Course Description:
Honors 110 offers an introduction to the methods, materials, and practices of research at the college level. It is built on the idea that research is a process. The readings and assignments are designed to lead you through this process by giving you practice in the various stages of researching, drafting, and revising a research essay. The Research Log assignment will teach you how to locate and to employ a variety of resources, and Zotero bibliographic software will help you organize and manage your research. Other assignments will give you practice in evaluating sources, constructing an argument, supporting your claims with evidence, and documenting your research with appropriate conventions of academic style. HNRS 110 partially fulfills the 6-hour composition requirement for GMU students; you must receive a grade of at least "C" (2.0) in HNRS 110 to fulfill this requirement.

Requirements and Expectations:

Participation: We expect you to attend class regularly, to complete all reading assignments before the class for which they are listed, to bring assigned readings to class with you, and to be prepared to participate in class discussions, in-class assignments, and peer editing workshops. Students who fail to participate satisfactorily, including those who miss workshops or who otherwise have excessive absences, will have a lowered participation grade. I will also use participation to decided borderline grades.

Short Writing Assignments: In addition to major writing assignments (research log, analytical papers, and the major components of the research project), I will assign some short writing assignments (the ones labeled on the syllabus "due in class") that will help you focus on required readings and develop your research and writing skills. These will be graded on a credit/no-credit basis, provided they meet a minimum standard. Since they are meant to help you prepare for class, they cannot be handed in late under any circumstances.

Friday Lectures: You will be required to attend four Friday lecture sessions and to sign in with me or a designated Teaching Assistant at each one. Two of these sessions should be one of the six introductions to various disciplines that we have scheduled (designated "conversations" on the syllabus) and two should be scheduled, on-campus lectures (see the list of possibilities at http://classweb.gmu.edu/hnrs110/index.html#lectures). Note that required Friday sessions--e.g. the introduction to Zotero on Aug. 31--do not count. To help you get the most out of these lectures, and to show that you are at the lecture in mind and spirit as well as in body, we'll ask you to write a brief response to the lecture (some prompts will be provided). Please go to at least two of your lectures by md-semester (October 19).

Other Friday Activities: You will also be required to go on a field trip to the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and will need to be available most Fridays to conference with me and/or John.

Formal Written Work: We expect you to keep a copy (either on disk or hard copy) of all writing assignments you turn in. Writing assignments are due at the beginning of the class for which they are assigned: please do not email them to me, put them in my box or under my office door. If for some reason you cannot hand in the paper at the beginning of class, discuss this with me in advance or I will consider the paper late. Late papers will be penalized by a half grade deduction for each class day late. If your paper is late, you are welcome to discuss the reasons with me. Please note, however, that I make exceptions only for serious reasons, and, in general, only once. If you find yourself running into trouble, please see me as soon as possible. I am more sympathetic to students who see me about problems in advance.

All assignments should be typed, double-spaced, in a standard 12-point font and with standard one-inch margins. They should be carefully proofread. More than a couple proofreading errors will lower your grade.

Email Policies: All students will need to have access to the Internet and to email for this course. All official communications from George Mason University will be sent to your GMU email account, so you should activate it as soon as possible. You're welcome to set up automatic forwarding to an alternative email account if you have one (log-in to your account via the http://mail.gmu.edu interface and follow the directions under "Options/Settings.")

However, please do not use email to ask us substantive questions about the intellectual work for the class or about personal issues (e.g. why an assignment may be late, etc.). Appropriate uses of email for this class include making an appointment to see me or your TA (as appropriate) to discuss the above, or asking simple questions about assignments (e.g. a revised due date, an apparent error in the syllabus). Do not email us any written work unless we ask you to.

Textbook (purchase at bookstore):
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 2nd ed. Chicago: U Chicago P, 2003. (Abbreviated CR in syllabus).

Electronic Course Reserve (=ECR)
On library website under Honors 110

• Bazerman, Charles. The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines. 5th ed. Boston:
• Columbo, Bonnie Lisle and Sandra Milano. "Chap. 14: Reframing: Talking Back to Official Stories." Frame Work: Culture, Storytelling, and College Writing. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 372-78.
• Horrocks, Roger. Masculinity in Crisis : Myths, Fantasies, and Realities. New York: St. Martins, 1994.
• Kohl, Herbert. "The Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Revisited." Should We Burn Babar?: Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories. New York: New Press, 1995. 30-47.

