Research Process

Start Here:
1. Research to learn more about your topic. Develop background info. Build expertise.
For this paper: Establish the trend
Your topic is broad. Example: Immigration

Use:
*CQ Researcher
*Subject Encyclopedia/Handbooks (IE: Handbook of Immigration)
*Books (introductions/conclusions) / Newspapers
*Google (only to sift through to get to better sources).

Go Here:
2. Focus your topic. Example: There has been an increase in illegal immigration from Mexico the the U.S. (I have defined my terms).
Find specific articles from academics and other credible sources to use as evidence in your paper.
Use:
*Academic Search Premier
*Journal Databases
*Reference Librarians (the reference desk in the library)

For this paper: FOCUS ON CAUSES. CAUSES, NOT EFFECTS.

Causes->Trends
Trend: Economic Collapse in the U.S.
Causes: Unregulated Financial Products; Mortgage crash; greed

For paper find 5-10 academic sources

Thurs. 3/19

REMEMBER: Class will be held in the following locations.

ENGL. 121-05 8:30-9:45 Auraria Library Rm 245
ENGL. 121-17 11:30--12:45 Auraria Library Rm 245
ENGL. 121-13 1:00--2:15 Writing Center (SO rm 142) Room E.

See you there.

Tuesday

DON'T FORGET MEET IN AURARIA LIBRARY

Due: Topic Proposal. Use pages 485 - 488 in the The St. Martin's Guide To Writing to develop some trends you are interested in. Use page 489 for help in establishing some of the causes of those trends.

Pick 3 to 4 of them and propose them to me, listing both the trend you are interested in and several causes of them.

ALSO...if you forgot to hand in your Analyzing Writing Strategies questions from the Goode and Saporito articles, please turn them in on Tues. (For those of you that are still confused about this: After each article is a section entitled "Analyzing Writing Strategies." This section asks you to engage the text and answer two or three questions about it. When I write on the board that I want you to answer these questions, what I am looking for you to do is ANSWER THEM. I don't see what is confusing about this, so if you are still having trouble please come talk to me).

Good Trend Links

From the St. Martin's Guide Website.

Check it out.

The Trend Paper

ENG 121: Essay 3—Speculating About Causes
Write an essay exploring the causes behind a current trend in American society. The essay should contain an opening paragraph which introduces this trend to the readers and offers a thesis forecasting the direction of your essay. The body of the paper should develop two or three main causes, or categories of causes, which examine both "surface" (obvious/practical/necessary) causes for the trend and "underlying" (less obvious/sociological/psychological) causes. When exploring causes, you must take into account a reason for the increase in whatever issue you’re looking into. For example, sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) among teens may be caused by teens having unprotected sex. However, this does not explain why more teens have STD’s now than 10 years ago. A look at changing attitudes about casual sex or a decline in parental supervision, though, might help explain why more teens are engaging in unsafe sex
Each of the main causes you give should be developed in a paragraph using evidence in the form of examples, facts & figures, anecdotes, etc. While it will be important to discuss a variety of possible causes, it will also be important to finally focus on a particular cause which you would like to explore in some depth. You may choose this primary focus because you think it is the most important cause or simply because it is of particular interest to you.
Your analysis of this trend must be supported by limited research. You must include a minimum of two researched sources in your paper that should come from the Auraria library databases. We will go to the library as a class and learn about research, so use those techniques to develop your paper. Researched sources may include books, magazines, newspapers, personal interviews, and reference materials (i.e., encyclopedias, statistical abstracts, etc.). Online sources are only acceptable if they come from a credible source (ie it must end in .gov, etc). Other online sources WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. All sources must be documented. Format for in-text citations and Works Cited page will be based upon MLA style, as discussed in Ch. 22 of The St. Martin's Guide to Writing and the MLA section of A Writer’s Reference.
The final draft must be accompanied by an outline
Your essay will be evaluated upon the following criteria:
• Appropriate introduction which sufficiently establishes the topic and ends with a clear, strong thesis
• A clearly established trend, either in the introduction or in a body paragraph, depending on the topic
• Body section exploring a variety of possible causes
• Body section exploring one particular cause in some depth
• Proper and effective use of researched information
• A complex discussion of the topic appropriate for an academic paper
• Correctly formatted Works Cited page
• Effective use of transitions between paragraphs
• Careful editing for mechanical errors
• Appropriate conclusion

Requirements: 3-5 pages, typed, MLA format including Works Cited page. Keep all brainstorming materials, drafts, peer comments, outline and other materials, including print outs of your research.

Example Outline Format:
I. Intro
A. Background establishing (naming/describing) the trend
B. Thesis: “X is a trend because of A, B & C” or
“We are seeing more and more of X because of...”

II. First Possible Cause (summarize in topic sentence)
(e.g., “One reason for the increase in X is...”)
A. Supporting details/evidence/examples
III. Second Possible Cause (summarize in topic sentence)
A. Supporting details/evidence/examples
IV. Third Possible Cause/Primary Cause (summarize in topic sentence)
A. Supporting details/evidence/examples
V. Brief Conclusion

Trend Topic Ideas (these are just ideas to get you thinking, not fully developed topics):
• Spots: Increased in doping in sports; Increased technology; Increased pay
• Well being: Increased speed in everything we do. Multitasking, instant gratification,
• Food: Global and local. We live in a global world, but more and more people are calling for local food; Fast food culture; Famous food personalities;
• Global politics: China’s emergence as a superpower; Shipping jobs overseas; terrorism
• Money: Failing economies (overpaid CEOs, Fed. Bailouts, housing foreclosures, failing banks, food stamps); the growth of the income gap; struggling to stay in the middle class
• Green living: (and the Green movement in general), alternative fuels, lifestyles, etc.
• Education: Rising tuition; alternative high schools, charter schools, community colleges
• Fashion: Fast fashion; “low-riding”???; hip vs. classic
• Rights: Gay marriage, more gays on television sit-coms;
• Youth: technology; STDs and drug use; financial independence; stress
• Family and Relationships: Divorce; working parents
• Technology: Octomom and in-vitro, Ipods and cell phones, social networking
• “Reality” television; Failing newspapers, more blogs.
• Music: Hick hop, Mp3 and the dying major record labels, MySpace,
Use the Pew Research Center to find ideas: www.pewtrusts.org

Essay Two: The Profile

Important Dates:

2/24 Due: Topic Proposal
3/3 Due: Rough Draft (3 copies to group).
3/3 Due: Interview/Observation notes (to Instructor)
3/5 In-Class Workshop Due; End Comments to group (2 copies of each)
3/10 DUE: Profile Essay (Revised. Manila folder with: Final, workshop

Assignment Description:
Write an essay about an intriguing person, place, or activity in your community. Observe your subject closely, and then present what you have learned in a way that both informs and engages readers.

From Axelrod and Cooper, “A profile is an informative and entertaining report based on a writer’s firsthand observations and interviews…It asks students to rely not on their memories or books they’ve read, but on their abilities to attend to what they see and hear” (bedfordstmartins.com). Profiles take the familiar and show its unique and exotic character. Profiles take the exotic and introduce it to us in a manner that makes it more familiar.

For the Narrative Essay, you relied on your memories of events and your ability to narrate those memories so that the reader lived through them with you and was thus allowed to consider something larger (at your bequest) from this experience. In the Profile Essay, however, you won’t use memory, but your own primary research to compile the necessary information to present an essay that invites the reader to see your subject in a new way. A good profile reveals feelings, exposes attitudes, and captures habits and mannerisms. The finished story should be as entertaining as it is informative.

To this end, this assignment will require that you perform at least one (probably more like two) detailed observation/interview (or both).

Seek out unusual/interesting activities, people, or places and AVOID topics with which you are overly familiar (e.g., the summer job they you had for the last four years, your apartment, etc.). Unless otherwise approved by me, relatives, your house, your dog, your boyfr./girlfr., your workplace, etc. are off limits. If you have limited transportation please consider choosing a subject from the campus community (ie an organization, the cleaning personnel, etc.). Two problems with selecting a profile topic are those of accessibility and security. Subjects that may sound exciting in theory may not be possible or appropriate in practice: A doctor or scientist may not be available for interviews; a military installation or a nuclear power plant may be off-limits to the general public. Similarly, you should only explore topics that will NOT jeopardize your safety.

In summary, for this project you will:
A) Conduct an interview/observation (Ch. 20) of a person, place, group, etc.
B) From that observation/interview prepare a cleanly written, two-to-five page, interesting profile of your subject.

Ideas:
A hospital waiting room, an American Legion hall, a great/quirky restaurant, someone who lived through the Great Depression, a midnight basketball league, a soup kitchen, an online “reality” like Second Life, something interesting in your community, someone interesting in your community.

NOTE: DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS OF THIS CLASS it is imperative that you chose a subject for this essay as soon as possible and schedule an interview or observation.

Requirements:
2-5 pages, Typed, MLA format, Work’s Cited (if necessary).

ENGL 121 Narrative Essay Peer Review/Revision Guidelines

Subject• The essay does not meet the criteria for an event essay, but seems more like a personal essay, reflection essay, or some other type of writing.
• The topic is too broad (“my childhood,” “our championship season”).
• The event does not seem important to the writer.
• The essay either trivializes a major event or overstates a minor one (this second case can be effective if handled humorously).

Narrative Structure of the Event
• The event sprawls over too much time or space.
• The event is not clearly framed for the reader; it should begin or end at another point.
• The narrative drags in places, or skips over important episodes too quickly.
• The narrative lacks dramatic tension or suspense.
• The dialogue is undramatic and uninteresting; it does not move the action forward.

Anecdotes and Scenes• They are either too brief or much too extended.
• They do not seem to relate well to the event, or are poorly chosen or badly framed.
• The essay lacks telling details to build a dominant impression.
• The writer has not selected relevant details, or includes too many trivial, irrelevant ones.
• People do not seem believable in their actions or dialogue.

Significance to the Writer• There is no apparent significance, stated or implied.
• The significance is heavy-handed, inflated, oversimplified, or sentimentalized; the writer moralizes about the event.
• The essay is not very thoughtful in exploring the event’s significance; the writer may come off as a hero or a blameless victim.
• The essay does not give the reader a vivid impression of the writer.

Language
• What language problems do you repeat. Use pages 60-61 to help.