4.9 Just so you know what your paper needs to do/be

We spent class developing a rubric to evaluate your research essay, and then applying that rubric to one of the sample research essays (posted to the right).  The rubric we came up with is available at the previous post. 

For next class:
Blog 19: In light of todays discussion, what are the strengths of your research project (do you have a strong research problem/question? the right research essay(s)? a solid plan for collecting data? will you have enough data? are you working with the right participants) Identify any place where you need to "catch up".

We will have an in-class workshop on the introduction and literature review.  Clearly, from our work in class today, you can not write the FINAL introduction + literature review - rather, you are going to map out the points you will need to make.  "Moves" you need to make in these introductory section include:

• setting up the overall focus of your project (providing any background),
• clearly stating your questions,
• identifying the importance of your project to writing studies
• pointing out what has been found (relevant to your focus) in the research
• stating what your project will add to this area of research

Even though this cannot be your "final" draft for the introduction - it is important to set it up because it can help you focus your data collection.  It can provide a kind of guide so that you need what kind and how much data you need to collect.

In class you should work on:

• making sure you understand + know how/what to refer to from your research article
• checking the  statement of focus+ what you will show against your plan for data collection (will your data actully show what you say it will show?  do you have the right questions? the rigth participants?)
• writing a DRAFT intro, literature review, methods section and workshopping it with classmates

Bring any materials you will need to work effectively on these tasks.
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