Community analysis

RESEARCH PAPER #1

 

Summary:

You will perform primary and secondary research to study a community you’ve chosen, in order to create a claim (written as a thesis statement) about the relationship between communication in a group and that group’s practices, values, and goals.

 

Progress checks and delivery dates:

All files must be uploaded to the appropriate subfolder of D2L Dropbox “Research Paper 1” folder by 11:59 PM. on the day due. Final Paper is due Monday 19 October as PDF, DOCX, or ODT file named “final.”

 

Background:

While it will seem like most of your social and academic interactions are either intuitive or planned out for you, learning to join academic conversations is a social skill. We all have experience with feeling like an “outsider” to a social or academic group; at those times you learned to participate and feel comfortable in a new school, a new church, a new circle of friends, a new team, or any new interest group, you were absorbing the values and language of that community. The first research paper has you enact the values of academic work while reflecting upon and explaining the research you’ve done on a group you belong to, or a group behavior you might study. For this assignment, you’re going to study, then write, about a community you belong to or have access to. You will write an analysis of that community. You may formulate your own research question; if you cannot, consider these questions:

 

• What are the goals, practices, and characteristics of this community?
• How successful is the community at achieving these goals?
• How does the community replicate its values, and to what end?
• What characteristics of this community are interesting or worthy of comment?

 

In other words, for this assignment you will need to go about studying the community, collecting data through primary and secondary research, making observations, analyzing that information, and then writing about it.

 

 

Procedure:

1. Choose a community of people that are united by several criteria: shared goals, shared purpose, shared language, shared spaces, and shared rules.
2. Do secondary research by finding scholarly articles that will frame and support the research question and your response to it.
3. Write an Annotated Bibliography that lists the most relevant and useful research.
4. Reflect on your research and goals to write a research question that describes what you want to know.
5. Write a thesis that answers that question.
6. Conduct primary research on your community.
7. Incorporate thesis, research, and collected evidence into a Paper Draft.
8. Organize and analyze the data (John Swales is particularly helpful in this regard; see Selected Bibliography).
9. Identify patterns, problems, anomalies, and/or conflicts in the data. Use any of these ideas to figure out what is worth writing about. What “trouble spots” are emerging in the community? What discourse ensures its smooth functionality, based on answers to the questions in (10.)?
10. Respond to feedback and revise your Paper Draft to develop a Final Draft.

 

Your drafts should develop according to this paper structure that will contain shorter, ungraded deliverables:

1. Summary of your argument and supporting statements in an Abstract
2. An Introduction that defines the subject, states your purpose, and states your main point (thesis)
3. A necessary background information and a Literature Review
4. Definitions of any terms that require definition
5. Explanation and substantiation of your research Methodology
6. A clearly-defined Body with a recognizable pattern of argument, supported by textual evidence
7. A Refutation that responds to potential disagreements
8. A Conclusion that restates your main point and looks to the future

 

Evaluation:

Remember that a successful essay cannot simply be a series of observations. You will need to use your powers of analysis and audience awareness to create a piece of writing that makes people think about the community you have studied, what it does, and why what you say matters. You will have to create an argument through analysis, including well-formed paragraphs and a clearly defined paper structure. I will look for sophisticated use of support and evidence (your own research explained and put in a context/use of several outside readings).

These evaluative criteria merely ensure that the basic work is done. Each part of the assignment will contain additional criteria that addresses the quality of the work, as well as deliverable-specific formatting problems.

 

Paper Rubric

1. Ability to follow directions: 20%

• Research Project followed/omitted some/deviated significantly from listed instructions
• Failure: Research Project was incomplete or simply ignored instructions
  1. Paper abstract is provided prior to paper text
  2. Paper contains identifiable introduction containing the paper’s thesis
  3. Paper contains a short review of the literature
  4. Paper defines necessary and relevant terms
  5. Paper contains a short explanation of your methodology
  6. Body contains a short presentation of your results
  7. Body contains extensive discussion of your argument, based on your results and supporting your argument
  8. Paper refutes necessary counterclaims
  9. Paper contains a conclusion that does not merely summarize the paper
  10. Paper contains a Works Cited page and citations are formatted correctly
  11. Paper contains any necessary addenda/appendices
  12. Thesis statement clearly states purpose of paper and indicates a claim that seeks to answer a question
  13. The introduction engages the reader and does not rely on trite methods
  14. Paper presents a logical sequence of ideas in well-developed paragraphs organized through transitions
  15. Body paragraphs contain topic sentences, evidence, and explanation that work develop a main idea
  16. Your conclusion restates your main point and looks to the future
  17. Works Cited page contains all citations and is formatted correctly
• Paper has/has no errors in punctuation, capitalization, and spelling that impede understanding.
• Paper has/has no errors in sentence structure and word usage that impede understanding.

1. Paper format and structure: 2o%

1. Subjective assessment of argument format and power: 40%

1. Editing and Proofing: 2o%

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