|
Lessons
Module 1
1:
Orientation
2:
Goals
Module 2
3:
Euthyphro
4: The Library
5: The Apology
6: Citation
7: Crito
8: Phaedo
9: Exam Prep
10: Plato Exam
Module 3
11:
Research Project
12: Research 101
13: Books
14: the Librarian
15: the Web
16: conferences
17: Joy of Research
18: Reasoning
Module 4
19:
Outlines
20: Review the Plan:
21: Language
22: Dr E's Grammar
23: Peer Review
24: Hit Parade
Module 5
25:
About the Exam
26: Mock Final
27: Exam Prep
28: Graduation
|
 1.
Organize for reader-friendliness
some basic forms
In
academia, and in the professional world in general, readers don't have
time to waste. They don't want oversimplification, but they do want as
much clarity as possible. Our job as writers is to make the reading
experience as easy as it can be, given the difficulty of the subject
matter. We can save our readers time by starting from a thesis
statement (or as
Dr. E called it, a "claim") near the beginning of
the essay, following it with an introductory essay
map ("In this essay I will cover A, B, C and
D."), and then providing transitional
cue words to flag all of the main parts of the essay
("First. . . Second . . . Third. . . Finally. . . In conclusion. .
."). These elements make your essay's organization obvious so that
that your readers don't have to puzzle over your meaning.
Already
in this course, we have discussed a couple of different ways to organize
reports.
We
discussed the basics when we first met
the COW, as we prepared for the Plato exam. There, we
said that academic writing is organized logically--not chronologically
and not descriptively--and we described the basic three-part essay
formula for introduction (with thesis statement), body paragraphs, and
conclusion. Dr G's Five-Step
Method for Essay Writing illustrated this form in
detail. A "fill-in-the-blanks" skeleton for this general form
might look like this:
Introduction
This report addresses
the research question: _________________.
This is an important question because _____________ and ___________
and ___________.
The answer, I argue, is my thesis statement that
_____________________.
In this report, I will attempt to prove this thesis by showing _"A"_
and _"B"_ and _"C"_.
Body
sections presenting the evidence with source citations
Body I. All about
"A" : provide evidence from A1, A2, A3
Body I. All about "B" : provide evidence from B1, B2, B3
Body I. All about "C" : provide evidence from C1, C2, C3
Refutation
A significant
counter-argument to my thesis is _______________.
However, I disagree with this counter-argument because _______ and
________.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this
report has attempted to prove the thesis that _____________
I should point out that further questions remain, such as ____ and
____ and _____
The practical application of this thesis is that __________
Works
Cited.
For
primary or scientific research reports, there's a different standard
form for essay organization. We described it back in Lesson 12 in Research
101, and in Lesson 14, in TC3 librarian Barbara
Kobritz' guest lecture. In this science essay formula, the
writer: (a) describes the research question, (b) describes the
methodology that will be used to answer the question, (c) describes the
data, (d) draws conclusions from the data, (e) describes issues that
remain unanswered, and (f) provides a list of references or works cited,
(g) as well as a summary abstract. This is a rigorous, state-of-the-art
academic model for research papers. We saw a published example in Underage
college students' drinking behavior.
Other
basic essay formulas exist, but I don't recommend them because they are
much less commonly used. Our clarity tends to diminish as we stray from
well-recognized forms of organization.
2.
What's your thesis?
try Hacker's exercises below to clarify your
focus
The
key to organizing your COW is your thesis statement. This is a
one-sentence summary of your claim; it will give conceptual unity to
your report. What debatable statement are you going to argue? What claim
are you going to make?
Hacker
covers thesis statements, and how to support them, in A Pocket Style
Manual at section 28 (Hacker 113-115). You can clarify your thinking
about thesis statements not only by reviewing her book but also by
visiting her web site and trying her online
research exercises. From her research exercises page,
click on the area "MLA" and then to the right click on
"Thesis statements in MLA papers." You will be asked to sign
in on the web site by providing your name and your instructor's email
address. For instructor's email here use gutchess@englishare.net.
3.
Organizing techniques: grouping and
outlining
 Techniques
for organizing research data include grouping
and outlining. If you choose
grouping, follow it up by outlining. Grouping can be very helpful
when you don't know where to start, but outlining ultimately produces a
much more fully developed (and hence more useful) plan. A
written outline for your research report will be due in Lesson 20. (See the
assignment in today's lesson.)
Group
the records.
