In Unit 1, you did some preliminary research on your topic and now, in Unit 2, you've narrowed it down to a research question. As we've discussed, however, research questions need to be divided into smaller, manageable questions.
- Purpose: For this assignment, you will find two sources that each work to answer questions you have--and that help you move towards an answer for your research question. You will provide a summary of each and then write a reflection guided by the questions provided below with the goal of helping you and your reader better understand your next steps in developing your larger research project. Your task is to persuade your instructor and classmates that you are exploring effectively, demonstrating intellectual curiosity, reading rhetorically and with an open mind. You will want to show that you are learning something new about your topic with each post and you will ultimately want to show how the process of writing this blog has impacted your understanding of the issue and of the focus of your research project.
- Audience: Your instructor and classmates
- Genre: The genre you are writing in is a blog. Please see the assignment introduction page for more details.
- Skills learned/practiced: source selection, rhetorical analysis, summary, synthesis
Note: You'll also want to revise your post so that it is well written and easy to follow. Keep in mind that while each blog might seem like a small task, these blogs together make up a paper/project grade and have a significant impact on your final grade in this course. Therefore, please make sure that you are answering all the questions in the blogs, revising your answers so that they are well-written, and posting reliable sources (not unreliable sources or "fake news").
Step 1:
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 2:
A. Write your research question at the top of the post.
B. Do some research on the library webpageLinks to an external site. or on Google or Google Scholar until you find sources that a) answer your questions in a way you can understand and b) help you understand the large conversation better. (We did this during class time).
Step 3:
- Post a link to each of your two sources.
- Then, below each link, include a rhetorical summary with each one of your sources.
- Write out one quote from each source that seems significant to you AFTER your rhetorical summary.
Remember: Think of your blogs as polished written texts with your instructor and classmates as the audience. You want to persuade your instructor that you are exploring effectively by demonstrating intellectual curiosity, rhetorical reading and an open mind. You will want to show that you are learning something new about your topic with each new blog post, and will ultimately want to show how the process has impacted your understanding of the issue and the focus of your research project. You'll also want to revise your post so that it is well written and easy to follow.
Step 4:
Reflect on your next steps. After you’ve answered the questions above for each of those sources, post a summary of what you feel you understand about your topic, what you are confused about, what questions you still have. You should also discuss:
- What questions do you have now that you did not have before? What might you want to research next?
- What do you understand (overall) about your research question and its potential answers? What aspect of the topic are you most interested in? You will have to start narrowing your research to a smaller sub-topic or question within your general topic. What ideas do you have for this narrowed focus? You might think about the article you've found most interesting or what major questions, problem or possible solution, you've found most interesting so far.
- If you were going to explain this topic to someone, what are the parts you would be less confident explaining?
Submit both the link to your google doc and a PDF version of your research log.