HUM 102: Reading and Research

Overview: This is a course in reading and research, with an emphasis on what is often called the "universe of discourse." This term refers to the patterns of communication used in the various groups (or "discourse communities") in which researchers and specialists of all sorts work to obtain and present information about the knowable world.

In this course, you will be concerned with how to find and understand scholarly information, and how to talk about it in your own work. This will involve considering:

• what questions and issues are studied in different academic disciplines
• how information is organized for different fields and different audiences
• what overlap there is between the work of scholars and researchers in different fields

Text: Reaching Across the Curriculum, Thury and Drott (T&D)

Requirements: Your grade in the course will be based on:

Summary	15%
Analysis	15%
Contrastive Analysis	15%
Account of your Research Process	15%
Notebook	30%
Attendance/Class Participation	10%

Computer Use: To aid in your reading and understanding of research, you will perform a variety of activities and exercises on the computer. It is not necessary for you to have your own computer to participate in this class, or to have a high level of profiency in computer use. Training will be provided as you go through your normal class activities.

However, this class does require you to:

• use your email account.
• access materials on the WWW.
• produce and use a floppy disk with all of your current work for this class. The disk should have your name on it.
• keep a backup of your work at home. A backup merans a copy on a floppy disk in addition to the copy on your hard drive. Computer problems happen to everyone. They are not acceptable excuses for losing all your work.

Due Dates: Papers are due in my mailbox by 5: 00 PM of the date specified below if you are in class that day. Otherwise, papers are due at the beginning of class on the specified day.

Late Papers: may be penalized by lowered grades. Note that in order for you to receive a grade for any paper, you will have to complete all the assignments leading up to the finished version.

Attendance: Because class discussion constitutes an integral part of the course and has direct bearing on writing assignments, you are expected to attend class regularly. If you do not, you willl not be considered to have satisfied the course's requirements, even if you turn in acceptable work in the other assignments.

Drafts: All drafts of all papers will be worked on in in-class peer-review sessions. Failure to participate in peer review sessions (both as an author and as a discussant) will result in a lowered grade for the course. Your first draft must be handed in with your final version, and the comments of your group. Final drafts must be typed.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas as your own without acknowledging the source with proper documentation. For further discussion, see T & D, Chapter 3. Also helpful is the discussion of notetaking and paraphrasing, HH, pp. 270-286. Plagiarism will result in failure of the assignment and the course. As a major focus of this course is to help you use sources appropriately, we will work on and discuss plagiarism. If you have any questions at any time about proper use of sources, please speak to me.

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day (always 1 hour before class)
1	Jan. 5	None; Introduction to Course	None
	Jan. 7	Critical Thinking Web Site Browse Sites on Information Literacy before Class (spend at least half an hour): How to do Research Standards Positions	NB: Research log on Critical Thinking Web Site

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
2	Jan. 12	T&D, Chapter 1, "Student Readers and Academic Research" (turn briefly to chapter 3, p. 2 for the figure missing from p. 6) T & D, Fishkin excerpt and reviews (T&D Readings, #1, 2, 5, 6, 7) Browse Site before Class: Ebonics Class discussion: Mental maps	NB: Research log on Fishkin & Fishkin reviews: wherever possible, make connections between sources, or parts of sources.
	Jan. 14	T & D, "Research in the Arts & Humanities" T&D, Chapter 2, "Reading Tools: How to Read Academic Research" Browse Site before Class: Steps in the Research Process	NB: Response to readings

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
3	Jan. 19	T & D, "Research in Science and Technology" Library Visit: bring your student ID. Meet in Reference Section of Hagerty Library Atrium (under trees) (latecomers: L-13)	NB: What topics are you considering for your research paper? What kinds of information do you expect to find in the library? Base your discussion on T & D readings so far
	Jan. 21	Allman and Wagner (T&D, Reading #8) Mental Maps Library Familiarization Exercise due in class	NB: Research log on Allman and Wagner

