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.