Get your essays and research papers written from the leader in the writing industry. We have in the academic writing field since 2001. We have customers from across the world. All orders will be provided with free draft before making any payment and payment details
Introducing Research Writing to 3rd Graders, a K-5 Common Core Lesson by Writ...Suzanne Klein
An engaging lesson from WriteSteps that introduces third-grade students to an important genre of Informational Writing as outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Students review what research writing is, practice narrowing down broad topics into subtopics, and compare traditional sources to technology sources. The lesson plan for this presentation is found on our website in Third grade, Unit 6 on Research Writing. This lesson plan features a version of the presentation that includes teacher notes for guiding the activities outlined in the slide. For inspiration and more information about K-5 writing and teaching, like us on Facebook, https://facebook.com/corestandardwritesteps. We also have free Common Core resources on Pinterest, at http://pinterest.com/writesteps.
WriteSteps is a comprehensive writing system includes a year's worth of Common Core lesson plans that integrate best practices like writers workshop, the 6 Traits, graphic organizers, and the Madeline Hunter lesson steps in a format that shortens the learning curve to becoming a master writing teacher. WriteSteps includes lessons for narrative, informational, and opinion writing, and offers web-based lessons, visual aids, rubrics, and other resources. To use our Common Core lessons free for 30 days at no obligation, go to http://writestepswriting.com/freetrial.aspx.
WriteSteps Founder & CEO Suzanne Klein is a former K-5 teacher and writing consultant with extensive training in writing pedagogy best practices, especially writer's workshop and 6 Traits. She has taught all elementary grades including a Title I literacy program, and gave professional development workshops on Balanced Writing for the Bureau of Education Research. Klein holds a Master of Arts degree in teaching, is a National Writing Project fellow, and draws inspiration from teachers such as Ralph Fletcher, Barry Lane, Lucy Calkins, Katie Wood Ray, and John Collins.
These slides address the process of writing an effective personal statement or essay for a graduate school application. The presentation addresses understanding the audience and the expectations, brainstorming, and developing your essay.
Get your essays and research papers written from the leader in the writing industry. We have in the academic writing field since 2001. We have customers from across the world. All orders will be provided with free draft before making any payment and payment details
Introducing Research Writing to 3rd Graders, a K-5 Common Core Lesson by Writ...Suzanne Klein
An engaging lesson from WriteSteps that introduces third-grade students to an important genre of Informational Writing as outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Students review what research writing is, practice narrowing down broad topics into subtopics, and compare traditional sources to technology sources. The lesson plan for this presentation is found on our website in Third grade, Unit 6 on Research Writing. This lesson plan features a version of the presentation that includes teacher notes for guiding the activities outlined in the slide. For inspiration and more information about K-5 writing and teaching, like us on Facebook, https://facebook.com/corestandardwritesteps. We also have free Common Core resources on Pinterest, at http://pinterest.com/writesteps.
WriteSteps is a comprehensive writing system includes a year's worth of Common Core lesson plans that integrate best practices like writers workshop, the 6 Traits, graphic organizers, and the Madeline Hunter lesson steps in a format that shortens the learning curve to becoming a master writing teacher. WriteSteps includes lessons for narrative, informational, and opinion writing, and offers web-based lessons, visual aids, rubrics, and other resources. To use our Common Core lessons free for 30 days at no obligation, go to http://writestepswriting.com/freetrial.aspx.
WriteSteps Founder & CEO Suzanne Klein is a former K-5 teacher and writing consultant with extensive training in writing pedagogy best practices, especially writer's workshop and 6 Traits. She has taught all elementary grades including a Title I literacy program, and gave professional development workshops on Balanced Writing for the Bureau of Education Research. Klein holds a Master of Arts degree in teaching, is a National Writing Project fellow, and draws inspiration from teachers such as Ralph Fletcher, Barry Lane, Lucy Calkins, Katie Wood Ray, and John Collins.
These slides address the process of writing an effective personal statement or essay for a graduate school application. The presentation addresses understanding the audience and the expectations, brainstorming, and developing your essay.
This presentation has been used to guide workshops on research and academic writing conventions for upperclassman and first-year graduate students. However, it could be adapted for a first and second year student audience. The content is rich, emphasizing reflection, research/inquiry, as well as grammar. This material also demonstrates how to use new media as part of an overall research strategy. The presentation is designed to be presented interactively with writers across the disciplines, multilingual writers, and any writer unfamiliar with the academic writing process. The content is not linear, as many slides could be clipped and customized for integration into a first-year writing course, or even a session or workshop for graduate student writers of any classification.
Information Fluency Strategies and Practices to Help Enhance Critical Thinkin...St. Petersburg College
Information fluency is the intersection of information literacy, computer literacy and critical thinking and is a “must” for participants of the 21st century. Mairn explores a variety of resources, research tools, and tips that can be integrated into course management systems and/or traditional classroom settings to help build fluency and develop critical thinking. These tools range from using real-time web/mobile services like Twitter to using conventional econtent more creatively and other tools/services to construct a learning environment — online or face-to-face — that is conducive to information discovery, sharing, and lifelong learning.
Purpose:
- To introduce you to the need to properly research topics using online resources (although ‘Google’ is now a verb, it isn’t research)
- To equip you with the tools to critically evaluate research found online
- To enable your professional growth as a lifelong learner
Learning Objectives
At the end of this lecture the student should be able to:
- Perform complex searches using Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and other tools
- Outline the benefits of bookmarking and research tools such as Delicio.us, Digg, and Stumbleupon, and use these tools
- Evaluate research found online for quality
- Properly cite and record online research when you find it using tools such as Evernote or OneNote
With our rapidly increasing and instantaneous access to information, it can be difficult to help people slice through the “data smog” and become fluent with information while critically assessing its value and purpose. This webinar introduces a variety of technical resources and research tools, and provides tips to help make learning more meaningful, engaging, and relevant, with the ultimate goal of providing learners with opportunities to create something new and exciting. The end goal is to help learners enrich their lives by constructing a personal learning environment, online or face-to-face, that is conducive to information discovery, sharing, and lifelong learning.