Grouping is recommended if we are feeling a little "lost" or
overwhelmed by our research, if we haven't formed a clear thesis
statement, or if we simply don't know where to begin to sort through
the piles of research data that we have accumulated. Dr. G
demonstrated this grouping technique already in Lesson 9 when he
modeled how to prepare for the terrifying Plato exam. At that time, he
presented a five-step method for essay writing: list,
group, write, conclude, introduce. When he organized
his essay, he listed the main points from his notes;
then he grouped the items on the list, putting like with
like, until most of the items in the list had been grouped. Arranging
the groups in an order that seemed sensible then gave him the rough
plan for his essay on Socrates as a teacher.
To
group your research data, re-read your journal and skim back through
any print outs or emails of sources that you have collected. Sort the
material into at least three to five groups. You can make the groups
on computer using "cut and paste" techniques to list and
then rearrange words on a page. You can also make groups of hard copy
texts by using colored highlighters to color-code data. Grouping can
work very well simply by sorting the data physically by hand.
I
like to think of the records to be sorted
as if they were folders to be filed in a five-drawer filing cabinet:
which papers should go in the top drawer? which ones should go in the
second drawer? which ones in the third drawer? and so on. When all of
the papers have been put into the cabinet, then look at each file
drawer, one at a time, and organize the drawer front to back Within
each drawer, which folder should come first? which should come second?
and so on. Arrange and rearrange the piles until the order makes the
most sense to you. The physical act of sorting records focuses our
attention on the activity and develops our understanding of how our
sources relate to one another. This technique may sound a bit
crude, but most of the time it really works, because a very large part
of the human brain is devoted to hand/eye coordination. Remember the
homunculus man?
Outline
the data. Outlining tends
to work well when we have a general plan for our report already in
mind. Let's say that our research question is: should the USA
undertake manned space flights to Mars? Let's say further that, from
our reading on this subject, we think there are three main issues
involved in the question: practicality (can it be done?), costs (how
much will it cost?), and benefits (what are the potential rewards?).
This general level of understanding allows us to start a rough or
preliminary outline: I introduction, II practicality, III costs, IV
benefits, and V conclusion. To turn this plan into a detailed,
finished outline, we can review the source information that we have
collected and categorize each piece of evidence under the relevant
outline heading.
We
should keep the preliminary outline tentative, however. It may be
incorrect or misdirected. If it turns out that many of our Mars
sources are about practicality, and few of them are about costs or
benefits, then probably we should narrow our research question.
Instead of asking "should the USA go to Mars?" we should ask
the narrower and more specific question: "how practical is it for
the USA to go to Mars?" And if we have enough sources on an
even-narrower subject, then we should narrow our research question
even further. For example, if we have several good sources that
address the problem of human adaptability to prolonged space flight,
we should narrow our research question to "can the human body
endure missions to Mars?" As a general rule in academic
writing, narrow the focus whenever possible. The narrower the focus,
the better the report. Although a popular magazine article on a
proposed Mars program might favor a broad approach to attract lots of
readers ("should we go?"), academic writing very clearly
favors much more narrowed questions (such as "how much exposure
to cosmic radiation can the human body safely endure?" or
"how can we estimate the amount of cosmic radiation that an
astronaut will be likely to encounter on a mission to Mars?").
4.
Outline articles
to see how they were organized
the outline is a
powerful tool of analysis
What
should an outline look like? Outline a well-written article, and you
will get a good idea or at least a good example. Outlining an article is
a great way to uncover its underlying organization and research content.
Please
read the following model articles and the analysis that is made of them
on this page.
Take
a quick look at a draft English 101 research report that Dr. E once
modeled for her students, "Undeveloped
Streamsides: Corridors of Life." Dr. G.
has marked up Dr. E's text to show its parts: the background or
research question, the introduction with thesis statement, the body
arguments, and the conclusion. As the outlining helps to show, Dr. E's
thesis is that streamsides should be preserved. The body segments are
arguments for preservation: (1) because streamsides are wildlife
corridors, (2) because streamsides are biodiverse corridors, (3)
because streamsides are cleansers of pollution, (4) because
streamsides are greenspace, and (5) because a place like Dryden Lake
trail deserves protection. Dr. E provides sources as evidence under
each of these arguments. Dr. G's outlining highlights both her
arguments and her evidence. Including this "evidence" level
in the outline shows at a glance what the stronger and weaker
arguments are: for example, in Dr. E's report, the biodiversity
argument is better supported than the greenspace argument, as multiple
sources are cited under biodiversity but only one source is cited
under greenspace.
For
an excellent student research report, read Angela Daly's "A Call
to Action" on Diana Hacker's web
site; click on "model
papers."
An
outline of Daly's report shows not only how well organized her report is
but also how carefully it has been researched. (Daly's paper was written
several years ago when cell phones on the road were relatively new, so
extensive academic and professional studies bearing on the issue were
not yet available.) Here's Dr. G's outline of Daly's report:
Outline
of Daly,
"A Call to Action: Regulate Use of Cell Phones on the
Road"
I.
Statement of the problem: "why is regulation needed?"
a.
thesis: regulation is needed because drivers are seriously
impaired and existing laws are insufficient
(this
thesis also provides a clear "essay map" showing the
two subtopics to be discussed in the essay)
II.
Argument 1: drivers are impaired
a.
Popular evidence: news and internet descriptions of 3 different accidents (human
interest serves as a hook to get reader attention)
b.
Expert testimony from Bents, public opinion
from Farmer's Insurance, cartoon
c.
Academic/scientific research
1.
research report 1: Redelmeir in New England Journal of
Medicine
2.
research report 2: Violanti's Oklahoma study
III.
Argument 2: existing laws are insufficient
a.
Popular evidence: news and internet sources about penalties
imposed in 3 different cases
b.
special laws are not unusual (no sources)
c.
academic source noting that 20 countries plus Suffolk County have
laws against driving while phoning
d.
local laws would be only a patchwork solution (per Verizon phone
company)
e.
academic source noting the beneficial results after Japanese law
banned cell phoning in cars
f.
2 trade association sources indicating that legislative action
should be taken
IV.
Conclusion: state legislatures must begin to take this problem
seriously
Although
"A Call to Action" is aimed at an audience of politicians,
rather than an academic audience, its arguments are well organized and
fairly well supported with specific sources. It is a standard argument
paper in that it moves from a claim (thesis), through premises
(arguments) with supporting evidence, to a conclusion.
For
comparison, look on Hacker's
site at Levi's "Cell Phones in the Hands of
Drivers." Then, also from Hacker's
site, see Levi's outline in preparation for writing his
report . One serious criticism of Levy's outline (from Dr. G's point of
view) is that it is not specific enough. It does not get down to the
level of evidence or the particular sources that will be used to support
each argument. For best results in your own writing. spell out three
levels of detail in your outline:
1.
Thesis statement.
2.
Arguments that will be used to
support the thesis.
3.
Evidence or source information
that will be incorporated under each argument. List the
specific sources that you have.
For
example, in the Daly outline above:
Thesis
statement: regulation is needed
First
argument: drivers are impaired
First
source under first argument death of Morgan Pena (first of
three accidents to be discussed)
Second
source under first argument, etc.
When
you have outlined your research project so that you have these three
levels of detail (thesis statement, arguments, evidence), you are almost
ready to write. The one further step is troubleshooting your plan. Are
your arguments persuasive in proving your thesis? [Recall Dr.
E's lecture on reasoning.] Is your evidence satisfactory to support
your arguments? Lesson 20 will give additional help in
answering those questions.
Assignment
due in Lesson 20:
Organize your
research data and write a proposed
three-level outline of your draft research report.
Three-level outlining is discussed in the readings
document for Lesson 19 (you can use the outline of Daly's report
as a model), and it's discussed further in the lecture for Lesson
20.
+ LEVEL 1 states the THESIS. The thesis must be a debatable
claim, not a truism, so there should be some controversy or doubt about
it. The claim needs to be narrow enough so that it can be dealt with
adequately in an 8-page paper.
++LEVEL 2 presents the proposed ARGUMENTS that will be offered to
support the claim. Be sure the arguments are statements n the form of
complete sentences.
+++LEVEL 3 lists the proposed EVIDENCE that will be offered to support
each argument. If you do not list each source individually in level 3,
at least identify the number and quality of the sources that you have
for each argument. By "quality" I mean whether the
sources are academic, professional, or popular.
From a completed outline, you should be able to see at a glance whether or not you have enough
good evidence
to support each of your proposed arguments. If the proof is light, then
look for additional evidence or change the argument.
Readings
for Lesson 20:
In
Lesson 20 we will analyze some student research papers. Read,
from "model
papers" on Hacker's web site, Aaron Lund's "Preserving
Yellowstone's Winter Wilderness" and Rekha Sanghvi's "Preserving
Winter Access: Snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park."
Also read Student
A's "Prenatal Gene Therapy" and Student
B's "Stem Cell Research/Cloning." These draft
research reports are representative (not the best or worst) of those that
Dr. G' has received in English 101 at TC3.
|
"O"
takes us from "C" to "W." Time spent on
"O" saves time on "W" and avoids monstrous BULL
(image left, barely muzzled). Lessons 19 and 20 are all about
"O."
You
may need to download and install Macromedia's Flash PlayerTM to run the
exercises on Hacker's web site. Use the link on Hacker's site for the
download.
Left: now
it's time to squeeze the olives . How will we package the oil?
A game of
cleaning up your office. . .
|
