Dr Dean Taciuch
George Mason University
Spring 2025

Office: Horizon Hall 4163
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays
1:30 – 2:45

Email dtaciuch

Dr Taciuch Home

Course Syllabus

Course Policies

English 302 Sections N11 & N12

Course Schedule

Week 1 (Jan 21 – 26)
Our section does not meet face-to-face this week.

Lesson 1: Introduction to the course
Review the course syllabus and course schedule
Watch Inform Your Thinking: Episode 1 - Research is a Conversation

Lesson 2: Finding conversations in your field – Academic and professional discourse communities
Read

Post in Library Subject Guide Discussion by Friday Jan 24


Week 2 (Jan 27 – Feb 2)

Lesson 3: Choosing topics of interest
Read Narrowing a Topic (to a Research Question)
Read How to Write a Research Question
Read Understanding the Rhetorical Situation (BlackBoard)

Lesson 4: The Rhetorical Situation
Read Differentiating Among Popular, Scholarly, Trade Sources and Grey Literature
Read Active Reading via Annotation


Post in Preliminary Research Questions discussion by Friday Jan 31


Week 3 (Feb 3 – Feb 9)

Lesson 5: Evaluating sources
Read
How to Spot 16 Types of Media Bias
Small group work
: Bring in one source you've found so far for evaluation

Lesson 6: Evaluating Sources
Watch: Check Yourself with Lateral Reading
Read /Watch Evaluating Information: SIFT (The Four Moves)

Post in Non-Academic Source Evaluation journal by Friday Feb 7


Week 4 (Feb 10 – 16)

Lesson 7: Finding scholarly, peer reviewed sources

Read instructions for Research Log 2: Scholarly Sources
Read instructions for the Literature Review
Read Using Google Scholar @ Mason
Watch Doing an Advanced Mason Search and Managing Sources with Zotero

Lesson 8: Using keywords and search terms
Watch Generating Keywords

Research Log 1 and Reflection Due Friday Feb 14


Week 5 (Feb 17 – 23)

Lesson 9: Advanced citation mining strategies
Read Find Sources Fast: Citation Mining

Lesson 10:
Read
Evaluating (Academic) Sources
Read Discipline-Specific Citation Styles and APA Style Guide QuickGuide

Complete Academic Source Evaluation (journal) by Friday Feb 21


Week 6 (Feb 24 – March 2)

Lesson 11: Synthesis
Watch Synthesis Matrix Tutorial
Read Instructions for Research Log 3

Lesson 12: Incorporating Sources

Read these guides from the GMU Writing Center

Research Log 2 and Reflection Due by Friday Feb 28


Week 7 (March 3 – 9)

Lesson 13: Paraphrase Practice
Read Avoiding Plagiarism

Lesson 14: Literature Review Conventions


Week 8: (March 10 – 16)

Spring Break


Week 9 (March 17 – 23)

Lesson 15: Literature Review Examples

Explore GMU Libraries InfoGuide: Literature Reviews

Research Log 3 and Reflection due Friday March 21


Week 10 (March 24 – 30)

Lesson 16: Organizing the Literature Review
Complete
Literature Review Outline (journal) by Wednesday March 20

Lesson 17: Review Citation styles
Explore Purdue Research and Citation Guides
Post in Citation Questions discussion by Friday March 28


Week 11 (March 31 – April 6)

Lesson 18: Peer Review Process

Providing Feedback to Writers

Lesson 19: Draft of Literature review for peer review

Peer Review draft by Wednesday April 2
Peer Review by Friday April 4


Week 12 (April 7 – 13)

Lesson 20: Revising and Editing

Read

Lesson 21: Revising and Editing
Read Reducing Informality in Academic Writing

Literature Review and Reflection due Friday April 11


Week 13 (April 14 – 20)

Lesson 22: Effective Advocacy

Read

Lesson 23: Advocacy Examples

Read

Stakeholder discussion on BlackBoard by Friday April 18


Week 14 (April 21 – 27)

Lesson 24: Issue, Audience, and Genre Analysis
Review rhetorical sitatuation and advocacy examples

Issue, Audience and Genre Analysis due Friday April 25


Week 15 (April 28 – May 4)

Lesson 24: Review And Revise
Course evaluations
Reflection Discussion due by Friday May 2

All revisions due by April 28 (see revision policy on syllabus)


Week 16 (May 5)
Our section does not meet face-to-face this week.

Advocacy letter due Monday May 5 (Last day of classes)


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.)