Sources of Research Questions and Formulation of Hypothesis Psychology Pedia
Research Method -
Research questions, Good research questions, Steps to developing a research question, Sources of research question, Research hypothesis, Characteristics of hypothesis
Online Teaching and Learning
It is one of the most popular types of distance education
It continues to increase for the broader students
It is a part of E-learning
Online teaching is very common for secondary and higher education programs.
The population and institutions that use online learning increased over the last years.
What is Online Teaching and Learning?
Online teaching is a way to escape from the traditional classes.
Join a course or an institution which is far away from you
Study when you want, 24 hour a day and
Be more independent for your learning in your life.
Benefits from online teaching
The only thing that you have to do as a student is to have an access to a computer and Internet.
Computer is the main tool for reading and evaluation
Based on online software that includes different tools and functions
For Online teaching content is delivered synchronously and/or asynchronously.
The content is usually provides as digital textbooks and handouts, or videos etc.
Course content developed by week, section etc,
Tools and Content
Instructors have to guide students from “the other side”
They have a different and supporting role
They use email, forums, discussion boards or instant messaging to contact, interact or evaluate their students
Design and build their courses based on online software that includes different tools and functions that are easy and useful for learners.
Teacher - Instructor
Students have their own responsibilities
They have to develop their new knowledge as they interact with the online environment.
Students use their computer online to interact with their instructor
Their evaluations essays, poster, presentation have to deliver online and digital to their teachers.
Student - Learners
7
Virtual Teams and Protecting Information Assets- Case 4
The Case Assignment for this module involves your analysis of what is known, somewhat known, not known, or "known" but wrong in the area of the management of virtual teams. Since this phenomenon is relatively new, there isn't a large body of knowledge specifically about such teams. Most of the advice floating around about virtual teams comes from one or more of four types of sources:
· The small number of academically respectable research studies on virtual teams
· The very large body of research done on the management of teams generally (dating back to the 1930s and of somewhat questionable generalizability due to differences in tools, culture, society, and just about everything else)
· The modest but steadily increasing body of informal or "practice wisdom" information, generally made available through blogs or other Internet sources
· The quite large body of essentially uninformed but ready-to-be-shared opinion about the topic, also Internet-available
The first two bodies of information are generally easy to identify and distinguish; they'll be found in academic journals, conference transactions, and other such sourc.
Essay #2 Proposing a SolutionIn ClassFor this essay, you.docxrusselldayna
Essay #2: Proposing a
Solution
In Class:
For this essay, your task is to propose a realistic, thoughtful solution to a problem that affects you or someone you know.
This could be a large scale problem (such as profound national frustration with our electoral system) or a smaller scale
problem (such as a general lack of exciting social life for students who live on campus). While you might need to provide
some “proof ” that your problem is really a problem, the bulk of your argument should aim to convince your reader that your solution is
a very good option for all parties involved.
As you begin drafting in class, your goal should be to produce 2-4 pages of thoughtful prose that:
• briefly introduces your chosen problem and the stakes (why the problem needs to be addressed)
• proposes a realistic and fair minded solution (it could actually work, and people would likely accept it)
• develops 1-3 supporting points for your argument (research sources optional for the first draft)
• pays close attention to the basic features as outlined in SMG
Feel free to use the following template for effective structure:
• an intro paragraph that describes your problem and solution and gives your reader a reason to care
• 1-3 body paragraphs that develop individual points of support
• a brief conclusion that wraps up your argument
First draft requirements:
• To receive full credit for this portion of essay #1, your in-class draft must be at least one full page.
• Our purpose is not to produce final draft quality writing at this phase. Just start by getting your ideas on paper, for
now.
Subsequent Drafts:
Now that you have a basic argument on paper, continue to develop and focus your argument. Feel free to bring this draft
to office hours. Be sure to improve your draft prior to the peer review workshop, to help you produce a solid final draft.
Peer Review Requirements:
Bring three copies for peer-review. This draft should preferably be a full draft, but must be at least 3-4 pages. If you’re
short of 4-5 full pages, include a well-developed outline for the rest of your argument.
Final Draft Requirements:
• 4-5 pages of cleanly written, well-organized, lucid, insightful prose
• 2-4 scholarly or credible sources, with ALL borrowed words and information appropriately cited.
• MLA format (double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, etc.) incl. Works Cited page
• Submit via SafeAssign, and turn in all invention work and drafts with your final draft
Additional Tips:
• Most any problem you choose can provide options for effective use of research, though you might need to be
inventive in identifying relevant, useful research sources. I’m happy to provide suggestions for research, if you like.
• Remember that opposing viewpoints are not just bowling pins to knock down—your overall solution must account
for major potential objections, rather than ignoring them or hoping your reader won’t notice (for instance, if you
propose to solve climat.
Researching Your Speech What Is Research.docxronak56
Researching Your Speech
What Is Research?
Libraries and Librarians are Our FriendsLibrarians have many tricks and shortcuts up their sleeves to make hunting for information easier and faster.Interacting with librarians and using libraries effectively is the first step to good research.
17 Strategies to Work
With LibrariansA research librarian is extremely knowledgeable about information sources.You can learn from a librarian and increase your own research skills.When on reference desk duty, the librarian is available to help; present yourself in person.A librarian can teach you, but can’t make excuses for late work.If a librarian is already helping someone else, wait your turn.
Strategies cont.When a librarian helps you find sources, have the courtesy to look at them.Research is a process, not an event; allow sufficient time.The librarian can’t do the work you’re supposed to be doing toward your own grade.Reference librarians are professional, highly educated information specialists; ask your “stupid” question.Good research takes time, and interacting with the librarian takes time.