Available online through library databases (=ODB)

• Cronon, William. "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, Narrative." Journal of American History 78.4 (1992): 1347-76. (JSTOR).
• Early Gerald. "On Miles Davis, Vince Lombardi and the Crisis of Masculinity in Mid-Century America." Daedalus 131.1 (Winter 2002): 154-59. (ProQuest)
• Kennicott, Philip. "A Particular Kind of Truth: As the Culture Wars Rage, A Rare Victory over the Routes of Knowledge." Washington Post 19 Sept. 2004: R02.(LexisNexis).
• Jenkins, Tiffany. "The Museum of Political Correctness," The Independent [London], 25 January 2005. (LexisNexis).
• McDowell, Linda. "The Trouble with Men? Young People. Gender Transformations and the Crisis of Masculinity." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24 (2000): 201-209. (Blackwell-Synergy)
• Pollack, William. "The 'War' For Boys: Hearing 'Real Boys' Voices, Healing Their Pain." Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 37.2 (April 2006): 190-95. (Journals@Ovid)
• Schulte, Brigid. "Cheatin', Writin' & 'Rithmetic: How to Succeed in School without Really Trying." Washington Post 15 September 2002. (LexisNexis).
• Sherblom, Stephen. "Editor's Review." Harvard Educational Review 64.4 (Winter 1994): 474-87.
• Thompson, Bob. "Where Myth and Museums Meet,"Washington Post 19 Sept. 2004:B1+ (LexisNexis)
• Tompkins, Jane. "Indians." Critical Inquiry 13 (Autumn 1986): 101-119. (JSTOR).

Available Online (=Online)

• Gehring, Verna. "Phonies, Fakes, and Frauds-and the Social Harms They Cause." Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly 23.1/2 (Winter/Spring 2003). Online at this site:http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/quarterly.html .
• Mead, Sara. "Evidence Suggests Otherwise: The Truth about Boys and Girls. Online at this site: http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=378705
• Montecino, Virginia. "Creating an Effective PowerPoint Presentation." http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/powerpoint.html
• Pollitt, Katha. "Anything Boys Can Do..." The Nation. July 9, 2007
  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070709/pollitt
• Rimer, Sara. "Finding that Today's Students are Bright, Eager and Willing to Cheat." New York Times 2 July 2003. (LexisNexis).
• Stratten, Scott. "Giving Effective PowerPoint Presentations." http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/management/qt/powerptpres.htm
• Tufte, Ed. "PowerPoint is Evil." Wired Sept. 2003. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.htm

Required Software: Zotero, available free to download at http://www.zotero.org/. Please note that Zotero requires the Firefox browser 2.0 or higher, and won't work with earlier versions. Make sure you are using at least Firefox 2.0, or download it at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.

Required work will be weighted as follows:
10% Museum Analysis (due Sept. 20)
15% Research Log (due in sections at various times)
10% Research Proposal (due Oct. 11)
5% Preliminary Argument Draft (Due Oct. 25)
20% Complete Draft of Research Project (due Nov. 8)
20% Revised Draft of Research Project (due Dec. 6)
5% Oral Report (due during last 2 weeks of class)
15% Other assignments and participation (Friday lectures and short responses) .

Grading Standards:
"A" grades are assigned for demonstration of superior understanding of all concepts, for thoroughness and sophistication in interpretation and style, and for mastery of standard grammatical form and documentation conventions.
"B" grades indicate above-average mastery of the material, clear, thoughtful analysis, and correct written presentation.
"C" grades are assigned for work that demonstrates an adequate mastery of the material and competent written presentation. Students must receive a grade of "C" (2.0) or higher to get credit for HNRS 110.
A "D" grade is assigned for less than satisfactory mastery of factual material and poorly presented written work.
F Unacceptable as college-level work, demonstrating inadequate levels of understanding and written proficiency.

Plagiarism:
You must cite, using a standard citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Such sources include (but are not limited to), books, journals magazines, online material or study aids.

Uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with conducting research is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source.

Plagiarism constitutes a violation of the GMU Honor Code: I will refer plagiarism cases to the honor Council

Class Schedule:
Please note that dates and readings on this schedule are subject to change. Of course, I will give warning.

