List of blogs for process writing & data/analysis

As you can see from the blogs listed below, it is not really possible to "make up" some of these posts.  At the same time, late posts tcreated in the process of finishing your project which contribute to the quality and depth of the project will receive back credit with a max of 8/10).


Process Writing
Blog 24: Post your draft so far (also send it to the course email as an attachment)
Blog 23: Post your conclusion
Blog 20:  Post a statement of the focus for your essay (what you hope to show) followed by sections of your data + your analysis where you make a series of points related to that focus
Blog 19: post drafty writing for your introduction (the more writing you post, the more feedback I can offer) 
Blog 16: Revised research plan with notes for me in terms of what kind of support you need (look at blog 4.1)
Blog 10: Write, describe, speculate about some cultural stories/Conversations associated with your focus for your research project.  Give it a shot - even if you aren't sure, put it out there and we will see where we are.
Blog 8: After working through the steps on the worksheet for the research plan, write up your research plan in terms of the following points.

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover)

Detailed statement of your research question

List of the information you need to gather

A preliminary list of sources

Plan for gathering your information that includes:

·         who/what you will be studying (for example:. students in a College Composition class, how they think about the comments teachers write on their papers)

·         where you will collect your information (for example:. in interviews at Kean University)

·         how many subjects you will study (for example:. 3)

what methods you will use to conduct your study (for example:. interviews, textual analysis, discourse analysis)
Blog 1:  Post some writing which will give me an idea of what you are interested in researching. 

Data & Analysis
Blog 18: analytic memos for the data posted for blog 17

Blog 17: data you plan to analyze, dig deeper into, for your research paper

Blog 13: Analyze stories/excerpts from your transcript.  Select and post sections of your interview transcript which you might use to make a point in your essay. (you might need to listen to your recording to fill in words/make sure you have them right for these stories).   In this post, include:

•  the story/section  from your transcript = with your mark up like we did in class
•  some writing about the way language is used, the story features, or the discourses (stereotypes, cultural stories) the excerpt illustrates or connects to
• a statement of what you might use the excerpt to "show" with respect to a focus of your paper.

Blog 12: post your transcript

Blog 11: Final/revised interview protocolBlog 9:  Interview protocol for your projectBlog 6:  In class we talked about the differences among a topic, a focus, and the particular research quesstions you might ask as you conduct your research.  Each of you are in a different place in terms of developing your project - but where every you are - write into your material as far as you can go in terms of your topic, the specific focus you want to take to that topic, and (if possible) what in particular you want to find out within that focus = what you want to do in your study (your research questions = what you will ask about your data).  The more you write - the more we have to work with.

Depends what you worked on:

Blog 22: What you worked on in class
Blog 21: Whatever you worked on in class

4.29 How to turn in your final research papers, and presentations

We spent the first part of class talking through how we would assign credit for your work for the term.  I noted that there was probably a third of the class who, for one reason or another, had was unable to keep up with the posts for the blog.

I also pointed out that in order to receive credit for the data analysis (150 points)  and the writing process (150 points) portions of the research project, you would need to include links to the blogs where that work was done.  We then scanned back through the course blog and noted the blog posts which would count as credit for data analysis  And for writing process.  You need to include links to those posts in the email you send to turn in your project (as an attachment).  See post 4.29 List of writing process + data analysis posts.

SO.  We noted that while late posters should not be entitled to full credit by turning in these posts late, at the same time, it did not seem fair for them to get no credit towards the turned in blog post.  We agreed that late posters had the possibilty of earning a max of 8 out of the 10 points for late work turned in with the research project.  For those of you who have made other arrangements with me, I will honor whatever agreement we made.


I will be writing back to you with comments on your projects just as quickly as I can turn them around.
What we will do for the rest of the semester:
Thursday, we will hear from:  Melanie, John, Amanda, Nagerrah, Ariana, and Sara
Tuesday, we will hear from: David, Adrian, Jess, Florie, Melissa and Brenda
Final Projects are due May 8, as an attachment, with links to all blogs with process writing and writing associated with data + analysis.

4.24 Reviewing your writing so far in light of the assignment sheet + rubric

We started class with a review of the rubric - writing a list on the board to re-state the expectations for this project.

audience: writing to the correct audience includes your language choice (lexis), discourse (the way you use language/shape your sentences); how you establish your authority, and the genre moves you use to create the overall form of your essay.

For this essay, the audience is other writing studies researhcers, your should authorize your claims through references to other researchers and the analysis of your data; you should present your data using the "sandwich method"= introduce/set up the example (state what you will show through this example), present the example/data; then point back to the data & discuss how it shows what you said it shows);  use the CARS form for your intro; and use the language moves we have pointed out through the semester in the sample research essays.

Content: we have discussed the content for each of the major sections: intro (CARS + lit review+ methods => this is flexible, the particular form will depend on your particular topic); presentation of data and analysis; and a conclusion (see last blog post).

Focus: needs to be connected to writing studies, the focus should be set up in the introduction and developed through the literature review; the discussion and analysis should make a series of points =each of which is related back to the focus; and the conclusion should sum up and pull together the focus set up in the intro in light of the findings presented in the discussion/analysis.

Organization: this includes organization on multiple levels. In our discussion this semester we have considered the organization of the overall paper, the organization of a series of paragraphs for the presentation of data, the organization of individual paragraphs where you make a single point,  and the overall sequence of your points.

Development:  as we discussed in class when we developed the rubric and when we looked at the sample essays, development should include sufficeint discussion as well as the right kind of discussion.  There should be specific examples to illustrate the points made with respect to the focus.

After discussing these features, you looked over your writing so far, and asked me questions about/worked on your drafts.

For next class:
You will be giving presentations on your drafts.  Holly, Melanie, Briana, and Amanda have volunteered so check out their drafts posted on their blogs sometime before class.

Blog 24: Post your draft so far (also send it to the course email as an attachment)

Good work today!   Have a great weekend and see you next week.  You are almost there!

4.22 Conclusions!

You looked through the conclusions to the three sample essays, and noticed the "moves" the writers made.  We listed these moves as the following.

Connection to focus set up in the introduction
Connected to the "niche" identified in the introduction
Described the importance of the study
Elaborated/restated the findings with respect to the focus/niche
Identified limitations of the study
Set forward ideas for future research

We then noticed that while each of the essays made most of the moves - they did not do them in the same order, and sometimes not even in the same section.  At the same time, we agreed that all three conclusions were clear and well written.

We took the last couple minuted to review what we will be doing for the rest of the term.  Check back to this post.  You are almost there!

For next class
Blog 23: Post your conclusion   Refer to the points we noted in class today and see what you can do.  Even if you don't have all the language - at least you can map out what you will say.

We will start class by reviewing the assignment sheet and the rubric (one more time), and then you will workshop whatever writing you have so far in terms of what you have left to do.    Thursday's class is meant to put you in a strong position for finishing up your draft and posting it/turning it in for Tuesday, Apr. 29.  

1. Thanks for your good work today (even though I was held up at a meeting).  See you next class!

4.17 Overall form for your essay + workshop!

We spent the first part of class talking through the moves you want to make (and how much space you want to devote to making them) in writing up your research project.  This is not a formula, and different projects will devote slightly different amounts of space/writing to the different moves, so don't get too regimented about this.  At the same time, this is a reasonable overall description of how writing studies research essays are organized


Introduction = some version of Swales CARS moves
In class, you talked through some of the specific language you would move to Establish a territory (provide context, background, identify your area).
See Swales handout for the particulars.  And I hope you wrote down what you said in class - all of it was great!

At this point we mentioned that in establishing your niche you could either mention the research you are connecting to briefly - or in detail.  And that in occupying your niche, you could either describe your methods in brief or in detail.

If you choose the "in detail" approach, you have rolled the intro-lit review-methods" sections into one.  If you choose the in brief approach, you will probably have separate headings for the Literature Review & the Methods sections, and develop your detailed discussions there.

In the literature review=> you do not summarize/provide an overview of the entire article.  Refer to points from the context, findings and methods that are relevant to your study.  They may be relevant because:
your research reproduces the context/findings/methods in the study you are discussing
your research differs from the context/findings/methods in the study you are discussing

This section of your essay should account for about two to two and a half pages for a 7-10 page paper.

Presentation/discussion of data.  We have been practicing how to write this section all term.  From the puzzle, through the jokes, through analyzing transcripts => to all those analytic memos where you pulled sections out of your transcript and  named what you saw, and wrote about what it meant.
I asked many of you to talk about some of your data in class today - and it sounds like you have the idea how to do this. Look back at your short analysis essay=> there should be some pointers on how to go deeper/what to develop in the comments.

You probably want to make 3 or more solid, in-depth points about what your data shows.

• Set up your data by saying what it shows.
• Present the data (an excerpt from your transcript)
• Point back to your data by naming and identifing and discussing the sections that are important to your point.  Describe how the data shows/means what you say it shows/means. 
• Relate this finding (what your data shows) back to your focus

For this essay, the presentation, analysis, and discussion of data should be the longest section by far (about 60%+)

Conclusion.  In this section (about 10% of the total length) you sum up your findings and develop a little more discussion about what - when taken all together - they show about your focus (what your research "shows" => the answer to your research question); note any drawbacks or limitations to your study, and discuss where future researchers might go in light of your findings=> what questions are still out there? how can researchers build on your study?

Blog 22: What you worked on in class

As we agreed in class - I will look through what you posted to your blog this week (Blogs 21 & 22) on Monday and Tuesday = so you will have my comments to work with in class.  That means your post should be up by Sunday night or early Monday AM.

Good class today - see you next week.  You will be working on writing your conclusions.

4.15 Workshop!

At this point, you should be up to date on your blogs and any writing in terms of feedback.

I talked with most of you one-on-one on where-ever-you-are - and the blog post for Thursday is to post whatever writing you did in class.  Although it said on the blog we would work on analytic memos, the conferences were about introductions, literature reviews, stating the focus, how to develop the essays points and relate them back to the focus - and many other things.  I was pleased with the good work you are doing, and will write back to your posts on the weekend.

For next class, we will go through the overall form of the essay, referring back to the rubric and the sample essays, so you have a clear idea of the moves you should make and what to do in each.  We will then have another workshop.  Come to class with questions about what you need support/instruction on.

Good class today!

Blog 21: Whatever you worked on in class

Calendar for the rest of the term

April 15
In-class workshop on data-so-far or whatever you need to work on
Writing analytic memos
Blog 21:  post whatever you worked on in class today

April 17
Presentations on data/analysis so far
In-class workshop on what ever section you are working on
Blog 22: Post what you worked on in class (or any section you want feedback on)

April 22
In-class workshop on conclusions
Blog 23: Post your conclusion

April 24 
Group workshop: Use the rubric to identify what you have left to work on
Create schedule for presentations on your projects
Blog 24: Complete draft
Send your complete draft to the course email as an attachment

April 29 DUE: Complete draft for research project
In-class presentations on research projects

May 1
In-class presentations on research projects

May 6: Draft essays returned with comments
In-class presentations on research projects

May 8
Project evaluations/ reflections on course