Strategies cont.Students should expect reasonable questions from the librarian, such as: “Where have you looked so far?” “Have you been to a library workshop before?”Students should approach a librarian sooner rather than later.If you don’t have a well-defined topic to research, bring a copy of the assignment to show the librarian.
Strategies cont.Most academic librarians will give in-depth consultations to students by appointment.Students should be as specific as possible in what they ask for.Many research questions do not have ready-made or one-stop answers.Information comes in varying formats.
Research is Fun and UsefulYou get to ask questions and actually find answers.Research can open a world you never knew existed.Research can lead you to new ideas and activities.A scholarly investigation into a topic in order to discover, revise, and/or report facts, theories, and applications.
Three Functions of ResearchDiscovering occurs when people conduct some kind of study and find something completely new.Revision occurs when people revise existing facts, theories, and applications.Reporting happens after you accumulate information about a topic and report it to others.
Three End Results of ResearchA fact is a truth that is arrived at through the scientific process.A theory is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon.Researchers often look for new applications for something that already exists.
Primary ResearchResearch that is carried out to discover or revise facts, theories and applications, and is reported by the person conducting the research; it is active and creates new knowledge.
Types of Primary Research
Surveys or QuestionnairesSurveys or questionnaires you conduct are a type of primary research in which you collect facts, figures, or opinions. For a survey, you should ask four questions:Do you know what you want to ...
Running Head FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 1 F.docxwlynn1
Running Head: FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
1
FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
2Chapter 3A Selecting a Problem and Reviewing the Research
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS CHAPTER:
· • How to select a research problem
· • Defining and sorting out idea after idea until one fits your interests
· • The importance of personal experience in selecting a problem
· • The steps in reviewing the literature
· • Different sources of information and how to use them
· • How to use journals, abstracts, and indices
· • The difference between primary and secondary resources
· • Using a synthesis of literature
· • How scholarly journals work
· • Using the Internet to complete your literature review
So here you are, in the early part of a course that focuses on research methods, and now you have to come up with a problem that you are supposed to be interested in! You are probably so anxious about learning the material contained in your professor’s lectures and what is in this volume that you barely have time to think about anything else.
If you stop for a moment and let your mind explore some of the issues in the behavioral and social sciences that have piqued your interest, you will surely find something that you want to know more about. That is what the research process is all about—finding out more about something that is, in part, already known.
Once you select an area of interest, you are only part of the way there. Next comes the statement of this interest in the form of a research question followed by a formal hypothesis. Then it is on to reviewing the literature, a sort of fancy phrase that sounds like you will be very busy! A literature review involves library time online or actually there, note taking, and organizational skills (and of course writing), but it provides a perspective on your question that you cannot get without knowing what other work has been done as well as what new work needs to be done.
But hold on a minute! How is someone supposed to have a broad enough understanding of the field and spew forth well-formed hypotheses before the literature is reviewed and then become familiar with what is out there? As poet John Ciardi wrote, therein “lies the rub.”
The traditional philosophers and historians of science would have us believe that the sequence of events leading up to a review of what has been done before (as revealed in the literature) is as shown in Figure 3A.1a. This sequence of steps is fine in theory, but as you will discover, the actual process does not go exactly in the manner shown in the figure.
The research question and research hypothesis are more an outgrowth of an interaction between the scientist’s original idea and an ongoing, thorough review of the literature (good scientists are always reading), as you can see in Figure 3A.1b. This means that once you formulate a hypothesis, it is not carved in stone but can be altered to fit what the review of the literature may reflect, as well as any change in ideas you ma.
CHAPTER6RESEARCHLEARNING OBJECTIVES• Describe the importan.docxtiffanyd4
CHAPTER
6
RESEARCH
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Describe the importance of responsible research choices
• Outline an effective, efficient research strategy
• Create search terms for focused online searches
• Gather relevant research materials
• Discover the note-taking approach that works best for you
• Evaluate the credibility and usefulness of different sources
• Effectively organize research materials and choose the most useful ones
• Correctly cite your sourcesCHAPTER OUTLINE
• Introduction: Becoming an Expert
• Researching Responsibly
• The Research Process
• How to Conduct an Online Search
• Gathering Your Materials
• Reading Your Materials and Taking Notes
• Evaluating Sources
• Revising Your Claims
• Organizing Your Research Information
• Choosing the Sources for Your Speech
• Citing Your Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Getting Help from a Research Expert
Robert and Dixie have been assigned to speak on either side of an issue, a kind of “pros and cons” format. They chose home schooling as their issue. each has a general position on it (Dixie is in favor, and Robert against) but they admit they just don't know that much about it. So what now? How do they become well enough informed to give a speech on the topic? Where should they even start? How can you keep track of your research? Do you have cite it?Overview
Research is necessary for an effective public speech. This chapter will help you make responsible, well-crafted, and carefully executed research choices. First, we will help you figure out what you already know and translate that knowledge into a research strategy. Next, we will provide some concrete tips on where to go for research (including other people as well as the Internet and the library), how to design a good search query for search engines and databases, and how to narrow your search. After that, we will address what you need to do once you have collected your research material, including how to read through it, take notes, and evaluate which sources are worthwhile. Finally, we will deal with how to use your research process to refine your arguments, choose and organize your quotations, and give proper credit for the sources you use in your speech.
MindTap®
Start with a warm-up activity about Stephanie's speech, and review the chapter's Learning Objectives.INTRODUCTION: BECOMING AN EXPERT
Researching, composing, and delivering an effective public speech requires you to acquire some expertise on your topic. You don't have to be the kind of expert who can produce original facts, figures, and data and publish groundbreaking work regarding your topic. But you do need to become enough of an expert on your topic to translate the research that you have done to an audience that may not have the same background or comfort with concepts and terminology that you have developed in your research. On your topic, you are the expert for your audience's purposes. You should cultivate enough expertise on your topic to bring new insights to .
