Final Presentation / Portfolio

Your final presentation will be on Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 3 - 5 in our regular classroom. You will be presenting the research you've compiled for your final paper, due at the final. This should not be a simple restatement of what you've said in your paper. Rather, it should reflect the key points of your research. Your presentation should be 3 - 5 minutes long, and should include the following elements.

1. Rhetorical situation: introduce us to the subject you've researched

2. Summary: explain your stance, including information on the opposing viewpoint

3. Analysis: describe how you've used rhetoric in your argument; conduct a mini-rhetorical analysis on your own work to describe how you've attempted to be rhetorically effective in your communication.

4. Synthesis: describe how you've synthesized your research-- that is, how you've put together the elements of your various sources to create a cohesive whole. How did you go about conducting your research?

You should also be sure to include visual elements in your presentation, whether that be in the form of pictures, video, Powerpoint, etc. Remember, your peers will be critiquing the rhetorical effectiveness of your presentation, so employ all of your rhetorical skills!

Also due the 15th, at the beginning of the final, are your final Research Paper and Unit Portfolio. Your portfolio should include the following elements.

1. Cover Letter (instructions below)

2. Final Research Paper

3. Printed, annotated sources (only those cited in the paper)

4. Blog assignments

5. Brainstorming activity

6. Outline

7. Rough Draft

**For your final cover letter, please answer the following questions in-depth, and in essay format. Your reflection should be 2 pages, double spaced, with correct MLA formatting. This includes both heading information AND a running head in the top right corner of each page.

How do the contents of this portfolio demonstrate what you've learned this semester? Discuss elements of summary, analysis, and synthesis.

What activities, whether in-class or homework assignments, did you feel were most beneficial to strengthening your understanding of, and proficiency in, writing rhetorically? Why? What activities were most helpful in strengthening your understanding of summary, analysis, and synthesis? Why?

Discuss how you feel your writing has developed over the course of the semester. Use your initial reflection paper on your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, which came in with your first unit portfolio, to determine areas in which you've progressed.

How do you feel the skills you've learned this semester will be beneficial in the future? Be specific in describing individual skills.

What are your future goals as a writer?

Homework for 11/29

Due to the overwhelming number of students who will be leaving town before class, we’ll be doing a few online assignments. I think it may actually be easier for you to understand if you have this word-for-word lesson / assignment than if we had done it in class, so please refer to the next few posts often. Below, you’ll notice several sections ALL of which deal with your homework for Nov. 29. Please read the lessons, instructions, and complete the assignments by that day. You’ll need to come prepared that day with your MLA formatted research, outline, and rough draft research paper.

Your first online assignment will be to dive into your research. Remember, your topic should be arguable and narrowed to focus on a specific aspect or argument feeding into a larger issue. Look for promising sources on the sites we discussed in class (the library website, google scholar, etc.) and focus on finding sites with URLs including .org, .gov, .edu. This will increase the likelihood that you're getting scholarly sources. Once you have found several sources, begin putting together your annotated bibliography. For more information on the content and formatting of this document, refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/. Remember, you will be required to have 4 – 5 sources. 

**THERE ARE SEVERAL RESOURCES FOR YOU ON BLACKBOARD! COURSE MATERIALS > SYNTHESIS / RESEARCH UNIT

MLA Formatting

REMEMBER…

Generally speaking, there are three ways to integrate sources into a research paper – summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting.  First, it is important to understand the difference between these three things:

SUMMARY – A relatively brief objective account, in your own words, of the main ideas in a source or a source passage.

PARAPHRASE – A restatement, in your own words, of a passage of text.  Its structure reflects (but does not copy) the structure of the source passage, and may be roughly the same length as the passage, but does not use exact wording. 

QUOTE – Using the exact words of a source. 

àYou will want to summarize and paraphrase most often in your research paper, using direct quotes sparingly.  Putting source material in your own words shows readers that you have a true understanding of that material.  Also, to restate in your own words the full meaning of a phrase or passage helps readers understand difficult, complex, jargon-riddled or ambiguous passages.  Such passages, if quoted, will still require extensive explanation in order to be understood.

SUMMARY - To write a summary or paraphrase, first read and reread your source until you understand exactly what it is saying. Write down the relevant information from the source. At this point you may still be using phrasing and language from the source. So next, rewrite this information into your own words and sentences so it becomes a coherent part of your paper written in your own style.
Remember, do not include your own ideas or commentary in the body of the summary or paraphrase. You should introduce a summary or paraphrase, then give your own ideas that show the significance of that summary or paraphrase afterward. You don't want your reader to become confused about which information is yours and which is the source's. And you always have to document summaries and paraphrases since the ideas are not your own.

DIRECT QUOTES

1. Always have a good reason for using a direct quote.  Otherwise, paraphrase or summarize.

2. Do not allow quotes to speak for themselves.  Your research paper is ultimately about communicating YOUR IDEAS.  Your research simply helps prove or support those ideas.  So, you should not just string other peoples ideas together giving quote after quote.

3. Always make sure you provide an analysis of the quote.  Show your readers that you understand how the quote relates to your ideas by analyzing its significance. 

4. Do not use quotes as padding.  This is related to tips 1, 2 and 3.  Very long quotes will require long explanations of their significance.  If quotes do not have adequate analysis, readers will feel that you don’t have a grasp on what that quote means, and they also might feel that you are using quotes as “filler” to take up space. 

