GSIAS English V (Tuesday)
2016.05.17
We continued plowing through the chapter on Conclusions today, finishing off on page 116. We will continue talking about Abstracts when we meet again and continue in Chapter 5, Structuring and Signposting.
Please remember also, we are also continuing expectations for wrapping up our papers. You should have it completed (final draft) and ready to present to the class orally (10-20 mins.) by May 31. Please bring an extra copy for me to read as you give your presentation. That means I would like to have a copy in my hands as you present your information to the class. Please do not come to class with only one paper that you need to use.
2016.04.26
Went through book part 1 through page 36 together, looking over tasks on Lit Reviews. Finished the session by handing back all bibliographies, annotated bibliographies, and research gap writing handed in earlier with comments/feedback/suggestions.
For next week, continue working on tasks in Chapter 2, Making Use of Source Materials, through page 68. Please complete Follow-up Task 3 on page 36, looking at two (or more) research papers with literature review sections for analysis. Also, please complete Task 1 on page 67, and bring in several commonly-used words as outlined in the task.
In addition, please bring a one-page proposal with you about your paper, which should be be completed May 24th. It should be a narrow enough topic to be manageable in 1,250-2,500 words, but ensuring it has a narrower focus than a dissertation does NOT mean that it is less powerful. While you don’t know everything about your paper at this point, your proposal should be a specific as possible about your thesis/research question so we can clearly tell where your research is headed.
2016.04.19
We all survived another GSIAS Tuesday writing class, and I hope it wasn't too painfully obvious that the instructor was jet-lagged plus.
We did the word, quote, and joke; then continued talking about research gaps and research question ideas. There were lots of good, but still somewhaat general and vague ideas, and not a lot of one-sentence, concise, arguments/theses being talked about. I’d like that to change. One of the goals of graduate school, and of theses and dissertations, may indeed be to research some big questions following a number of different trails. But in this class, I'd like to aim for a paper, more clearly connected throughout to some central thesis or point. Usually, that point is stronger if it can be stated in a simple sentence or two.
That doesn’t mean we are striving for stupidity, but we are trying for simplicity and clarity. For next week, try to focus your thoughts on gaps and questions to the one central point, idea, or argument that you will be trying to find evidence for or against in your paper for this class.
Also, go through the rest of the tasks through page 67 (I still need to assign specific tasks from the remaining pages). If you are looking for brownie points, come up with your own tasks and do them.
Thanks!
JBH
2016.04.05
In class, we went over Dissertation Writing in Practice (DWIP). I explained that DWIP is a recipe book that we will be using as we work in our research kitchen.
It is now time to start thinking about how we can combine elements of the several sources we have already looked at in class, and synthesize them as we work out a plan for building a research project/paper.
April 5th, we looked at the first section of DWIP through page 22, just getting started looking at the Literature Review. When we come back we will take it from there.
Assignment
Please get familiar with DWIP parts I and II, (through page 67) before we meet again Week 8. We will be continuing to talk about research writing in class. By “get familiar,” I mean pre-read, note questions for discussion, and complete tasks assigned on the pages before coming to class.
I would like everyone to have identified their research gap or research question before we meet next time. Please be ready to turn in a paper with as much detail as possible about your gap and/or question, as well as talk about them in class. No length requirement. It may just be a paragraph or two, but tell us what you are doing on paper as well as by word of mouth.
Also, please review what we talked about in the text during class and complete a few activities:
- Look at the language features of introductions pointed out on pages 15 through 19. Please bring in one or two examples from research in your field that show whether the comments in our text about conventions are accurate for our fields. Pay special attention to your examples in regards to the last step on page 18. Which is used in your example: future tense, present tense, or something else?
- In the examples you chose, what type of negative vocabulary is used to point to the gap in research that leads to your question? (as on page 18)
- In addition to the examples in the text, analyze at least one of your examples of research in your field using follow-up tasks 2 and 3 on page 36.
JBH
2016.03.29
W-Q-J
Continued going through How to Not Write Bad in class.
