2. Announcements The Career Development Center presents Don Asher, an internationally acclaimed author and speaker specializing in professional development and higher education: January 25 and 26 Jan 25 (TODAY!): Landing your dream job: HUB Ohio Room @ 6 January 26 @ 6 : Northern Suites Multi-Purpose Room 116, where Mr. Asher will describe how to gain admission to highly competitive graduate programs. Find out why you should or should not go to graduate school and the value of a Ph.D. program.
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS (Bonus Points) http://www.iup.edu/newsItem.aspx?id=89573&blogid=6121 An Evening with Byron Pitts CBS News Chief National Correspondent & Contributing Correspondent, 60 Minutes Thursday, January 28, 2009 7:00 p.m. Fisher Auditorium MLK Film Fest in Crimson Event Center, Folger Hall 9:30 a.m. to 11:56 a.m. (KING & Brick By Brick: A Civil Rights Story) 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MLK Luncheon and Reflections Workshop featuring the film - (Herskovits At the Heart of Blackness) 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Precious)
4. AGENDA Class Blog Introduction: http://www.researchwritingjournal.blogspot.com/ Getting to Know your writing partners: Find someone who activity Ch1: Practice writing: Linguistic History/ Literacy Narrative. CH 2: Ways of Writing at University: what does it mean to write for different courses Assignments: Blog Writing
5. Before we begin… Accept yourself as a writer Remember that getting started is a common problem. Writing and Reading are not inactive and isolated activities. Keep a record of your growth as a writer in this class. Note that writing is an important part of making contribution to the discipline you are in. Writing is not only a way of producing an assignment but also it is an important part of learning. Don’t be afraid of expressing yourself in academic writing!
6. Writers’ block Getting started is a major problem for every writer. It gets better if you keep writing. Keeping a writing log helps. If you can’t seem to write, stand up, walk around and do some breathing activities. Don’t try to write everything at once. Separate your writing into several sections. Writing is an enjoyable and social task. If you feel stuck, draw diagrams, mind maps, go to the writing center, talk to your teachers or a classmate. Having difficulty in writing does not mean that you are not a good writer or you are unable to study well.
7. fast writing See page 5 of your textbook. Think and write down as much as you can about your personal linguistic history. Use the guiding questions in Activity one. IMPORTANT TIPS FOR FAST WRITING: This is also called “Practice writing”. Keep writing. Don’t stop and think about what you will write. The only reader will be yourself for this piece. Write as much as you can. Turn off your editing voice!
8. Reflection on your fast writing In a new blog entry. Reflect on your fast writing experience: What was the main purpose of this writing? (PURPOSE) Who were you writing? (AUDIENCE) How would you describe this writing? (TYPE/GENRE OF WRITING)
10. Brainstorming for writing and generating questions (IN PAIRS) Activity Five Write down as many points as you can about “The Family in U.S.A” Use words, phrases, incomplete sentences. Feel free to draw a mind map. Discussion: Where did your ideas come from? How can you expand on these ideas? How do you go about searching this topic? What resources would you need to investigate this topic?
11. Deciding your research inquiry, Creating Research Questions Choose an area of interest( go from general to specific) Clarify, systematize and change your thinking. Once you have done brainstorming and some practice writing, you need to focus on a particular aspect of your topic. Ask preliminary questions about your topic and write them down. Depending on your discipline, you need to THINK AND ACT as a sociologist, educator, economist, political scientist, philosopher etc. Create two RESEARCH QUESTIONS about “The Family in the U.S.” topic
12. In-class blogging: beginning to think about your own social action research projects How important has reading and writing been in your academic, personal, and professional lives? What kinds of writing do you do outside the school? (i.e. facebook, emails, journals) What is the most difficult part of academic writing? What areas of your writing do you need to improve? What type of genres do you read? How has reading different genres facilitated your writing? What is the connection between reading and writing for you? What assumptions do you have about “research” and this course, “research writing”? What do you want to “research” about in this course? Think about what motivates you, what you are passionate about, and how this “burning topic” is related to your areas of major/interest/professional goals? How might you go about conducting this research? (e.g. interviewing, taking photographs, video recording, doing a library research etc.)
13. After free writing: the importance of “process writing” Academic Writing is never a finished product. To be a perfect football player or a dancer, you need to practice. Learning the rules doesn’t mean that you will learn how to play well. It’s the same in academic writing. In the coming days we will work on your individual topics, so begin to shop around important topics that will make an impact on your communities. THE PROCESS: Deciding a topic that is close to your heart(and that overlaps with the course theme), Searching for sources, reading different articles/books about your topic, narrowing down your topic and formulating a Research Question, learning how to summarize and synthesize your sources, learning how to put “your” voice in your writing, learning how to go about exploring your topic, learning how to write up your findings.
14. Assignments for Jan 27th Read Ch 1-3. Blog Assignment: Writing about diversity and your research projects What is your understanding of diversity and social change? How important is this topic in your life (your profession, your personal and academic life). What does it mean to promote diversity through “social action” in our lives? Whatdifferent issues of diversity (i.e., race, gender, class, sexual orientation, language rights, etc.) are a part of your life experience? What social diversity and social change topics are you interested in exploring in this class? What questions/ social issues (if possible, related to your own majors) would you be interested in investigating/exploring?
