Honors 4: Regarding the Research Stuff

We are reading thirty articles, writing summaries and paragraphs for them. The paragraphs should work as building blocks for your research project depending on your topic. All the articles and topics spring from Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun, and When the Levees Broke—from there, it's open.

This gives every person in class a solid, shared foundation of information. This forces everyone to examine various types of articles for useful information while looking at what works and what doesn't work for a college-level research paper. This will hopefully cut down on accidental plagiarism (or plagiarism of any sort).

For every 5-6 paragraphs you write, I grade the one that looks the worst on the scoring guide. This is to help you figure out how to improve, not to destroy your grades. You get points for each paragraph, but the scored ones are assessments. If all of your articles look good, then scoring any of them should be an easy bump. And, again, these are some of the building blocks of your essay.

Everything we have done in class so far has been in preparation for the 5-8 page research project. How you write, how you incorporate research, how you process and share information will determine whether you are ready to be graded at the WR121 or WR115 level. All of the steps we've done together in class, you would be doing on your own at college. If you take this seriously, you will have the skills you need to do well.

Honors 2: Updates

Zeitoun information packets are available in class or on google classroom. We are reading Part 4 and the Part 3 discussion will be happening Monday.

If you missed the vocabulary quiz on Friday, be sure to sign up for Advisory to make up the quiz next week.

Honors 4: Schedule and Vocabulary

We will be writing the Brave New World on-demand essay March 3-4, since we will be in the library (last shot before the finals are due) for research projects February 23-27.

Vocabulary List for March 2 quiz:

• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil
• Happenstance: a chance event
• Hedonist: a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure
• Hiatus: a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action
• Homogeneous: composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind
• Hypocrisy: a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude
• Iconoclast: someone who breaks the rules (or tries to overthrow and institution) in order to create a better world
• Idiosyncratic: something peculiar to an individual
• Immune: protected from a disease or the like, as by inoculation

English 4: Documentary Citations

"Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking." YouTube. TED, 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 18 Dec. 2014. 

"Neil Gaiman - Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts 2012." YouTube. Peter Shev, 23 May 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. 

Poster Girl. Dir. Sara Nesson. Perf. Robynn Murray. Virgil Films and Entertainment, 2010. AmazonPrime. 

Stories We Tell. Dir. Sarah Polley. Lionsgate, 2013. AmazonPrime. 

2057. Prod. Uwe Kersken. Perf. Michio Kaku. Gruppe 5 Filmprduktion, 2007. DVD.

English 4 & WW: Outline

Argument/Counterargument Outline (Must have at least two strong arguments)

• Topic (Research Question)
• Thesis Statement (Answer)
• Argument #1
• Important piece of information; explain the information; what does the information imply?
• Counterargument–what specific group is against the argument provided by the information above? why? what do they have to say? why are they wrong?
• Argument #2
• Important piece of information; explain the information; what does the information imply?
• Counterargument–what specific group is against the argument provided by the information above? why? what do they have to say? why are they wrong?
• Argument #3
• Important piece of information; explain the information; what does the information imply?
• Counterargument–what specific group is against the argument provided by the information above? why? what do they have to say? why are they wrong?
• Argument #4
• Important piece of information; explain the information; what does the information imply?
• Counterargument–what specific group is against the argument provided by the information above? why? what do they have to say? why are they wrong?
• Source Material (correctly formatted for MLA)
1. Article 1
2. Article 2
3. Book? or Article 3

English 4 & WW: Short Research Project

• Jan. 5–Generated topics based on documentaries for English 4/on books for WW 
• Class discussion
• Graphic Organizer
• Jan. 6–Developed multiple research questions based on topics; determined how much information is easily accessible 
• Partnered Graphic Organizers
• Jan. 7–Used oslis.org to find three articles on the topic, then print them or email them to yourself.
• Use the powersearch to find articles; they should be no less than 600 words (copy the citation onto a word document)
• The shorter the article, the less information provided
• The less information, the less interesting the paper is
• The less interesting the paper, the lower the grade
• Jan. 8/9–Read articles and took notes
• What specific information answers the research question?
• Does the article change your understanding of the topic? How?
• What does other side have to say? Who said it? Why is it wrong?
• Connections–
• How does manipulation of information affect what you know about the topic?
• Was it difficult to find information for/against your topic? Why?
• Was their obvious bias to much of the information? How?
• Jan. 12–Write argument/counterargument outline
• See handout
• Jan. 13/14–Type up first draft of paper with bibliography
• Jan. 15–Edit and revise draft
• Does the introduction draw the reader in? Does it provide a solid claim/thesis?
• Check spelling and word usage (the first thing on spellcheck is often the wrong word)
• Do the sentences make sense when read aloud?
• Does the flow of information (movement from one idea to the next) make sense?
• Are the pieces of support explained?
• Are the pieces of support properly attributed to their sources?
• Is there a bibliography? Does it follow MLA formatting?
• Jan. 16–Type up revisions and turn paper in 

WR121: More notes on the proposals (see earlier post also)

Things to consider while writing the Proposal (and please follow the format from the earlier post):

• Topic = Question
• Thesis = Answer (briefly touch on why)

• Reasoning in support needs to be specific pieces of information that come from your three sources. Need five pieces of support needed.
• The counterarguments need to reference the specific organization that espouses that belief. Need three counterarguments and three reasons why they are wrong.
• The sources need to have academic integrity (from legitimate organizations, peer reviewed, etc)
• The final paragraph is basically the introduction for your paper (it should change over the course of the research)

Things to consider when reading articles and taking notes

1. What specific information answers the research question?
2. Does the article change your understanding of the topic? How?
3. What does other side have to say? Who said it? Why is it wrong?

WR 121 Research Proposal Notes

You must have a conversation with me explaining how your topic of choice connects to either The Scarlet Letter or The Awakening. This leaves a huge pool of topics to pull from, like the following examples:

• Should we still be protesting for equal treatment based on skin color/gender/sexual orientation?
• What should modern education look like?
• How much control should the government have over the individual?
• How should people with mental illness be treated? What options for care should be available to them?
• What makes someone a good parent?
• How should current research on brain development affect parenting/education?
• How should local forests be managed? Who should make the decisions about public spaces?
• What duty does society have to the working poor?

The first step in the research paper is developing a question, writing a proposal, and writing an introductory/thesis paragraph.

Proposal Format

• Topic (Research Question):
• Thesis Statement:
• Reasoning in Support of Argument:
• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• Counterarguments:
• Counterargument #1:
• Refute:
• Counterargument #2:
• Refute:
• Counterargument #3:
• Refute
• Source Material:
1. Article title, author, publish date:
2. Article title, author, publish date:
3. Article title, author, publish date:
• Thesis Paragraph/Introduction: