Phone: 357-5913; 349-6564 (Home) Mail: Leonard 110

Bruce Ballenger. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. NY: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

Paula Rothenberg. Race, Class, and Gender in The United States. 4th ed. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

an email account

a pocket folder for your research journal AND looseleaf paper to do the journal writing on. (You want to be able to move pages around as you work on different aspects of your project and sometimes you'll hand in only certain pages. So a spiral-bound notebook doesn't work as well.)

Some other kind of binder or folder to keet ALL your returned papers in.

(Accidents happen: you want a paper trail of all your work)

money for xeroxing of forms, your drafts (for your small group and me), sometimes material on reserve (we're under severe budget restraints!).

NOTE: if you want another Internet guide, a handy one is Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger's Online! : A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Research Writing is a required Liberal Studies-English course. In this course, students learn to choose a research problem, issue or question and to do different kinds of research in order to write a correctly documented-,interesting and factual piece that is substantial and compelling. Students will work extensively in groups and will often work on their own. A lot of work is done outside of class.

This course can be a lot more enjoyable than the description above might suggest. You'll research a topic of your choice; you'll also present what you've learned in a more creative format that you choose after writing a more traditional paper. In college and later in your career, "research" means saying something significant, taking part in a written "conversation" about an issue, drawing not only on your knowledge and experience, but finding and considering what others have to say. You'll be urged not just to find information but to take control of the material, to think about it in ways you never have before, and to keep your own perspective and "voice" in sharing the truths you find. In short, this is a course about how exciting it can be to learn about what you want and to share the knowledge in ways that make sense to you as well as to your audience.

In practical terms, you'll learn how to use the library and the Internet, journals and other academic sources, interviews, even stories or films or poems, your own memory, tv and newspapers. You'll learn how to do fundamental procedures like summarizing, synthesizing, creating an annotated bibliography, documenting sources correctly, using quotations.

We'll begin by exploring issues of race, class, and gender in the United States from a variety of viewpoints. Some of our readings may surprise or even anger you, but I think you'll find them interesting and a helpful springboard to finding a topic that you want to explore.

As you choose and investigate your topic, you'll be asked to record and share your growing knowledge in several ways. You'll keep a detailed research journal, construct an annotated bibliography, write a "bookless draft," and write a traditional research paper. Then we'll experiment with other options for sharing what you've found with a specific audience of your choice: a written presentation (poetry, drama, fiction or nonfiction), oral presentation, media presentation (photography, video, art or a web site or Hyptertext construct) or some combination of these.

Research journal 20 points

Annotated Bibliography 15 points

Bookless draft of your research paper 15 points

Research paper (in more than one draft) 25 points

Creative project and presentation 25 points

Class participation (includes group conferences and 3 required visits to The Writing Center) 20 points

Total: 120 points. A = 109-120 points; B = 97-108 points; C = 85-96 points;

D = 73-84 points; F = below 72 points.

There is no final exam, but you will have to attend the final exam for some of the presentations.

You'll be responsible for keeping a critical thinking research journal. In this journal, you'll write responses to the readings, work through exercises in The Curious Researcher, do source evaluations, take notes, document sources, record questions, odd ideas, plans for the various assignments. In short, the journal will demonstrate your ongoing planning, thinking, and drafting of the papers and/or presentations. It will be your treasure trove, your sounding board, your "exploratorium" -- the history of your life in this course!

There is almost no lecture time in this course. It functions by collaborative work in small groups, large group discussion, and your individual work on assignments. Everyone has to participate: this isn't a class you can just hang out or sleep in. When I assess your participation, I consider whether you come to class or group conferences prepared (you do the readings, think about them, and bring the relevant texts with you); whether your drafts or exercises are done, with copies provided when necessary); whether you speak helpfully and thoughtfully in discussions and conferences; whether you meet your-of-class responsibilities. If you talk a lot without having really done or thought about the reading, you won't get a good participation grade. If you do not have a full draft or copies on workshop days, you'll be marked absent.

Finally, because so much of this course is group work or practical work, you MUST attend class. Do not underestimate how important this is. You may have TWO absences with no effect on your grade. That's TWO, period, NOT 2 plus "excused absences." On your third absence, your final grade for the course will drop one full letter grade; the highest possible grade will be B. On the 4th absence it drops another letter grade, on the 5th absence another letter; on the 6th absence you fail the course. There may be an opportunity to make up one, depending on the kind of class you missed; on very rare occasions I might excuse an absence after 2. So please use those 2 absences carefully! Most students get sick or stressed or have commuting problems later in the semester, and you may need these "freebies" then. If your course load or work schedule is likely to be a problem, you need to take the course another time. Conferences, library tours, and the final exam period count as classes.

Attendance also means coming to class on time. It's disrespectful of your classmates and wastes their time if your come late. If you're more than 5 minutes late, you're absent for that day. If you're consistently late (but not more than 5 minutes), it will affect your participation grade.

Late assignments: Any written assignment is due in class on the date given. I won't accept any paper or assignment that doesn't come in the assigned format, with all the required materials (these vary with the assignment). If the paper isn't given to me in class, it's late. Late papers drop by half a letter grade for each day late. So if something is due on Friday morning, but you put it in my box or under my door on Friday afternoon or Sat., I don't get it till Monday: so it's 3 days late. If you have an unavoidable emergency on a due date, you must contact me on or before the due date to see IF I'll agree to some other arrangement.

Plagiarism: As all the billboards you see about DUI say: YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT! This is a serious issue these days; as you may have read in the newspaper or new magazines, even experienced and famous journalists are being fired for appropriating other people's work without citation or for making up evidence.

Think of ideas or striking ways to say something as property, like your stereo, clothes, or car. Is someone took or used your things without permission, you'd probably be upset, maybe enough to press charges. The academic community feels the same way about ideas and words, so there are serious consequences for borrowing those without acknowledging whose they are. We'll talk about what plagiarism is and work on exercises to help you avoid doing it unintentionally. If I suspect that you have plagiarized on any assignment, the burden of proving that you didn't will be on you: that is, you'll need to bring me your sources, research journal writing, drafts, etc. If I think that you've done it unintentionally, I'll give you an F on the assignment and let you revise it (but there will be a late penalty). If I think you have intentionally plagiarized, I will take whatever action seems appropriate and is allowed by the university. This can range from an F on the assignment to an F for the course to expulsion. So as I said: you can't afford it! I hope that you'll be so interested in the topic you choose and what you can do with it, that you won't be tempted.

This is tentative and incomplete. It covers only the first 4 weeks while we wait to find out when we can do library tours. But later versions will also be tentative. Reading journal assignments will usually be made in class in order to fit issues and questions that come up. We'll also find that we need to add written exercises, shift deadlines or readings, spend more time researching out of class, etc.

This means that (1) you need to have the syllabus in class with you every day and (2) if you are late or absent, you MUST check with someone in your group about changes or additions. Whatever is listed next to a date is what is due on that day.

It's really important to read ahead on the schedule so that you can keep a calendar of due dates AND notes to yourself, like "start drafting summary for Friday."

Tues. Introduction to the course

Wed. Writing Sample

Fri. DISCUSS: "Ah, Ya Throw Like A Girl" (46) and "Rethinking Women's Biology" (32)

WRITE (in the Research Journal): about the 10 best and worst things about being a woman or a man (whichever you are)

Mon. LABOR DAY, NO CLASS

Wed. DISCUSS: "White Privilege" (165) and "The Problem" (135)

WRITE: about what the central ideas are in these readings? Do you agree with the ideas in "White Privilege? Why or why not?

Fri. 1) DISCUSS Ballenger 23-31 and "Death of A Teen" (175)

2) how to summarize an article

Mon. DISCUSS "Class in America" (202); more work on summaries

CHOOSE any essay in Rothenberg to summarize

Wed. DISCUSS "The Wage Gap" and other articles, pp. 234-48

Fri. Article summary due; group work in class on seeking possible topics

Mon. DISCUSS "The Circuit" (288) and "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" (23).

WRITE a personal response (research journal) which draws both on your own knowledge and experience and on any of the reading you've done so far in the course.

Wed. DISCUSS "Suicide" (308) and "The Pursuit of Happiness" (310)