| Office: Horizon Hall 4163 Office Hours: M 12N - 1:15 & T 1:30-2:45 Email dtaciuch |
Week 1 (Jan 23 – 29)
Lesson 1: Introduction to the course
Review the course syllabus and course schedule
Lesson 2: Finding conversations in your field – Academic and professional discourse communities
Read GMU Library Subject Guide for your field.
Watch Academic Disciplines - Social Sciences
Watch Inform Your Thinking: Episode 1 - Research is a Conversation
Read instructions for Research Log 1: Professional Organizations and Advocacy Groups
Post in Library Subject Guide Discussion by Friday Jan 27
Week 2 (Jan 30 – Feb 5)
Lesson 3: Choosing topics of interest
Read How to Select a Research Topic
Read Overview - Selecting a Research Topic
Post in Preliminary Research Topics discussion by Friday Feb 3
Lesson 4: Reading Rhetorically – Professional Publications
Review the key terms in the lesson module
Complete Trade Source Analysis (journal) by Sunday Feb 5
Week 3 (Feb 6 – 12)
Lesson 5: Determining types of sources – Evaluating sources
Read the following resources from the George Mason University Library. Note that all of the following sources are charts that can also be downloaded as PDFs.
Watch: Evaluating Sources
Optional Watch (but definitely worth it): Check Yourself with Lateral Reading
Lesson 6: Finding key words – Preparing for advanced database searches
Read Search Terms
Read Searching with Keywords - Research Skills Tutorial
Post in Refining Key Terms Discussion by Friday Feb 10
Research Log 1 and Reflection Due Sunday Feb 12
Week 4 (Feb 13 – 19)
Lesson 7: From topic to question – Using keywords and search terms
Read "How to Write a Research Question"
Post in Research Questions discussion by Friday Feb 17
Lesson 8: Finding scholarly, peer reviewed sources
Read instructions for Research Log 2: Scholarly Sources
Read instructions for the Literature Review
Watch Library tutorial
Week 5 (Feb 20 – 26)
Lesson 9: Reading rhetorically – Analyzing in-text citations in scholarly sources
Watch "Parts of a Reference" video
Lesson 10: Advanced citation mining strategies
Complete Library module
Complete Source Evaluation (journal) by Friday Feb 24
Research Log 2 and Reflection Due by Sunday Feb 26
Week 6 (Feb 27 – March 5)
Lesson 11: Reading rhetorically – Annotating a scholarly source
Read Rosenberg’s "Reading Games"
Read Carillo’s “Reading Strategies”
Lesson 12: Refining the research question – Key terms and stakeholders
Watch this tutorial about narrowing a topic and research question: Narrowing Your Topic
Review the Writing Center handout, "How to Write a Research Question."
Read "Narrow a Research Question" and "Identify Key Words"
Complete Narrowing the Research Question worksheet by Friday March 3
Week 7 (March 6 – 12)
Lesson 13: Putting the research together – Audience, genre, purpose
Small group conferences focused on narrowing the research question and brainstorming stakeholders (in class March 7 & 9)
Week 8: (March 13 – 19):
Spring Break
Week 9 (March 20 – 26)
Lesson 14: Genre – The literature review
Reread instructions for the Literature Review
Watch The Literature Review
Complete Literature Review Outline (journal) by Friday March 24
Lesson 15: Stakeholders – Audiences for the literature review
Read Literature Review sample
Post in Literature Review: Audiences discussion by Sunday March 26
Week 10 (March 27 – April 2)
Lesson 16 : Finding conversations in newspapers – Public, non-expert audiences
Read “Understanding Genres”
Read instructions for Research Log 3
Complete Analyzing Public Genres (journal) by Friday March 31
Lesson 17: Writing introductions for lit reviews – Using current events to provide context
Read Writing a Literature Review
Read Literature Reviews (una)
Research Log 3 and Reflection Due by Sunday April 2
Week 11 (April 3 – 9)
Lesson 18: Source integration – Synthesis Matrix
Read Literature Reviews (gmu)
Browse this document explaining how to build a synthesis matrix
Complete Creating a Synthesis Matrix (journal) by Sunday April 9
Lesson 19: From question to complex thesis
Read p.41-43 Miller-Cochran
Week 12 (April 10 – 16)
Lesson 20: Revision - Peer Review
Literature Review Draft due in class April 11 / 13
Lesson 21: Reflection – The research question
Post in Your Research Question discussion by Sunday April 16
Week 13 (April 17 – 23)
Lesson 22: Revision and Editing
Lesson 23: Literature Review
Literature Review is Due by Sunday April 23
Week 14 (April 24 – 30):
Read instructions to Advocacy Letter Assignment
Read Effective Advocacy Letters
Read Write a Letter to Your Legislator
Read Effective Advocacy
Read sample advocacy letters posted on Blackboard
Complete the audience analysis (journal) for advocacy letter by Friday April 28
Lesson 25: Advocacy letter – Audience
Post in Advocacy Letter discussion by Sunday April 30
All revisions due by (see revision policy on syllabus)
Week 15 (May 1 – 6)
Lesson 26: Revision – Peer review
Bring Advocacy Letter draft to class May 2 / 4
Lesson 27: Reflection – Audience and genre
Complete Reflection (journal) and Course Evaluation by Friday May 5
Advocacy Letter Due Saturday May 6
This course schedule was developed by the George Mason Composition Program, and it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.)