Similar to Chapter12 composing multiple-sources (20)
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
1. Chapter 11:
Composing with Multiple Sources
The twentieth-century rhetorician and philosopher Kenneth Burke likened all of human
discourse (by whatever means it takes place: textually, visually, or multimodally) to an
“unending conversation.” He wrote,
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long
preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated
for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had
already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to
retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you
decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar.
Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns
himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent,
depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is
interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the
discussion still vigorously in progress. (Philosophy of Literary Form, 110-11).
Burke’s “conversational parlor” provides an excellent metaphor for the work of research that
needs to be done when defining and responding to rhetorical problems. Following this
metaphor, we might think of the composing process as having three basic steps:
1. Identify the conversation. (See Chapter XX to learn how to formulate rhetorical problems.)
2. “Listen” to the conversation for awhile – that is, conduct extensive research on the rhetorical
problem, and pay close attention to the content (i.e., the topics and various lines of argument -
see Chapter XX, identifying stasis questions), the rhetorical stakeholders, and the genre,
medium, and mode(s) by which the conversation takes place.
3. Put in your “oar”– that is, join the conversation by responding to one or more of those who
have been there before you.
This chapter focuses on the nitty-gritty of step 2: learning how to actively “listen” to the
conversation (otherwise known as “research”), and how to make decisions about when and
how to incorporate that research into your response to the conversation. You’ll learn the
recursive process of doing research: this includes formulating research questions, generating
initial keywords for research, identifying initial sources to help clarify your own position,
establishing a system to keep track of your sources, evaluating the relative rhetorical weight of
sources, generating more specific keywords as your position on the issue becomes clearer, and
2. so on. You’ll also learn to appropriately incorporate sources into your compositions, both to
bolster your ethos and to signal the conversation(s) in which you’re taking part.
The Recursive Steps of the Research Process
Composers do research for two equally important reasons: to discover the conversation and to
clarify their position. While many beginning composers treat research as a “one and done”
linear procedure, experienced researchers know that research and composing is a continuous,
recursive process involving multiple steps.
1. Brainstorm initial research questions.
Effective research starts from sincere questioning – that is, you shouldn’t already know what
you want to argue before you begin the research process. Too often, beginning composers fall
into the trap of only looking for sources that support what they already believe. This is a
dishonest approach, since it avoids a true process of inquiry. As philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche said in his essay “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense,” “When someone
hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as
well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding.” In other words, trying to find
only what you think or know is already there won’t help anyone very much. So instead of, say,
looking for sources that can give you “quotes” to support your already-formed position on wolf
population management, you might approach it by asking questions that you don’t already
know the answer to: maybe “what are different theories about the benefits of wolf
reintroduction?”, or “What are the costs and benefits of wolf reintroduction to various
populations in the West?”
Even if you do have strong opinions about a topic, it’s best to approach the research process
with a sincere, open mind that seeks to really understand an issue or topic. Initial research
questions are best if they’re simple and open-ended. Once you start generating and reading
through sources, your question will become more refined and specific.
Let’s say that for a video editorial assignment, you want to investigate the differences between
online and face-to-face education. The president of your university has just announced that she
wants to increase enrollment by 25%, and with limited physical facilities, most campus
administrators and faculty agree that the most logical way to achieve this goal is to increase the
number of online courses and degrees. Though you’ve taken a few online courses (with mixed
results), you’re uneasy about the implications of this move by the university, and want to
understand more about the effectiveness of online learning before weighing in on the issue.
Some initial questions about online education (generated with the stasis questions – see
Chapter XX [on rhetorical arguments] might look something like this:
• What are the trends in online learning? What percentage of all college and university
courses are offered online, and is this number growing, shrinking, or has it leveled off?
3. What kinds of courses are offered online? How have online courses changed? Are
students with online degrees able to get jobs at the same rates as students who have
gotten traditional degrees?
• What are some of the reasons that online learning has become more prevalent, if that’s
indeed the case? Why do universities want to include more online courses? (that is, are
they more cost-effective, and if so, why?) What are the implications for the university as
a whole?
• What do experts say about the quality of online courses vs. face-to-face courses? Are
some kinds of online courses more effective than others?
• Given the answers to the questions above, should your university move to more online
courses and degrees? If so, why, how, and what kind of courses and degrees?
2. From these questions, generate keywords that will help you conduct a search.
It’s best to search with specifically worded phrases rather than whole questions. Search engines
ignore little words (of, in, and, but), so you can also leave those out of your search phrases.
Some good phrases with which to start for our questions about online learning might be
“online learning trends,” “prevalence online learning,” and “effectiveness online learning.”
Once you’ve come up with some initial keywords, consider coming up with synonyms to help
catch sources that you may have missed:
online learning effectiveness
distance education
online education
e-learning
virtual classroom
Web-based courses
quality
success
value
3. Conduct an initial search.
It’s a good idea to begin your search with Google (though not a good idea to end there, for
reasons discussed below). For one thing, Google can sometimes help you with the search by
recommending search terms based on what you type into the search bar. These results – the
top search queries – can give you a better sense for how others are thinking about the issue,
and lead you to more refined keywords.
The top results for a Google search on the keywords “trends in online education” bring up
some potentially useful results, but from sites that need to be more thoroughly vetted (see the
next step) before they can be used as reliable sources. An identical search on Lexis Nexis, a
database available through most university libraries, initially produced a number of irrelevant
results (though one result did provide a new term that could serve as another search term: “e-
learning” - see yellow arrow in Figure X). Lexis Nexis makes it possible to refine the search
results, so I clicked on “Colleges and Universities” and got more relevant results.
Comment [1]: include a big bracket
beside this: stasis of fact/definition
Comment [2]: stasis of cause
Comment [3]: stasis of evaluation
Comment [4]: stasis of policy (proposal)
4. While often Lexis Nexis and other subscription academic databases like it provide more
reliable results than general Web search engines, it’s important to conduct your initial search
across a number of different sites, and to continue to follow up on them. (See Figures X and X
below.)
