Here is the last blog! Whew! You can post this by the last day of the course. I want you to take the time to do a little reflection on this, and, of course, this is valuable material for your portfolio.
Here is the blog assignment. Make sure that you only pick one of these questions or think of one of your own. It will be a really scattered entry if you attempt to answer all ten of these very different questions.
Blog Entry Four: The Last One!
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Final Reflections on the Process of Research:
You will discuss what you have learned about the process of research for life
and for this class. I am interested in
the quality of the content of this assignment and how it shows evidence of your
progression in the research process. The
minimum length for this part of the research journal is one page, formatted
appropriately (cite a source if you use one and create a works cited entry for
that source if you used one). I have
listed some suggestions for reflective topics, and you can pick one of these topics if you would like. Of course, you know more about you than I do,
so topics and entries that you create yourself will be more meaningful to the
expression of your experience. Be sure to include the necessary detail to make
this journal engaging and reflective. Some great topic ideas for this response
would be:
1. Discuss
what you already knew about research from previous experience before beginning
English 1102 and how you feel that your knowledge of research has changed.
2. Discuss
the small successes and dead ends you faced in the process of researching for
class, and detail how you handled this roller coaster ride. How were both the
disappointments and successes both learning experiences?
3. Discuss
why research is important to human beings. Give specific examples.
4. Explain
why we use citations and give credit for intellectual work as academic writers.
Are there ways of giving credit for ideas that you see every day in
non-academic writing? Do you think that this practice is a social one or a
legal one? Why? Feel free to use your originality journal to help you with this
one.
5. Examine
why we discriminate between popular sources of knowledge (fashion magazine,
.com sites, IMDB, Wikipedia, popular music, etc.) and academic, peer-reviewed
sources of knowledge. Do you think that distinction is valid? Why?
6. Analyze
the difference of process between conducting everyday research like using a
phone book or scanning the sales advertisements and concentrated, academic
research. Why are these two activities necessary to be a literate citizen and a
strong writer? Feel free to revise or expand upon your journal entry for this
entry (an unrevised copy of the previous journal is not acceptable for this assignment,
so be sure that you are ready to revise if you take this route).
7. Project
how you will apply your knowledge of research to subjects beyond this class.
8. Explore
how one source (you can use more than one for this, but be sure to keep this
journal narrow enough to be relevant and not so general that it loses its power)
you found truly changed your views on your inquiry project.
9. Show
how one source educated you about bias through example (using inadequate sources
or misinterpreting sources to push a point). You can use the STEM versus
liberal arts degrees debate that we explored in class to help you with this if
you feel it is relevant. Also, please consider how not clearly seeing the other
side of your issue could also make writing unnecessarily biased. Think about what it means to be both a fair
and a persuasive writer.
10. Illustrate how research has made you a
stronger student. Use specific examples for this blog from class (you can feel
free to use example from other classes where you are researching topics). I am
looking for real reflection not flaky, generalized, non-specific writing. While
this looks relatively simple, it is deeper question that it seems.