Next week’s plan.
- W-Q-J
- Annotations continued
- Go over Dissertation Writing in Practice (pre-read and be ready to discuss first chunk (pages 1-36) and Tasks 1.1-1.4)
- How to Not Write Bad finish (time permitting)
2016.03.22
W-Q-J
Went over How to Not Write Bad Part 2; to be continued next time
Chose groups of three students each to work on useful annotated bibliographies of our chosen articles for next time. We will talk about what you chose to include and why you chose to include it. Basic outline of annotated bibliographic requirements are linked here (http://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography).
For next week, expect to present Words, Quotes, and Jokes of the Day. We will move from there to the next part of How to Not Write Bad. After that, we will look at our reference entries and our annotated bibs. If time permits, we will also start looking at the next course text, Dissertation Writing in Practice. Expect to be assigned reading and homework for the following week from this second text for the course.
See you in class!
JBH
2016.03.15
-W-Q-J
-Talked for an hour or so about the first chunk of How to Not Write Bad (Intro and Part 1) –
we will go over Part 2 next time
-We paired up and selected one article per pair of students from each of last week’s four categories, then narrowed those down as a class to two articles/items per category.
This is what I received by email so far:
Falleti, Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Latin America 2010
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B24M1dM3PWEKXzBaRVV4MmN1T0E
"The Development of Multiculturalism Discourse and Multiculturalism Policy in South Korea: With a Focus on the Roles of Government and Civil Society". The journal was published in 2009 by Ewha Institute for Humanities.
| 한국문화_부분복사.pdf |
"World conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" in category 2.
this is UN's decalration and programme of action created in 2001.
http://www.un.org/WCAR/durban.pdf
this is UN's decalration and programme of action created in 2001.
http://www.un.org/WCAR/durban.pdf
UNESCO EFA 2000 - 2015. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B24M1dM3PWEKNjJjQlVYbUhuVGc
Source: TED.com
Author: Regina Hartley
Title: Why the best hire might not have the perfect resume
Weblink:
https://www.ted.com/talks/regina_hartley_why_the_best_hire_might_not_have_the_perfect_resume?language=en
Source: TED.com
Author: Reshma Saujani
Title: Teach girls bravery, not perfection
Weblink:
https://www.ted.com/talks/reshma_saujani_teach_girls_bravery_not_perfection?language=en#t-16671
Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Michael Porter, Mark Kramer
Title: Strategy & Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility
| magazine-harvard_business_review-m.porter.pdf |
While reviewing a web page from the library at American University in Washington, D.C., I learned that researchers in the field of International Studies may choose from four different bibliographic reference citation styles. For simplicity, I am going to suggest we stick with APA style in this class.
For next week, please prepare bibliographic reference citations for at least four of the eight sources we decided on in class.
Also, please read and begin analyzing and paraphrasing the two readings from the first category so we can discuss them in class. We will be moving on to paraphrase and summarize all the readings, as well as continuing work with How to Not Write Bad, before we move on to the other text. We will begin working with Dissertation Writing in Practice in the near future.
For information about how to cite references and prepare summarie or paraphrases, check the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.
Thanks,
JBH
2016.03.08
This is going to be a writing-based class.
For next week,
-Start at 9:15 with Word, Quote, and Joke
-Assigned students will go over the highlights of How to Not Write Bad through page 24.
-Students will work together but are responsible for bringing in one research source from each of four areas:
- Scholarly books and journals
- Government/Internat’l Organization/NGO publications & documents
- Interviews and speeches (video recording and transcript is best)
- Magazines, newspapers, books (popular/less scholarly but still worth using)
Please bring a paper copy of your four resources to class next week and be ready to explain their meaning and usefulness to the class. We are looking for sources that are useful, interesting, and that we can learn from as we work together to build annotated bibliographies, summaries, citations, and figure out how to use them in our research.
I detest “busy work.” But it is not useful to bring in a resource for this exercise that you have already analyzed and written about for another assignment. Please use something new for you and for your classmates to explore.
See you in class!
JBH