Outline

OUTLINE

Your next assignment is to create an outline that you can follow as you begin to draft your paper. This outline should include your basic plan as far as what you’ll discuss in your paper. This should be in roman numeral format as discussed, and should be as in-depth as possible, including quotes, paraphrases, and summaries from each of your sources. This outline will be due hard copy in class on Wednesday. Remember, this can outline can evolve as your research progresses.

EXAMPLE OUTLINE

I. Intro Paragraph

            A. You can begin your paper with a quote, an interesting fact, etc.

Anything to get the attention of your audience.

            B. Thesis Statement

                        1. This is an opportunity to answer your research question. For

example, “Do dog owners enjoy better health than people without pets?” could be translated in a thesis statement to say “Research shows that dog owners enjoy better health than individuals without pets. This is due to A, B, and C.”

II. Body Paragraph #1: This will deal with example A of your thesis statement.

            A. This is where you begin giving me your information, trying to convince

me to agree with your original thesis statement.

            B. Give me some quotes, paraphrases, and summaries thoughout this and

other body paragraphs! Prove what you’re saying! But remember, you’re the

expert… you’re only using your sources to BACK YOU UP!

*See the Rough Draft section below for a good example of what should be in an intro paragraph and body paragraph.

Research Paper Draft

RESEARCH PAPER DRAFT

Sample Research Paper Intro

Music has become one of the central aspects of society in the United States. It is ever-present in our day to day routines. With the rise of new technology of gadgets such as iPods/mp3 players and the more convenient mp3 file formatting, adolescents and young adults especially have made music more centralized in their everyday lifestyles. Because of vast amounts of storage space, it is certain that teens and young adults have thousands upon thousands of mp3 files varying in different genres of music and artists. Many popular music artists of today have two common factors which have been recognized as having a negative effect on adolescents and young adults. Sex and violence are two key factors found in multiple forms of media entertainment, but significantly in music and music videos. Because of these two factors, the rising generation has become more accustomed to the ideas of sex and violence as a norm in society that happens on a regular basis. Exposure to these two factors can lead to arousals of certain thoughts and emotions or changes in emotions, behaviors, and even actions. Sexual and violent content are portrayed as a current popular fad in music and music videos, when in reality both are highly obscene, highly addictive, and can lead to multiple life altering changes.

Sample Research Paper Body Paragraph

The lyrics in the average hit or popular song of today contains either sexuality or violence, or even both. Most times a song captures one’s attention because of its catchy tune, not because of its lyrics. If a small child has the potential to memorize a few little tunes and nursery rhymes, teenagers and young adults have the potential of memorizing hundreds of songs as they become familiar with songs. When singing the lyrics to a song, many teens or young adults don’t realize the degrading meaning of the lyrics or don’t even realize the words which they are even singing (States Lyrics 12).

*** Keep in mind, this is a student example and not necessarily perfect. However, this paragraph is a good demonstration of a summary of info from one of this student's sources. Note that although it's not a direct quote, it's still cited.

Homework for 11/ 15

For Monday, you need to narrow your list of potential issue questions from 10 down to 3. This means you need to determine which 3 of your questions you feel the most strongly about, and are most interested in researching. Once you have chosen your research questions, you'll actually begin... RESEARCH!

The best resource you have is the UVU library's website: http://www.uvu.edu/library/ If you haven't done the library tutorial, do it!! It will be helpful to you as you begin. You can search for articles, books, and media in the right hand column.

For online searches, one of the best resources you have is http://scholar.google.com For this, and any other online search, you simply need to determine a few key words or phrases to search. If you enter your full issue question, you may not get many sources back. Often, if you can't access the actual article you want, you can find it via the library's website.

Finally, you can search at the library itself. Intimidating, I know, but remember that you're required to have at least one source hard copy from the library, so consider beginning your research there.

Remember, your sources need to be somewhat neutral, covering information on both sides of the issue (pros and cons). If it's completely slanted one way or the other, it won't work for the purpose of this assignment.

For each of the 3 sources you find, please find the following information.
A. The issue question
   1. Title
   2. Author
   3. Date Published (must be within the past 10 years)
   4. 1 paragraph (6 - 8 sentence) summary of the article
   5. 1 paragraph (6 - 8 sentences) discussion of how you could use the article to prove your issue   
   question - which side do you feel you lean toward?

Do this 3 times, once for each of the three issue questions. This should be typed, printed, and ready to turn in Monday.

Homework for 11/10

Your homework for Wednesday is to come up with 5 more issue questions to guide your research in this unit (this will complete the list of 5 you came up with in class Monday, for a total of 10). Review your list of 20 potential issue topics (which was due Monday) and choose 5 that interest you. Connect each of these 5 to an element in society. This can be ethics, law, business, health, technology, religion, etc. Find a way to connect these two so as to determine how your issue impacts (or is impacted by) the societal element you're connecting it with. For example:


Issue Topic: dogs
Societal Element: health
Research Question: Do dog owners enjoy better health than those without pets?


Follow this same organization for all 5 of the questions you come up with (those who weren't in class Monday need to come up with a list of 10, those who were there, bring all that you've come up with). Remember, your research question should NOT have a stance yet (pro or con) but should be answerable with either yes or no. After you've conducted some research over the next few weeks, you can determine your stance based on what you've discovered in your research.This should be typed and printed, ready for class Wednesday.



The second part of your assignment is to complete a portion of the online library tutorial. This can be accessed at http://www.uvu.edu/library/  Tutorials are in the left column under Quick Links (7th item down the list).Complete Parts 1, 2 and 3, as well as Creating a Topic and the Complete Tour. Refer to the image below to find where on the page these can be accessed.