Figure X. Top Google results for “effectiveness of online education.”
Figure X: Top Lexis Nexis results for “effectiveness of online education”; since they were of mixed
usefulness, the search could be refined using the tools at the left.
5. Figure X: Refined Lexis Nexis results for “effectiveness of online education,” with the “Distance
Learning” filter applied.
4. Vet your sources.
Research is a skill and an art, not a science. That is, while it would be great if there were hard
and fast rules about what counts as a “good” source (“You can only use peer-reviewed
scholarly articles!”) and what should be avoided at all costs (“Never use Wikipedia!”), a more
rhetorical view of research says “It depends.” What it depends on are things like the rhetorical
aim of your project, what you’re trying to show and prove, and to whom. The following table
will help you ascertain what kinds of sources you should be looking for and how you want to
use them.
If you want to… Then use:
Get in-depth, individual perspectives on an issue… Interviews, oral histories, first-person accounts, memoirs.
Find out what a broad swath of the population (perhaps
organized by specific beliefs or demographics) feels or
thinks about a topic…
Surveys, polls.
Present statistics about specific demographics and
populations…
Government documents, public records.
• Reconstruct an original history of a specific
idea, topic, or event;
• Reconstruct an era through its popular culture;
• Show the continuity or change in thinking about
a given topic or idea…
Archival documents (letters, maps, photographs, oral
histories), old periodicals.
• Establish the timeline of a series of events; Newspaper articles.
Comment [5]: This might be more
usable as a flow chart.
Comment [6]: the gray rows are
primary sources, the white are
secondary (indicate this with brackets in
the margins)
6. • Find reliable facts;
• Do an overview, comparison, or rhetorical
analysis of how the media responded to an
event…
Create a catalog of different points of view or “takes” on
a topic, or find anecdotes or quotes from people
affected by an event…
Magazine feature articles.
• Get partisan takes on issues or ideas;
• Establish a sense of the range of opinions on a
topic;
• Find out how non-experts discuss a topic or
idea…
Blogs.
• Read up on the background or general
overview of a topic, concept, or process;
• Gain a sense for the established or common
knowledge about a topic…
Wikipedia or encyclopedia articles.
• Gain specialized knowledge on a topic and
understand the sorts of questions at issue in a
topic;
• Provide an authoritative take on a topic or
issue;
• Cite original research on a topic…
Scholarly (peer reviewed) articles.
• Find the history or background of an idea,
process, or event;
• Provide an in-depth understanding of a debate
(scholarly books and articles are the result of
high-level debates as well, so keep in mind that
these aren’t a neutral source – there may be
competing interpretations of a position)…
Biographies, histories (books).
Explain the etymology of a word… Dictionary (especially the Oxford English Dictionary,
available online through most university libraries).
Your initial research question (and the more refined versions that come after you begin
searching for and reading sources to answer that question) will help you decide which of these
sources would be appropriate and credible for the audience. While you wouldn’t want to cite
Joe Blow’s Big Website of Guns as an authoritative source on gun control policy, for instance, it
could be great as a way to show how non-experts or everyday gun enthusiasts talk about guns.
In short, think rhetorically about the sources you find, and how they might be seen by your
intended audience. For each source, think about the following questions (based on the
journalistic questions: who what when where how):
7. • Who created the source? What is their background, and how are they credentialed to
speak about the source? What is at stake for them in the topic – that is, what do they
stand to gain or lose in the way they talk about the topic? How might these investments
or biases mesh with how your audience might see the subject? Again, if the source has
a clear bias, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the source in your composition – only
that you’ll need to introduce it by pointing out the bias so that your audience knows
that you understand the position of the source’s creator.
• What is the source about? Is the source’s content relevant for your audience and
purpose?
• When was the source created? If timeliness is important to your topic, was the source
created recently enough to be relevant? For example, if you’re discussing the history of
online education, then it’s fine to talk about a source from 1999; but if you’re making a
point about the most recent trends in online education, then even a source from 2007
would be of questionable relevance.
• Where did the source appear? Refer to Table X above to figure out how the type of
publication dictates the source’s purpose and content.
• How is the source relevant to your own topic, purpose, and audience?
5. Take notes and keep track of your sources.
Having some method to keep track of the information in your sources is necessary for several
reasons:
• It helps you maintain your sanity. It keeps you from being overwhelmed by the amount
of information you find, and it allows you to easily locate sources.
• A system (like tagging or adding keywords to sources) helps you begin seeing topical
and argumentative patterns in sources. This will help you synthesize the information
you find.
• It helps you avoid unintentional plagiarism. Not keeping good track of sources has
been the cause of a number of recent high-profile plagiarism cases. To avoid
embarrassment, be careful about taking notes (especially when you’re writing down
direct quotations from the source), and true paraphrasing. See pp XX-XX below for
more on how to paraphrase and quote sources.
The analog (but still very effective!) way to keep track of your sources is with good old-
fashioned 3x5 notecards. You need to develop whatever system works best for you, but the
important thing is to be consistent so that you can easily locate your information and organize
your sources. Here’s one possible organizational system:
• On the front side of the notecard, you’ll write the citation (in whatever format is
required for the project) and a very brief summary of the source (e.g. “The author X
[briefly describe the author’s relation to the topic] argues
/summarizes/concludes/compares/[whatever] that…..”).
8. • On the back side of the notecard, write down any relevant direct quotations (keep
these as short as possible), and a quick note to yourself about how the source might be
useful to you.
After you’ve created all your notecards, go back through, reread them, and add keywords to
the front of the notecard. You can develop your own system of keywords, based on topic,
theme, approach, position, or anything else you decide – the point is that adding the same
keyword to multiple cards will reveal links between them. By doing so, you’ve already begun
organizing your ideas about the research question at hand.