Bazerman, "The Reader's Active Role" 22-27 (ECR)

Columbo and Milano, "Reframing: Talking Back to Official Stories" (ECR)

Kohl, "The Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Revisited" (ECR)

Introduction to Zotero bibliographic software

Welcome Week Party
11:30-1:30
Honors Office (ENT 302)

Cronon, "A Place for Stories," 1358-end (ODB)

Research log: Part I: Evaluating Websites

Conferences on research topics--preliminary ideas

Print: the Research Log assignment (download it by clicking here) and bring it to class

Due in class: 1-2 page response: What motives explain the shape of the Dust Bowl

Introduction to the George Mason Library system

Conferences on research topics--preliminary ideas

Research log: Part II: Reference Sources 

Advanced Library Workshop: Intro to Library Databases (meet in honors computer lab, ENT 418)

Conferences on research topics--preliminary  ideas

Due: Part 1 of Research Log

Bring: Research Log assignment to class

Tompkins, "Indians" (ODB)

Thompson "Where Myth and Museums Meet" (ODB)

 Kennicott, "A Particular Kind of Truth"(ODB)

Jenkins, "The Museum of Political Correctness" (ODB)

Print:  the Museum Assignment (get to it by clicking here) and bring it to class

Due: 1-2 page response. Briefly summarize Tompkins' argument and compare it to the positions taken by Thompson, Kennicott, and Jenkins.

CR "From Questions to Problems," "Disagreeing with Your Sources," "From Problems to Sources" 56-89

Research Formula Workshop

Research log: Part III: Books and LOC subject headings

Annotating Sources (1)

CR "Using Sources" 90-106

Sherblom, "Editor's Review," Harvard Educational Review (ODB)

Bring: Research Log assignment to class

Due: Museum Analysis 

Research log: Part IV: Scholarly Databases and Journals

Annotating Sources (2)

Pollack, "The 'War' For Boys" (ODB)

Early, "On Miles Davis" (ODB)

Bring: Research Log Assignment to class

Using sources: genres, disciplinary conventions and reliability

CR "Making Good Arguments," "Designing Arguments," "Claims" 111-37

McDowell, "The Trouble with Men?" (ODB)

Mead, "The Truth about Boys and Girls" (Online) Note: to get .pdf formatted version of the article, look for small link on the right side of your screen, right next to the title and author information of this article

Pollitt, "Anything Boys Can Do..." (Online)

More practice with subscribed databases: meet in the Johnson Center Library Instruction Room (Room 228)

Due: Part 4 of Research Log

Due: Research Proposal for workshop

Due: Final version of your research proposal.

Bring: Essays from Sept. 27 and Oct. 2 (masculinity essays)

Organizing Strategies: Framing Sources

MLA Documentation Style

Bazerman, "Recognizing the Many Voices in a Text" 162-77; "Writing Using Reading. Disagreements: Joining the Issue" 266-76 (ECR)

Mid-term grades available on Patriotweb

Organizational Strategies: Structures

Sample student papers from last year (on HNRS 110 webpage)

CR "Planning and Drafting," 189-204

Due in class: outline the organizational structure of 2 student essays

Due in class: A rough outline of your Research Essay and the organizational principle(s) that guide it (see list in CR, 196-200)

Bring: Essays from Oct. 2

Using sources correctly

CR "Using Quotation and Paraphrase" 205-7

Organizational Strategies: Keywords, Framing, Signposting, Sections and Titles

CR "Revising Your Organization and Argument" 208-21

Bring: 1 copy of your complete draft

Bring: Essays from Oct. 2

Organizational Strategies: Effective Introductions, Conclusions, and Style

CR "Introductions and Conclusions" "Revising Style" "The Quickest Revision" 222-40, 263-82

Bring to class: 1 copy of your complete draft

Bring: Essays from Oct. 2

Preparing for Oral Reports

Readings on Powerpoint: Montecino, Stratton, Tufte (Online)

Other Important Dates:
Sept. 11: Last day to drop a class with no tuition penalty
Sept. 11: Last day to add a class
Sept. 28: Last day to drop a class
Sept. 29-Oct. 26: Elective Withdrawal Period

Often high school research papers are summaries of familiar issues or reports on information about a topic. In your HNRS 110 research paper, instead of describing a topic area and summarizing information, you will have to make and defend specific claims about your topic. You will also need to demonstrate your understanding of previous research on your topic, not only what it says, but why it says it--what assumptions shape your sources' interpretations and how they relate to the claims made by other sources. You will also need to articulate a specific position of your own with respect to your topic, making clear how your own ideas contribute to the scholarly debate about your subject. Your goal is to make your reader understand the issues involved in your topic, what is at stake in different arguments concerning it, and why/how your reader should be interested in these issues. The research project comprises the following assignments:

Required conferences on preliminary topics: on Sept. 6, 7 or 11, you will be required to meet with us to discuss your ideas for a topic. Come prepared with a list of questions you want to ask about your subject. We will give you help in shaping your project at the conference.

