Check-in (5-10 min)

How’s it going? Everything is due by May 24. Today is April 12. Let’s talk through the best we can do between now and then.

 

Reflective Annotated Bibliography and Organizing Ideas (10-15 min)

In the Blankenship reading for today, she mentions Stephen Toulmin’s model for argumentation:

• Claim. The point the writer is making.
• Grounds. The reasons that support the point (i.e., evidence).
• Lines of Argument. The combination of the Claim and Grounds
• Qualifier. How the writer talks about the degree of confidence in their claim. In other words, they concede about parts they are not sure of (can be intellectually honest and build your credibility, especially if audience is genuine in their interest–bad faith audience may seize on qualifiers and use them to undermine you).
• Rebuttal. Addressing arguments against your claim (related to qualifier but is your response to things you are qualifying).

To organize your ideas and develop them in depth, you need to do research. You need to find “grounds.”

To help with organizing your thoughts along with sources you find, we are going to do an an assignment called the Reflective Annotated Bibliography.

Let’s go through the prompt together. Go to Blackboard>Submit Assignments>Process Writing>Reflective Annotated Bibliography.

I also have an example of a Reflective Annotated Bibliography with some comments.

 

 

 

Research Question and Academic Discipline (15-20 min)

I’ll give you feedback on your research questions as I get them.

There are different kinds of intellectual work that gets done at a university. And there are definitely a few different ways of categorizing them, but here is one way we are going to test out:

• Humanities: using methods of criticism or interpretive analysis as well as historical research that thinks about questions of human activity and culture. The humanities make room for questions that are deeply reliant on contextual circumstances that are difficult to observe on a grand scale. E.g., English, History, Philosophy, Cultural Studies.
• Natural Sciences: using observation and experimentation in quantitative and qualitative ways to measure and attempt to understand things that happen naturally like the ways bees pollinate vegetation or how matter changes state. E.g., Biology, Chemistry, Physics.
• Social Sciences: using quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g., experimental, observational) that resemble methods in natural sciences to study human activity and culture. E.g., Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology.
• Technology and Formal Sciences: Disciplines that focus on abstract systems or heavily technical stuff (admittedly, this is kind of a mish-mash of stuff). Logic, mathematics, computer science, etc. all focus on high abstraction for systems to think with. E.g., Engineering, Computer Science, Logic, Mathematics.
• Arts: Art makes knowledge! Writing a play, using graffiti, making a film, etc. Any arts can also be a way of thinking in the university. E.g., Graphic Design, Photography, Fiction or Nonfiction Writing, Filmmaking)

I’m curious about the spread of research questions that we have for class. On this Google doc, post your research question in the category of academic disciplines that you think best fits your research question.

If Google Docs is STILL not working, just write your question in our text channel for today along with what disciplinary categories you think it falls into.

You can draw from multiple areas! Interdisciplinarity is good! But it is also nice to think about where your “home” is for a given research question you have. Will help ground what secondary sources you uncover or even any primary sources you analyze (and how you analyze them).

 

Documentation Style (20-30 min)

Different kinds of academic disciplines have different kinds of values and priorities. And we see this even with how information is cited! That’s why there are several different kinds of documentation styles.

In this activity, we are going to figure out what those values might be based on the requirements in certain documentation styles.

In groups, you will be assigned one of four possible documentation styles (there are more, but here are 4 of the big ones–IEEE is another big one, for instance):

• APA
• Chicago
• CSE
• MLA

For your group, note the following on this webpage from the UW-Madison Writing Center page on the right menu bar:

• Tense of verbs introducing source information for in-text citation: past or present? (e.g., “Foucault argues that…” or “Haraway theorized that…”)
• What information is prioritized in in-text citation? (e.g., year, page number, paraphrase of information, summary, direct quote)
• What is the method for in-text citation (when the source is mentioned when writing)? (e.g., parentheses when source is mentioned in sentence, parentheses at end of sentence, footnote, endnote)
• What information is prioritized in reference list? Think about what comes in the first three to four positions in most reference list entries (e.g., name of author or authors, year, title of work, journal, pages, publisher)
• Think about how the information is formatted in the reference list (e.g., first name included or just initials for author in reference list? how is the reference ordered–alphabetical, order in which source appears in text, chronological, etc.?)
• Is there any flexibility involved in how you can cite things, format the reference list, etc.? If so, what?
• What other formatting is required? (e.g., title page structure and information included, where and how page numbers appear, headings, tables, figures)
• Note any “tips” that stood out to you from the handout you clicked on for in-text citations or for the reference list (or for anything else).

As you hunt for this information as a group, make sure a group member is writing down what you notice about your documentation style in this Google Doc! Take about 10 minutes to work this out.

If Google Docs is STILL not working, just elect a group member to post in our text channel for today and mention the documentation style you focused on.

Okay, let’s look at what each group wrote up. After comparing your documentation style to the notes the other three groups took on their documentation style, take about 2-3 minutes to do some individual writing to respond to the following questions:

• Why does your documentation style have this verb tense, or this information prioritized, or this method of expressing a citation? What advantages or disadvantages are there to this?
• Which disciplines (e.g., humanities, physical sciences, social sciences, history, English, engineering) do you think would benefit from your documentation style? Why?

After you had some time to think about this, we will take 5-10 minutes to discuss your thoughts.

Think more about your research question, the kinds of scholars you are going to engage, and the right documentation style that would work best for you and your research.

 

Next Time (2-5 min)

-Research Question if you didn’t send it (due today)

-Learning Module 8 (due this week)

-Rhetorical Analysis (if you did not send first draft, get it done soon so I can give feedback. For second draft, get done by end of term)

-Reflective Annotated Bibliography due April 21