For the digital version of source management, you would use some venue that allows you to
create multiple items and to “tag” them (i.e., mark them with keywords). Three such tools
would be blogs (you can make one post per source), the free online note-keeping system
Evernote (you can make one note per source), and citation software like EndNote (though this
is not free). These digital tools will allow you to not only do the same things as you can do with
notecards (create a citation, write a brief summary, mark down key quotes, and indicate how
the source will be useful to you), but they also allow you to add keywords, or “tags” with which
you can later search your collection of sources.
6. Write “zero” or “thinking drafts” to understand or clarify what you think and know about a
topic.
A “zero draft” or “thinking draft” is a low-stakes draft in which you try to answer your initial
research question after you’ve done the hard work of logging and thinking about all your
sources. To write a “thinking draft,” clear your desk of everything but a notepad and a pen. Set
a timer for 20-30 minutes. Start the timer, begin writing, and continue writing until the timer
goes off. By the end of your quick writing session, you should have a clearer grasp of the
conversation about your topic or question, and (hopefully) a better sense of what you want to
say about it.
7. Search and draft again (and again).
This is where research gets recursive: finding, reading, and taking notes on your initial results
will help you understand more clearly what you’re looking for. If you find a good scholarly
article on the topic, you can use its bibliography to lead you to more sources, which will further
help you clarify your emerging argument. You’ll have a second (and probably a third) round of
research using more refined search terms, and this process will continue throughout your
research and composing process.
Incorporating Sources into Your Compositions
9. For many who are new to academic discourse, formal systems of citation like those of the
Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and others might seem like a persnickety
exercise in dealing with frustrating minutiae. As you pore through books and websites trying to
figure out how to cite a source using MLA format, you might well be thinking, “who cares
whether the comma goes inside or outside the parenthesis? Who lives or dies by this stuff?”
So it’s worth pausing to think about why scholars use these citation systems, as well as the
reasoning behind the practices.
Generally speaking, scholars use citation systems for the following reasons:
• To situate the concept, method, framework, or approach used by the authors within a
wider disciplinary context.
• To signal belonging to an academic community (insider knowledge).
• To signal the validity of the ideas.
• To provide readers with the ability to read further into the topic if they want.
• To generate a scholarly conversation about an issue, or to encourage the production of
more knowledge.
These functions (and therefore the citation formats) differ according to how the discipline
creates knowledge. For instance, humanities discipline like English literature typically focus on
textual interpretation. Thus, the predominant citation format for this discipline – MLA style –
uses parentheses with the author’s name and the page number after the quotation, like this:
(Nicotra 52). This allows readers the ability to track down the edition being cited and to do
their own interpretation of the work in question if they desire. Other scholarly citation
conventions, like footnotes, allow a parallel conversation to happen alongside the text – in fact,
some academic texts are so rife with footnotes that they threaten to overwhelm the main text.
Common Scholarly Format and Citation Styles: MLA, APA, Chicago
The Internet has dozens of citation and format guides for each scholarly citation style, so it
would be redundant to replicate those in great detail here. However, below are brief
descriptions of some styles that you may encounter during your time as a student, along with a
table comparing formats and citation styles for the most commonly used sources. Below that is
a list of the best websites for various citation and formatting styles.
MLA Style
The style guide for the Modern Language Association (MLA) is most frequently used for
disciplines in the humanities, especially language and literature. Because it’s so user-friendly,
it’s also the academic citation style most frequently taught to students – this might be the only
style you’ve ever been exposed to. Unlike citation styles of some other disciplines, the
structure of MLA format emphasizes the original author’s ownership over the text. That’s why,
10. as composition scholar Susan Mueller points out, the MLA Handbook for Students devotes so
much time to explaining how to avoid plagiarism. It’s also why in-text citation in MLA format
includes the author’s last name and the page number or something else to indicate exactly
where the passage you’re quoting or paraphrasing comes from.
General MLA Guidelines. ddd
MLA Page Setup. ddd
Chicago/Turabian Style
Chicago style (also named Turabian, after Kate Turabian, who wrote a handbook that made
Chicago style easier and more user-friendly) is another style typically used in the humanities:
philosophy, art history, music, rhetoric, and theology. It uses two styles: notes-bibliography
style and author-date style (which one you use is typically dependent on what your instructor
wants; or, if you’re writing for a scholarly publication, what the publication wants. For note-
bibliography style, when you cite an author, you insert a footnote with the full citation of the
source and also a bibliography entry for that author. For author-date style, you include the
author’s last name,
APA Style
The style guide for the American Psychological Association (APA) is used most frequently in the
social sciences: psychology, sociology, and anthropology. APA is aimed at professional
(academic) social scientists – students are welcome to use it, of course, but unlike the MLA,
there’s no separate APA handbook for students. Since the APA style was created at a time
when experimental psychology dominated, it is geared toward scientific reports, which have a
much more rigid, prescribed format. This is sometimes called IMRAD format (for Introduction,
Methodology, Results, [and] Discussion). In such a format, the use of first-person (“I”) is
discouraged, transitions between sections are relatively unimportant (since they’re prescribed),
and the dates of articles are much more important, since they indicate how recently the
research of the article being cited was conducted. Science is expected to build on past
research and advance knowledge, and this is reflected in the use of author and date in APA in-
text citation style.
Citation Styles for Commonly Used Sources at a Glance
MLA Chicago
(In-text listed first, then
bibliography entry)
APA
Article in a Print
Journal
Sullivan, Shannon.
“Reconfiguring Gender
with John Dewey: Habit,
Bodies, and Cultural
Change.” Hypatia 15:1
(2000), 23-42. Print.
Notes-Bibliography:
1. Shannon Sullivan,
“Reconfiguring Gender
with John Dewey: Habit,
Bodies, and Cultural
Change,” Hypatia 15, no.
Sullivan, S. (2000).
“Reconfiguring Gender
with John Dewey: Habit,
Bodies, and Cultural
Change.” Hypatia, 15:1,
23-42.
Comment [7]: Mueller, Susan.
“Documentation Styles and Discipline-
Specific Values.” Writing Lab Newsletter
29:6 (2005), 6-9.
