Reminders for Personal Conference #2 and Class #8

[Breaking News] Office Hour Availability: I know things have been moving pretty fast lately, so if anyone wants to have some office hours time next week I will be available on campus at the following times:
-Monday 11/7... after 3:00 but please call or email if you plan to visit because if nobody's around I'll just go home! 4:00, going home :)
-Tuesday 11/8... anytime between 12:00 - 6:00 but please call or email first as I may be on the other side of campus 

Remaining Classes: Please note the changes here.
-Class #8 will meet on Monday, 11/28 from 4:30-7:10 in Enterprise 420.
-Class #9 will meet on Wednesday, 12/7 from 4:10-6:50 in Enterprise 420.

-Alternate meeting for Class #9 is on Wednesday, 12/7 from 7:20-10:00 in Enterprise 174.

Personal Conference: I will post a sign-up sheet on Google Docs sometime next week and notify you by email. The likely dates are Monday 11/14, Tuesday 11/15, Friday 11/18, and Monday 11/21. But I will work to accommodate your schedule. 

Reading Assignments:

-Craft of Research chapters 14-16. 

-You may also find it helpful to review They Say I Say chapters 7, 8, and 10.

Small Writing Assignments: 

-Research Log #7 is the anonymous mid-term evaluation given in class this week. If you were absent from class, the survey is here.
-Research Log #8 is an "anything goes" blog entry that you should complete prior to your personal conference... I see it serving as an ice-breaker.

Big Writing Assignments: 

-If you haven't completed the annotated bibliography (10 entries), the background literature review (1st draft), or the methodology (1st draft), those take priority.
-The deadline to expand your annotated bibliography to 25 sources is Wednesday night 11/2. (15 for creative projects.) This assignment will be graded.
-The deadline for revising/expanding your background literature review is Monday night 11/7.
-We will then add two further pieces as we continue to work our way to a completed proposal. The deadline for both of these will be Sunday night 11/13 at 8pm.
-The first addition is a section that is officially known in the BIS program as the "evidence" section (for investigative projects) or the "technique" section (for creative projects). I prefer to think of it as a hypothesis and outline section, because I feel calling it anything else is really premature. The main function it serves is to help you create a mental plan for what is going to go in the main body of your essay next semester once you start carrying out your research methodology. So my requirement is a 2-4 sentence (hypo)thesis and then a 3-6 roman number or bullet point outline of potential ideas, sections, or arguments. Remember, this will be the content that follows your background literature review and methodology section, so no need to duplicate those. For creative projects, I would suggest this deadline as an opportunity to rewrite your separate technique section or the more technical elements of your methodology section.
-The second addition is a project timeline. The starting date should be "12/21 - proposal approved" and the ending date should be "5/9 - final presentation." All the dates in between are yours to determine according to the needs of your project. (Note that that approval date is very pessimistic and it will probably come much earlier. And that the presentation date is more of a ballpark estimate.)

Mark Your Calendar: BIS 490 fall capstone presentations will be held in the Johnson Center's 3rd Floor Meeting Rooms on Thursday, December 15, 2011, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., with refreshments to follow. Attendance is strongly recommended for 390 students.

Reminders for Class #7

The next two classes (10/31 and 11/14) will also meet in the computer lab in Enterprise 420. 

Reading: 

-Read Craft of Research chapters 7-10 and 12-13.
-If your research methods will include interviews, surveys, or behavioral observation, click here to read this short article by Kim Eby. 
 -If you still feel unclear about what a scholarly source is, this brief handout might be helpful. 

Writing: 

-Obviously if I don't have your annotated bibliography (10 sources) and background literature review, those are absolute priorities at this point.
-Write the first draft of your methodology section by Sunday night Oct. 30th. Here are the sample methodologies we reviewed in class: A, B, C. Also remember to post your comment about one of the sample methodologies by Thursday Oct. 27th.

-Expand your annotated bibliography to 25 sources by Wednesday night Nov. 2nd (15 for "creative" projects). You can use the same format and just add to what you already have. Note for fair warning: according to the syllabus this is the point at which I will grade the annotated bibliography.

-The corresponding revision to the background literature review will be due on Monday night Nov. 7th.

That Crazy Movie About the Physics Dissertation: is here.

Reminders for Personal Conferences and Class #6

Class will not meet again until Monday 10/24. Here are some additional resources on primary vs. secondary sources and scholarly vs. popular sources, as promised. Jamie from Wednesday passed along another site you might find helpful.

Personal Conferences: Make sure you sign up for a time on the Google Doc I shared to you. The conference dates are 10/10, 10/11, 10/12, 10/17, and 10/19, but you should only sign up for one 20-minute slot. It's fine for you to sign up for one of the Wednesday slots if they fit your schedule better. Make sure the following are accessible in some manner to both of us during the conference: concept map, project description, annotated bibliography.

Reading Homework: Please read the sequels to our textbooks, Graff & Birkenstein's He Said / She Said and Booth et al.'s The Craft of Decorative Napkin-Folding. Just kidding, there's no reading homework. 

Random Google Docs note: They have apparently moved the "email collaborators" tab into the "File" menu.

Annotated Bibliography: Share me an A.B. with at least 10 entries. This needs to be done by the time of your conference meeting so we can take a look at it together. We will expand this to 25 entries by 10/30. Here is a sample of a pretty good A.B. from last year. As given today, the format is: 1) Bibliographic Citation for source according to the discipline-specific style standard you've selected. Then the annotation: 2) Thesis or main idea of source... WHAT is being argued. 3) Evidence or method of source... HOW is it being argued. 3) Audience of source... WHO are the readers it addresses. 4) Purpose of source... WHY is it written? What is the author trying to accomplish? These last four could be accomplished in 2-4 sentences. You can write more if it's helpful, but don't write a novel. 5) Is the source your "family," "friend," "enemy," or a "one-night-stand"? ("Strangers" and "help wanted" are important to classify but shouldn't be included in your annotated bibliography. Remember you will always reassess your sources, so even friends may become strangers. 6) What makes this source useful to you? 7) What are the limitations of the source, or reasons it might not be useful? 8) This source relates to one (or more) of your others sources how? Those last four could also be done in 2-4 sentences.

Background Literature Review: Share me your first draft of the Background Literature Review by Sunday 10/23 at 8:00 p.m. Remember, the Drafting an Investigative/Creative Proposal handout gives fairly specific instructions. The samples we looked at today are here. Naturally these first drafts cannot be complete because you need more time for research, but you can definitely make a good start.

Research Log #4: As previously assigned, please post a revised list of your 25 research questions by Friday 10/7. I want to make sure to get that in before the holiday weekend because it will guide you as you start doing your background literature research.
 
Research Log #5: During the Monday 10/3 class we did an exercise in which you discussed the types of sources that are commonly used in one/more of your disciplines, the standards of evidence or proof in one/more of your disciplines, and what critical thinking means in one/more of your disciplines... or answer for your partner as you arranged. Please follow up on this exercise and develop further for a blog post. Due by Thursday night 10/13.

Research Log #6: The topic should be the current status of your relationship with your faculty mentor, how you feel about that, etc. Most will want to do this blog post after corresponding with the mentor about their project description, so we'll let the deadline float to allow varying schedules. Let's say sometime before Thursday 10/20, but preferably sooner.