Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University
Summer 2023
Weekly Course Schedule
Week 1 (May 30 – June 4)
Lesson 1: Introduction to the course
Review the course syllabus and course schedule
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
Lesson 2: Choosing topics of interest
Read How to Select a Research Topic
Read Overview - Selecting a Research Topic
Post in Preliminary Research Topics due Sunday June 4
Week 2 (June 4 – 11)
Lesson 3: Reading Rhetorically – Professional Publications
Review the key terms in the lesson module
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.
Post Trade Source Analysis (discussion) by Thursday June 8
Lesson 4: Watch: Evaluating Sources
Optional Watch (but definitely worth it): Check Yourself with Lateral Reading
Read Search Terms
Read Searching with Keywords - Research Skills Tutorial
Research Log 1 and Reflection Due Sunday June 11
WEEK 3 (June 12 – 18)
Lesson 5: From topic to question – Using keywords and search terms
Read "How to Write a Research Question"
Post in Research Questions discussion by Thursday June 15
Lesson 6: Finding scholarly, peer reviewed sources
Read instructions for Research Log 2: Scholarly Sources
Read instructions for the Literature Review
Watch Library tutorial
WEEK 4 (June 19 – 25)
Lesson 7: Reading rhetorically – Analyzing in-text citations in scholarly sources
Watch "Parts of a Reference" video
Lesson 8: Advanced citation mining strategies
Complete Library module
Post Source Evaluation (discussion) by Thursday June 22
Research Log 2 and Reflection Due Sunday June 25
WEEK 5 (June 26 – July 2)
Lesson 9 : Refining the research question – Key terms and stakeholders
Watch this tutorial about narrowing a topic and research question: Narrowing Your Topic
Read the Writing Center handout, "How to Write a Research Question."
Read "Narrow a Research Question" and "Identify Key Words"
Post in Literature Review Audience discussion by Thursday June 29
Complete Narrowing the Research Question worksheet by Sunday July 2
Lesson 10: Putting the research together – Audience, genre, purpose
Read Literature Reviews
Read Writing a Literature Review
Read Literature Reviews (una)
WEEK 6 (July 3 – 9)
Lesson 11: From question to complex thesis
Read Citation Formats
Post in Final Research Question discussion by Thursday July 6
Lesson 12: Source integration – Synthesis Matrix
Review Wrench et al.
Browse this document explaining how to build a synthesis matrix
Complete Creating a Synthesis Matrix by Sunday July 9
WEEK 7 (July 10 – 16)
Conferences/Lit Review drafts
Literature Review is Due Sunday July 16
WEEK 8 (July 17 – 23)
Lesson 13: Advocacy letter – Genre & Audience
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 for advocacy letter by Sunday July 23
Week 8 1/2 (July 24 - 26)
Post in Reflection discussion by Wednesday July 26 (last day of class)
Complete Course Evaluation (SETs)
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.)