Preliminary Research formula: in class on Sept. 18, you will bring 3 copies of a one page document that does the following: 1) identify your topic and why it interests you; 2) complete the 3-part research formula on p. 56 of Craft of Research for your topic; 3) list additional questions or issues that you think may be important for your topic; 4) Evaluate your target audience, using the checklist on CR pp. 22-23. If you are considering more than one topic, provide the same information for each topic. You'll exchange 2 copies with your peer review group and turn in one to us. We'll also ask you to conference with us (by Sept. 28) on your research formula. Counts toward participation grade.

Research Proposal: 2-3 pages, plus preliminary bibliography. Due in class Thursday Oct. 11. Your proposal should offer an expanded discussion of what The Craft of Research (chap. 4) calls your research problem. It should answer the following questions: 1) what is your research topic? 2) what question(s) do you want to ask about this topic? 3) how or why are the answers to the questions significant? 4) what are the main controversies that concern your topic? 5) who is your audience and what effect do you want to have on them? It should then provide a tentative outline of the major questions and sub-questions that you think you will need to explore during the course of your project. It should also lay out a research plan: a description of how much research you have already completed and how you plan to conduct the rest of your research. Your proposal must be accompanied by a bibliography of at least 6 (real) sources, no more than 2 of which may be web pages. The bibliography should follow correct MLA citation form and be produced using Zotero. 10% of your course grade.

Research Log: The log is designed to lead you through the process of locating sources and using Zotero to create the bibliography you will need for your project. John Woolsey will have regular office hours and appointment times in order to assist you with the worksheet. You will need to show him that you have completed parts 1 of the log by Tuesday, Sept. 11, part 2 by Tuesday, Sept. 18, part 3 by Thursday Sept. 27, and part 4 by Thursday Oct. 4. If you make significant changes in your topic during the course of the semester, you must complete a new research log and get it approved by us.15% of your course grade.

Preliminary Argument draft: 3-4 pages, due in workshop on Thursday, Oct. 25. This is a trial run of your argument, a section of it that illustrates the kinds of claims, argumentation, and evidence that you will be using. There are various ways you could do this: for instance, choose 2-3 sources on your topic and compare and contrast their positions on a single issue in some detail; present in detail one major source and explain its position on several issues central to your larger paper; identify a key controversy and summarize the positions on either side. Your objective here is to begin to formulate your argument and to get practice in synthesizing sources effectively. 5% of your course grade.

Complete Draft of research project: On Tuesday, Nov. 6, a complete draft of your argument is due. It should be at least 10 pages long, cite evidence from at least 6 sources, and be accompanied by a works cited list of at least 10 sources (no more than 3 of which may be web pages), produced in correct MLA form by Zotero. At least 5 of your sources must be annotated. This draft will be graded according to how effectively it accomplishes the following:

• Makes clear the complete shape of the argument you are presenting about your issue.
• Presents multiple perspectives on your issue.
• Organizes arguments and information to guide and persuade your reader.
• Synthesizes information and integrates supporting evidence into your own argument.

Bring 3 copies, 2 to exchange with your peer review group and one for us. 20% of your course grade.

Exercise on revising your argument: on Thursday, Nov. 15, you will bring one copy of your complete draft back to class. In class you'll outline the structure of your draft and identify places where transitions and argument need to be strengthened.

Oral Presentations: during one of our last four regular class meetings, you will make a 10 minute oral presentation to the class on your project. Oral presentations must be accompanied by a written outline of your major points (or a Power Point presentation on disk). 5% of your course grade.

Revised Draft of research project: due in class on Thursday, Dec. 6. At least 12 pages, plus a bibliography divided into works cited and works consulted. You must include a total of at least 12 sources, no more than 3 of which may be web pages. You must refer directly to at least 6 different sources in the body of your essay. This draft will be graded on

• The scope and effectiveness of your revision of the preceding draft
• The overall insight and complexity of your argument
• The overall effectiveness of your handling of style, rhetoric, and evidence
• The correctness of grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Your revised draft must be accompanied by a 2-page reflection on what you learned from the research process and a copy of your Zotero library for this project on CD. 20% of your course grade.