Policies
Research in The Disciplines builds on the skills of Expository Writing
in important ways that help prepare students to meet with writing success
in their intermediate and advanced level courses at the university. While
each instructor has considerable latitude regarding assignments, classroom
exercises, and course practices, there are core policies with which every
student and instructor must comply. The student who fails to comply with
these policies risks failing the course.
Attendance Policy
While the central focus of a student's work in 201 is the independent
research project, this project cannot be completed by even the brightest
students without active involvement in the classroom assignments and exercises.
Any student who misses more than 4 classes risks failing the course. Four
absences is sufficient to account for any particular emergency that may
arise that prevents a student from attending a class meeting.
Two Shorter Papers
201 begins with 2 shorter, 101-type essays. Each of these essays goes
through a drafting process that is very much like the process in 101.
Students must complete these early papers.
Why write these early essays when the course is centered around the independent
research project?
These essays serve three purposes. First, they re-acquaint students with
the 101 skills that are prerequisites for 201. Second, they introduce
student to some of the important conceptual material that helps define
the general topic area for the section and give students an opportunity
to write about that material. Third, the early papers enable the student
to 'practice' the sort of 201 skills that they will need to develop as
they define their research projects and draft their research essays.
The second essay assignment helps students transition to the research
essay because instructors generally link the assignment to library research
and require students to choose some of the texts with which they will
work in the essay. This gives students an opportunity to begin the research
process, and encourages them to write a "pre-proposal research draft".
Research Proposal
The Research Proposal or plan is due around the 5th or 6th week of the
term. In the proposal, students should be working to identify the conceptual
material and some of the preliminary sources for their research projects.
The proposal generally asks students to formulate questions to guide research.
Students should not outline or "map out" their projects at this
point because much of the learning will take place in the course of the
actual research.
Annotated Bibliography
All 201 students are required to submit an Annotated Bibliography around
the time that the research proposal is due. This document helps students
keep track of their research and determine which items will be most valuable
for addressing their research questions. The annotated bibliography is
usually updated and handed in with each draft of the research essay.
The annotated bibliography is a record of the sources that a student
has considered in the course of his or her research. Each source in the
bibliography should be accompanied by a four to eight sentence description
of the source and its potential relevance for the student's research project.
The annotated bibliography is distinct from the Works Cited page at the
conclusion of the essay drafts. The Works Cited page includes only those
sources actually cited in the draft, while the Annotated Bibliography
includes all sources that were examined/considered in the course of the
research.
Several Drafts of Research Essay
Preliminary research drafts enable students to undertake an extended project
of directed revision. Each student will hand in several drafts of the
research essay prior to the final draft. Each draft will build on the
previous draft, and should represent a significant revision. It is through
this process that students develop their extended research project. These
drafts go through a process of peer review and instructor evaluation.
It is important to keep in mind that instructors are not to grade and
comment on each draft in this process. Peer review serves a critical role
in the drafting process.
The Final Research Essay
The student's final research essay must meet the following minimum requirements
in order for the student to earn a "C" or better in 102 or 201:
-
Ten full pages of 10-12 point, standard typeface, not including cover
or works cited pages.
-
Citation and documentation of sources according to a consistent style
(typically, MLA or APA).
-
Use of at least six sources, four of which must have come from their
own research, including both journal articles and books. Students
must have found at least one of these sources using Internet search
engines-but they cannot rely solely on the Internet to find all of
their sources.
-
The student should frame her/his subject using classroom texts, beyond
simply mentioning them at some point or telling (but not showing)
us that they're connected to her/his case. The connection between
a larger conceptual framework and/or scholarly debate and the student's
research subject should be articulated somewhere near the beginning
and returned to at key moments, even if the frame drops out of sight
periodically.
-
The essay should designate-however loosely-a specific case that the
paper will investigate, rather than comparing different frames with
no case or moving from case to case.
-
Somewhere in the essay, the student must articulate his/her position,
or findings, as they've emerged from the research and drafting process.
That is, the student must demonstrate that, through the work culminating
in this final research essay, she or he has made a sincere effort
to figure something out and has reached a conclusion, however provisional.
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