might be interesting to research. I suggest looking into topics you aren't completely familiar with, as it will make the research more interesting and hopefully rewarding.

Create a 102 Research Blog

I've got two assignments for you today, class.

1. Create a research blog. This is as easy as it sounds (took me about two minutes to create this) - and then 'follow' my blog to keep up with assignments, etc. You're also encouraged to add your friends, but that's up to you.

2. Find an article online that argues a point. Paste it to a blog post (include the link to the page you found it) and then look at it critically. What it the thesis? How does the author try to persuade the reader? (do they give examples, statistics, lay out an emotional story, etc.) What do they do in the conclusion to tie it all together? Did it persuade you? Why or why not?