Comment [8]: Leverenz, Carrie
Shively. “Citing Cybersources: A
Challenge to Disciplinary Values” (189),
qutd in Mueller 7.
11. 1 (June 2000): 26.
Sullivan, Shannon
“Reconfiguring Gender
with John Dewey: Habit,
Bodies, and Cultural
Change.” Hypatia 15, no.
1 (June 2000): 23-42.
Author-Date:
(Sullivan 2000, 26)
Sullivan, Shannon. 2000.
“Reconfiguring Gender
with John Dewey: Habit,
Bodies, and Cultural
Change.” Hypatia 15, no.
1 (June): 23-42.
Article in an Online
Journal
Kelly, Ashley Rose and
Kate Maddalena.
“Harnessing Agency for
Efficacy: ‘Foldit’ and
Citizen Science.” POROI
11:1 (2015), 1-20. Web.
Notes-Bibliography:
1. Ashley Rose Kelly and
Kate Maddalena,
“Harnessing Agency for
Efficacy: ‘Foldit’ and
Citizen Science,” POROI
11:1 (2015): 15, accessed
October 12, 2015,
http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/vie
wcontent.cgi?article
=1184&context=poroi.
Author-Date: c
Article Accessed
through a Database
DePalma, Michael-John
and Kara Poe Alexander.
“A Bag Full of Snakes:
Negotiating the
Challenges of Multimodal
Composition.” Computers
and Composition 37
(2015), 182-200. Science
Direct. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Article in a Magazine Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Article in a
Newspaper
Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
12. Book, one author Rabinow, Paul. Making
PCR: A Story of
Biotechnology. Chicago:
The University of Chicago
Press, 1996. Print.
Notes-Bibliography:
1. Paul Rabinow, Making
PCR: A Story of
Biotechnology (Chicago:
The University of Chicago
Press, 1996), 64.
Rabinow, Paul. Making
PCR: A Story of
Biotechnology. Chicago:
The University of Chicago
Press, 1996.
Author-Date:
(Rabinow 1996, 134)
Rabinow, P. 1996. Making
PCR: A Story of
Biotechnology. Chicago:
University of Chicago
Press.
Rabinow, P. (1996).
Making PCR: A Story of
Biotechnology. Chicago:
University of Chicago
Press.
Book, two authors Holcomb, Chris and
Jimmie Killingsworth.
Performing Prose: The
Study and Practice of Style
in Composition.
Carbondale, IL: Southern
Illinois University Press,
2010. Print.
Notes-Bibliography:
1. Chris Holcomb and
Jimmie Killingsworth,
Performing Prose: The
Study and Practice of Style
in Composition
(Carbondale, IL: Southern
Illinois University Press
2010), 15.
Holcomb, Chris and
Jimmie Killingsworth.
Performing Prose: The
Study and Practice of Style
in Composition.
Carbondale, IL: Southern
Illinois University Press,
2010.
Author-Date:
(Holcomb and Killingworth
2010, 52)
Holcomb, Chris and
Jimmie Killingsworth.
2010. Performing Prose:
The Study and Practice of
Style in Composition.
Carbondale, IL: Southern
Holcomb, C. &
Killingsworth, J. (2010).
Performing Prose: The
Study and Practice of Style
in Composition.
Carbondale, IL: Southern
Illinois University Press.
13. Illinois University Press.
Book, three or more
authors
Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Chapter in an edited
book
Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Website Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Website, page Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Blog Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Blog, page Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Video Notes-Bibliography:
1.
Author-Date: c
Informal Citation in Written, Visual, and Multimodal Compositions
Many compositions aimed at the general public (i.e., a non-academic audience) rely on
informal citation – that is, they provide enough information that readers, if they wanted to
follow up on the topic or check the veracity of the story, could locate the source reasonably
easily (in the case of Web-based compositions, simply by clicking on the provided links).
Web-Based Citation (linking). The most effective way to lead readers to sources on the Web is
by one of the Web’s most basic functions, hypertext. That is, a writer can “cite” a source on the
14. Web simply by linking to it. In the Wikipedia page on “Intellectual Property” (Figure X, below),
you can probably guess that the blue links in the entry are definitions of the terms – in fact, all
of them link up to other Wikipedia pages, which themselves are full of links. The “Blogging and
Intellectual Property Law” blog post (on the site legalzoom) (Figure X below) uses the link for
more traditional citation purposes – the author is quoting from the United States Copyright
Office and contains a link to the page from which she’s quoting.
[Insert screenshot image: Wikipedia page on “Intellectual Property”]
[Insert screenshot image: legalzoom post, “Blogging and Intellectual Property Law”]
15. Infographics. Because they can be extended vertically, infographics conventionally include
citations of the sources used to create the infographic, typically at the very bottom of the page.
Depending on the infographic creator and the audience and purpose of the infographic, these
can be more or less formal (i.e., in a specific citation format); infographics aimed at an audience
of scientists might have more of an imperative to cite formally, whereas infographics meant to
entertain or instruct the general public might use less formal citations, as the “A Traveller’s
Guide to Tap Water” infographic source list, shown in Figure X. The list, which appears at the
very bottom of the infographic, includes brief identifying phrases and a link to the related site.
[Insert screen shot: Source list from the “A Traveller’s Guide to Tap Water” infographic]
Paraphrasing and Quoting
So then when is it more appropriate to paraphrase (put the content of someone else’s ideas
into your own language), than to quote someone’s words as they said/wrote them? The basic
rule of thumb is to think about what point you’re making, and whether it’s best illustrated or
supported with an explanation, or whether it matters how someone has said something.
Use paraphrase when…
• The content you want to incorporate into your composition is more factual or data
based (you don’t need to directly quote someone else’s presentation of statistics, for
instance).
• You want to maintain the flow of your own piece. Too many “undigested” quotes
makes a piece feel choppy. Plus, it creates the impression of laziness on the composer’s
part: “well, I’ll just let someone else go ahead and say this.”