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
4	Jan. 26	T&D, Chapter 3, "The Fundamentals of Summary Writing" How to Use the Penn Library	NB: Research log on your source(s) [NOT on what you went through to find them!]
	Jan. 28	T&D, Chapter 4, "Writing a Summary of an Academic Source"	NB: Research log on your source(s)

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
5	Feb. 2	Bogen (T&D, Reading #11)	NB: Research log on your source(s)
	Feb. 4	Writers' Workshop on Summary	NB: discuss your reading process for the summary

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
6	Feb. 9	Vrba (T&D, Reading #10)	Summary Due: submit paper with photocopy of source NB: Research log on Vrba
	Feb. 11	T & D, Chapter 5, "The Critical Review and Comparison" "The Search for our Ancestors," (T&D, Reading #9)	NB: Research log on your source(s)

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
7	Feb. 16	T & D, Chapter 5, "The Critical Review and Comparison" review Fishkin material from T&D	NB: Research log on your source(s)
	Feb. 18	Browse Sites before Class: MLA Style of Documenting Sources APA Style of Documenting Sources	NB: Research log on your source(s)

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
8	Feb. 23		NB: discuss your reading process for the analysis
	Feb. 25	Writers' Workshop on Analysis	NB: Your response to the course so far Analysis Due: submit paper with photocopy of source

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
9	March 2	Browse back through the text, looking at the things you have read for this course. Connor (T&D, Reading #12) Eyewitness Testimony and the Paranormal	NB: look back at your notebooks and discuss patterns of research and reading throughout the term
	March 4	In class comparison of articles on UFO's. Read 2 or more of the following: REPORT OF AIR FORCE RESEARCH REGARDING THE"ROSWELL INCIDENT" The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul UFO Mythology: The Escape to Oblivion Alien Abductions  / UFOs Look for other sites you think are worth discussing and email them to the class. See also: Psy 208 Cool Web Sites	No notebook due today: two notebooks due for the next class (March 9).

Wk	Date	Reading Due That Day/Activity	Writing Due That Day
10	March 9	Writers' Workshop on Contrastive Analysis	NB: discuss your reading process for the contrastive analysis NB: Discuss what you have learned about academic writing by researching your topic
	March 11	Santino (T&D, Reading #14)	NB: Research log on Santino Contrastive Analysis Due submit paper with photocopy of sources
Exam Week	March 15	Checklist for Research Process Paper Use the checklist on your own to review your paper, or find people work with you using the checklist to review and revise your paper. Research Process Paper Due

Notebooks A notebook entry is due one hour before each class. That is, you are to make two entries a week in a notebook. The notebook is to have these characteristics:

1. It will be kept on the computer. It should be kept in a separate folder.
2. There should be at least 600 words (2 screens) per entry.
3. Each entry should start with the day and date. Example: 1/6/98
4. You will need to post your journal entry to me each day, by class time.
5. Notebook entries are not formal essays; they can be written in a casual style, but they must make sense. The grade will focus on the effort you have put into the entries, not on the grammatical correctness of the entries.

ENTRIES should be of two types:

1. Response statements to what you have read.
2. Research logs.

Please note that I will not be looking at your entries as right or wrong. I do want you to use the notebook effectively and to make regular entries each week.

When you write a response statement, you need to address the questions below. You may not address every question in every response statement, but you should in your responses, address all the questions regularly.

In the first part of your response statement, you need to discuss the particular effect the text had on you. In the second part, you need to explore the reasons why you think the text had that effect. Finally, you need to consider what your response tells you about yourself as a reader.

Response statements are not formal essays; they can be written in a casual style (but they must make sense!).

1. What is the initial effect of the text on you? confusion, suspense, interest, boredom, amusement, terror, etc. Expand as much as possible.
2. Why do you think the text had this effect? To answer this you should examine:
   1. The nature of the text: subject matter, language, structure, use of familiar/unfamiliar conventions, organization, etc.
   2. The nature of the reader: Did you have prior knowledge of or expectations about the text or about this topic or this academic area in general? What were you reading patterns ? Did you have knowledge/lack of knowledge about particular academic conventions? Did you have knowledge/lack of knowledge about the subject matter? Etc.
3. What does your response tell you about yourself? About your style of reading, about assumptions you hold regarding your topic and our society?

