Course Description

English 203 focuses on primary and secondary research methods. The goal of this course is to prepare you for a major in professional writing by bolstering your ability to generate relevant data, locate quality sources, evaluate previous research, and contextualize and present your findings. All of these skills should help our ultimate goal: to produce thoughtful arguments on pressing issues.

As you will encounter in our readings, this course stresses the following core values:

• Curiosity: to learn more, to discover why�or why not, to follow up on questions, to ask new questions, to wonder
• Interest in detail: to document everything, to work methodically, to check facts, and to discern among facts, theories, hypotheses, and opinions
• Ability to see trends: to envision the future, to anticipate needs, and to take the next step
• Awareness of audience: to understand needs and expectations, to empathize, to assist, and to plan what needs to be done next
• Critical thinking: to look as objectively as possible, to verify, to support, to analyze, to criticize, to evaluate, and to think logically
• Innovative thinking: to look as creatively as possible, to try something new, to try something different, and to make connections among ideas
• High ethical standards: to expect logical, honest, and collaborative work from yourself and others; to credit others� work; and to conduct safe and appropriate research
  (Porter and Coggin qtd by Bay)

Course Texts

• Booth, Wayne C., Joseph M. Williams, and Gregory G. Colomb. The Craft of Research. On sale at Border's on the Levee. Chicago: U Chicago Press, 2003.
• Tapscott, Dan and Anthony Williams. Wikinomics. New York: Penguin, 2006. [Purchase Online]
• Coursepack will be available at Copymat

Course Projects

Annotation Project
This project will familiarize you with a major journal from our field. Time table: weeks 1-4. Deliverable: A 6 source, MLA formatted annotated bibliography focused on a single journal dedicated to Professional Writing research. Additionally, you will compose a 3-5 page paper that characterizes the journal's research interests.

Primary Research Project
For the primary research project, you will plan and construct materials for a research question of your choice. Due to issues with human subjects protocols and our limited time frame, you will not actually conduct the research. The idea is to prepare you for this kind of research later in your career. Time Table: Weeks 4-8. Deliverables [three of four]: Focus group, Survey/Questionnaire, Interview, Usability.

Reliability Check: Assessing the Nature Article on Wikipedia and Britannica (Part One)
For the first segment of this project, you will work in groups of four to assess the accuracy of both wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Groups will be responsible for:

• Identifying contrasts between the wikipedia and britannica entries
• Researching core issues with their subject to assess both publications' coverage

Timeline: weeks 8-14. Deliverables: Each group will create a 40-50 source annotated bibliography accompanied by a whitepaper of 8-10 pages detailing their findings.

Reliability Check: Assessing the Nature Article on Wikipedia and Britannica (Part Two)
The final project will ask groups to construct a 15-20 minute presentation proposing alterations to the wikipedia entry. Timeline: weeks 15-16.

Expectations

• Stay Informed: As I will be traveling frequently, it will be upon you to check this blog everyday for my posts and to check your email daily. I will post revisions to assignments and general advice, along with handouts and supplementary materials. Be on the look out. When you have a question--please, please, please, post it to your blog.
• Attendance: I prioritize attendance and thus will only allow you to miss three class sessions over the course of the semester. If a serious medical issue or family emergency arises, it is imperative that you contact me as soon as possible.
• Class Participation: I will often hold discussions in lieu of reading quizzes (I will resort to quizzes only if class conversations suffer). If we have reading homework, I expect you to come to class ready to: a) discuss the purpose of the reading, b) share your favorite passage of the reading, c) ask specific, meaningful questions.
• Group Work: Professional Writing is rarely an isolated activity. Thus, half of our projects this semester will be group projects. I expect everyone to contribute to the success of their groups. Groups are encouraged to come to me early if someone is slacking.
• Multi-tasking: This is a computer lab. Duh. But it is also a classroom and a collection of motivated individuals. Please respect the pedagogical atmosphere and resist typing and surfing while we're talking. To help with this expectation, I am going to forbid anyone from sitting in the back of the room.

I am looking forward to an engaging and productive semester.