Tutorama: Week Eight: First Draft of Research Essay - Part 1

Introduction
Most of you who are reviewing this tutorial have been assigned the first rough draft of your research essay: just the thought of it is overwhelming to most of you. However, think of it as similar to papers you were assigned at the beginning of the course; with this assignment, you are merely using new case texts, texts that you have chosen. The process is exactly the same and requires the same skills that you developed in 101 and have continued to develop throughout this semester.

In fact, if you review the two tutorials devoted to making connections (Week Three: 201 Connections and Week Seven: 201 Connections II) and use the guidelines for frame/case connections in each of these tutorials, you will be more than prepared to write the first draft of your paper, because, typically, the first draft is devoted to generating a reading of case materials using terms/ideas from framing texts.

In last week's tutorial, it was suggested that you begin with the framing text or texts that you intend to use to make your argument about the case text(s), using it/them to guide you in your choice of case-text moments or passages. While this may be a useful approach for some of you who have no difficulty focusing on what interests you in your case because you have chosen a case that best illustrates what your framing text is conceptualizing, here's another approach, a case-based approach that is not too different from the first.

This tutorial will help those of you have taken a more case-based approach to the project. This approach suggests that you started this project with a case, wanted to interrogate it in terms of the kinds of questions raised in class discussion, and by your readings at the beginning of the semester. This tutorial will help guide those of you who feel overwhelmed and who feel like you are in danger of losing focus whenever you review your materials, because you're not quite sure where your case will lead you.

For those of you who don't know which category you fall into, frame-based or case-based, try both approaches to see which best suits your needs.

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