• You want to incorporate only information that’s relevant to the topic of your
composition (you can also mix paraphrase and quoting).
16. Use direct quotations when…
• It’s important that you capture how someone has said something – if you’re introducing
a contentious idea, for instance.
o But Professor Smedley argues that trees are not actually a species separate from
humans. “It’s time for us to open our eyes and embrace our green leafy
brothers,” he said in a recent press release.
• Someone phrases an idea in a really interesting or unique way.
o “A foolish consistency,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson memorably said in his essay
“Self-Reliance,” “is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
• It’s a difficult concept, and you’re planning to analyze it immediately following.
o But one of the most central concepts in Heidegger’s thinking is that of
Zuhandenheit, or “ready-to-hand.”
• You want to introduce a unique or important word or phrase.
o Wolverines, or what the Blackfeet Indians called “skunk bears,” live in several
states across the northwestern U.S.
Usually, incorporating sources involves a mix of quoting and paraphrasing: for instance, you
might quote a somewhat complicated or difficult passage, and then explain it “in other words.”
Or you can paraphrase part of what the author is saying and quote only the important bits.
Example:
Dr. John Bonbon, the curator of the new exhibit “Kangaroos in Glass,” first conceived
of the idea when he realized that the world associated kangaroos with dirty creatures
who bound through the forest or get into “kangaroo boxing matches,” which are filmed
and uploaded to YouTube by curious bystanders. It was his intention to highlight
kangaroo’s more elegant characteristics. “These animals are really quite graceful, even
delicate,” he explains in the exhibit brochure. “I wanted to show that they’re more than
just silly, goofy creatures with pouches and big tails.” The exhibit features life-sized
sculptures of kangaroos composed in transparent materials from glass to glycerin.
Remember that you don’t need to quote entire paragraphs or even sentences – in fact, in
general you should aim to quote as little of the text as possible in order to convey your point.
In other words, for most compositions, you have a responsibility to your readers/viewers/etc. to
control the flow of the piece, so your voice should be dominant.
Also remember that when you incorporate both paraphrase and direct quotes, you can’t just
plop them in your composition willy-nilly. The reader is using your voice as a guide, so if
suddenly someone else starts talking with no introduction, it can be abrupt and rather jarring
(not to mention confusing – the reader will ask “who’s talking here?”). To smoothly incorporate
quotations, use signal phrases. A list of the most common is included below:
17. • In her article “….”, X argues that…[this can be followed by either a direct quote or a
paraphrase]. You can replace “argues” (depending on what the passage is doing) with
any of these words: comments, writes, says, puts it,
• According to X, “…”
• X articulates the issue as…
Exercise/For Discussion
Read the following (made up) passages. Then use them to practice paraphrasing and quoting:
Passage A, Passage B
a. Imagine that you need to tell your neighbor what it says. Read the first passage carefully,
while your neighbor reads the other one. You can jot down a brief paraphrase, using only your
own words. Then tell your neighbor what the passage says. Afterwards, you and your neighbor
should check the passage to see if you were able to paraphrase accurately and in your own
words. Then listen as your neighbor does the same thing.
b. Imagine that you’re writing a research paper critiquing ideas like those contained in either
Passage A or Passage B above. Write a single paragraph doing this, using a mix of paraphrase
and direct quote (You can make up any position you like – the important thing is to practice
using the source.)
c. Using the signal phrases on pp XX above, write four sentences that incorporate partial direct
quotes.
Avoid Plagiarism of all Sorts
“Plagia-phrasing” or Mosaic Plagiarism
Incorporating Sources into Visual and Multimodal Compositions
Creative Commons Licenses
Assignment: Write a “Critical Conversation” Essay
Task
Using at least 20 sources, write an essay on your topic that summarizes and synthesizes the
current variety of understanding, uses, and feelings about your topic. The audience for the
essay will be your instructor and classmates.
Assignment Goals
• To gain facility in interacting with (i.e., taking notes on, keeping track of, and
organizing) many different sources on a topic.
• To practice identifying the key arguments and points of written texts.
18. • To gain a much deeper understanding of the public dimensions of your topic: why and
how it’s significant to people other than yourself.
• To practice logically organizing ideas, using topic sentences and smooth transitions.
Preparatory Steps
1. See pp XX-XX earlier in this chapter to help you generate initial research questions and
keywords, and to keep track of the sources you find.
2. Begin grouping your sources into different lines of thinking about your topic. You might use
these questions to help you do this:
What is the basic history or background on the topic?
Who talks about this thing, and who is it important to?
What are the common themes that characterize discussions of the topic?
What sorts of arguments have been made about it?
What is at stake in the topic – that is, how do people understand its cultural significance?
Why/how is it important?
You can use a graphic matrix to organize your sources and thinking on the topic:
-include example of graphic matrix organizer
Writing the Essay
Each exploratory essay will shape up a little differently depending on the topic, but just keep in
mind that you’re developing for yourself, in a formal way, an understanding of the scope of this
topic beyond your own personal interest in it. So a typical writing structure might look
something like this:
1. The introduction will set the context and “hook” the reader by introducing your topic,
making a case for why this topic is worth exploring, and stating your research question(s) (i.e.,
what you wanted to discover as a result of doing the research and why you are interested in the
topic – a good research question for this paper would be “What is the broader cultural
significance of X topic, and what are some typical themes and arguments that characterize
discussions of it?”). Your introduction should also help forecast what’s in the paper: you can
provide an overview of the types of sources you cite in the body of the paper, and outline the
structure of your paper.
2. The body of the paper will answer your research questions. It logically leads the reader
through the questions above (though perhaps not in that particular order). Though you’ll be
citing a great many sources, the body of your paper won’t be organized by individual source,
but by patterns of theme and/or question (use the questions above as a guide).
3. The conclusion will situate your own personal feelings on the topic within the broader
context that you established in your paper.