A research log is a narrative of your research process. In addition, you can use this log to develop ideas, propose theories, respond to, reject, revise your conception of the topic you're investigating.

The components of a research log are a narrative and a response. These are explained briefly below. For an extensive series of examples, see T&D, Chapter 2.

Traditionally, a two-column format is used for such a log. However, the text-only format of email makes this difficult. Therefore, your research log should consist of narrative-response pairs; a narrative section should be followed by a corresponding response section. You will need to use headings, as follows:

Narrative:

(your narrative)

Response:

(your corresponding response)

 

Narrative:

(your narrative)

Response:

(your corresponding response)

etc.

A research log consists of two components, repeated over and over, until you run out of points to comment on, or until you have met the length limit (whichever comes first!):

• A narrative that describes a piece of information you found, briefly summarized(for later reference, give the name of the source and the page number). A narrative should not summarize the whole article or chapter. It should discuss one point, argument or issue that you think is interesting or important, not the whole work.
• A response that explains your reaction to what you found. This section should not spend much time on venting frustration, but should rather be discussing the connections you are making between points, and how your idea/conception of the subject you are investigating is growing or changing as you do your research.

Papers

Student Tools for Papers

Topics: Your work for this course will involve work on a topic you research in the library. You are expected to find sources by means of both computer indexes and indexes found in bound volumes in the Reference Section of Hagerty Library. Each student will pick a different topic. Your topic must be approved by me.

All of your assignments should be on sources that are on the same topic.

Suggestions:

• Look through your text for articles on topics that interest you.
• Study the effect of violence in (one of the) the media, the nature of mental illness (this is too broad and needs to be limited, for instance, to psychopaths), suicide: its causes or effects, serial killers, etc.

Summary (Top)

Write a 2-page summary of one source obtained on your topic. The source needs to be an article from a journal, not a book or a chapter in a book. Turn in a photocopy of the source with the summary.

Analysis (Top)

Write a 2-page analysis of one source obtained on your topic. The source needs to be an article from a journal, not a book or a chapter in a book. Turn in a photocopy of the source with the analysis.

Contrastive Analysis (Top)

Write a 2-page contrastive analysis of two sources obtained on your topic. The sources need to be articles from journals, not a book or a chapter in a book. If you like, contrast a popular source with an academic one. If you do this, please follow the following rules:

• Your two sources must be on exactly the same topic, not on similar or related topics. Of course, the popular source is likely to be broader, as Allman and Wagner is broader than Vrba. However, they are on the same topic, evolution and climate.
• Your thesis must be about the content, not the different styles of writing. In other words, don't just write a paper whose thesis is "sources for different audiences sure are different."
• You are welcome in your paper to talk about how the two sources presented their information in different ways, but you should be showing something about the topic as well as the audience.

Turn in a photocopy of the sources with the contrastive analysis.

Account of your Research Process (Top)

This paper requires you to analyze your own research process. This assignment is a form of problem analysis, the "problem" being your own research process. In order for you to do this analysis, you need to consider your research process.

The paper should be based on the research logs you will keep in your notebook all term.

To complete this assignment appropriately, please note the following guidelines.

1. You need to focus on specific topics. Your analysis cannot be a rambling (or even coherent) account of how you researched a paper, from beginning to end. Be sure to provide a thesis sentence which you then defend in the paper.
2. Your analysis should be focused on 2 or 3 critical issues relating to your research process. These issues could be aspects of your research process that are particularly interesting or problematic.
3. You need to use specific evidence to support your assertions/claims about your research process. Specific evidence will primarily mean observations recorded in your notebook.

Note: I do not want you just to list the steps in your research process.

I want you to:

• analyze the steps in your research process
• identify their central features
• identify problems and successes associated with your research
• provide evidence to support the claims you are making
• organize your findings in some coherent/meaningful fashion