When you start writing your 1.1, it would be helpful to think about it as three sections:
1. In Martin Alexander's essay (in your textbook), how is the argument structured? By this, I want you to consider how Alexander structures his argument. Also think back to our last several assignments. Think about the theoretical frameworks (or warrants) of the article. Think about the types of evidence that Alexander uses. Why does he include the articles he includes? These are the sorts of issues you should tackle here. Also, look at the first link on the handout. There is a checklist there of things that a literature review should have. Does your review have all of these parts? What is missing and why?
2. In the literature review article of your choosing (look down a few posts for some suggestions), look for the same types of things that you did for the Alexander article. The only difference here is that you should compare the things you find in the article of your choosing to the things you find in the Alexander article. Why do you think the articles are structured differently? Why are they similar?
3. Create a guide for yourself on how to write a literature review. The handout and links I gave out in class will be particularly helpful. Write this in academic prose--do not be informal. Even though this will serve as a sort of "how-to" for your 1.2, you should be writing every assignment for this class in academic prose (meaning, you should avoid all slang and first person).
I don't want you to focus on content for this week--STRUCTURE is what is important here.
A less scary way to think about this assignment is to break it down: each section should be approximately 500 words.
Be sure to include the Works Cited information for the articles you choose. The lit reviews I've suggested to you below are not yet in correct MLA format, although all of the necessary information is there. You will need to put the Alexander article into the same format if you cite from it. The "Citation Help" link on the side of this page will take you to the OWL at Purdue website, which has entries on how to cite almost anything. Use this resource!!
Don't hesitate to see me in my office or email me. I'm MORE than happy to help with this assignment--I know it is difficult!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
CLASS MEETING 9/24
On Wednesday, September 24th, 1302-28 and 1302-29 will meet in the library, room 309 at our normal class time. To get to this room, you will have to take the silver elevators up. The research librarian, Donell Callender, will be showing us how to make our best use of the library and its facilities for our next brief assignment (#5) and our 1.2, 2.1, and 2.2 drafts. Please be sure to come. I will be taking attendance as normal.
Brief Assignment 4
Objective: To demonstrate your ability to analyze the effectiveness of support in an argument.
Description: In a 300-500 word essay, answer one of the following prompts:
o Describe and give examples of the different types of evidence James Baldwin marshals in support of his argument in “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?” (339 – 342). Comment on how convincing you find his argument for recognizing black English as a language.
o How successful is Jonathon Kozol in building his argument about the costs of illiteracy in “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” (383-90)? What specific characteristics of the essay contribute to your evaluation? Be sure to explain fully what types of evidence Kozol uses.
o Martin Alexander’s thesis (556-63) is “that current analytical methods, because they measure total and not bioavailable concentrations, may overestimate the magnitude of the environmental and societal problem from these pollutants.” How does this thesis fit with the research he summarizes in his essay? Relying on Alexander’s summary of the research, count up the number of studies he cites for two topics: the bioavailability of aging chemicals and the effectiveness of analytical procedures. Compare your counts with Alexander’s thesis, and evaluate Alexander’s focus. Does all the research he cites support his thesis? If so, how does it do so? If not, what would you eliminate?
I recommend that you focus on one of the first two choices for this assignment. You can do the third if it interests you, however.
Description: In a 300-500 word essay, answer one of the following prompts:
o Describe and give examples of the different types of evidence James Baldwin marshals in support of his argument in “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?” (339 – 342). Comment on how convincing you find his argument for recognizing black English as a language.
o How successful is Jonathon Kozol in building his argument about the costs of illiteracy in “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” (383-90)? What specific characteristics of the essay contribute to your evaluation? Be sure to explain fully what types of evidence Kozol uses.
o Martin Alexander’s thesis (556-63) is “that current analytical methods, because they measure total and not bioavailable concentrations, may overestimate the magnitude of the environmental and societal problem from these pollutants.” How does this thesis fit with the research he summarizes in his essay? Relying on Alexander’s summary of the research, count up the number of studies he cites for two topics: the bioavailability of aging chemicals and the effectiveness of analytical procedures. Compare your counts with Alexander’s thesis, and evaluate Alexander’s focus. Does all the research he cites support his thesis? If so, how does it do so? If not, what would you eliminate?
I recommend that you focus on one of the first two choices for this assignment. You can do the third if it interests you, however.
Literature Review for 1.1
Below is a list of potential literature reviews. The reviews on this list are all available on JSTOR. Search for them by entering the article title or author into the search field. These articles are all from different disciplines, and hopefully one will be interesting to you. If not, you can use JSTOR (or any of the techniques we will learn about in the library next week) to search for more literature reviews. Just be sure that they are comparable to these. They should be approximately 7-10 pages. Let me know if you need any help finding literature reviews! I am here to help.
To access JSTOR, you should go to our library's webpage. From there, click "Find Articles" and under the letter "J", you will find JSTOR. You will have to log in with your e-raider if you access JSTOR from off campus.
This assignment will be due by midnight at 9/29.
Best,
Ms. Armstrong
Literature Reviews:
- Fearing Fat: A Literature Review of Family Systems Understandings and Treatments of Anorexia and Bulimia
Kyle D. Killian
Family Relations, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul., 1994), pp. 311-318
- The Costs and Benefits of Sentencing: A Systematic Review
Cynthia McDougall, Mark A. Cohen, Raymond Swaray and Amanda Perry
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 587, Assessing Systematic Evidence in Crime and Justice: Methodological Concerns and Empirical Outcomes (May, 2003), pp. 160-177
- Thirty Years of Black American Literature and Literary Studies: A Review
Farah Jasmine Griffin
Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2, Special Issue: Back to the Future of Civilization: Celebrating 30 Years of African American Studies (Nov., 2004), pp. 165-174
- Recent Moves in the Sociology of Literature
Wendy Griswold
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 19, (1993), pp. 455-467
- Lung Cancer Risk after Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Review and Meta-Analysis
Ben Armstrong, Emma Hutchinson, John Unwin and Tony Fletcher
Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 112, No. 9, 2004 Annual Review (Jun., 2004), pp. 970-978
- Lead Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review
Ana Navas-Acien, Eliseo Guallar, Ellen K. Silbergeld and Stephen J. Rothenberg
Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 115, No. 3 (Mar., 2007), pp. 472-482
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Brief Assignment 3
As we discussed in class, this week our assignment is about theoretical frameworks of a text. Another word we used to describe this concept is warrants. Keep our discussions about the movie review, commonplaces, and the two sociology articles discussed in class in mind when you work on this assignment.
Objective: demonstrate your ability to determine the theoretical framework/network of interpretation of a text.
Description: Because of the complexity of human relationships, sociologists are careful to detail the theoretical framework of their research. By doing so, they articulate the underlying premises and assumptions that shape their claims. Not all researchers make this theoretical framework as obvious as sociologists do, nor do they label it as a “theoretical framework.” You may hear the terms “commonplaces,” “ideology,” “underlying assumptions,” or “warrants,” all of which refer to similar concepts or beliefs that underlie a writer’s work.
Your task for this assignment is to identify the theoretical framework of a piece of academic scholarship (see below for selections).
1. Read the piece carefully and describe as specifically as possible what it is that the researcher is curious about. You may find it helpful to formulate this as a research question or a hypothesis.
2. Once you have identified the question(s) that the writer is trying to answer, you will need to determine the theoretical framework: how the writer views the world and what kind of knowledge the writer values. (You might want to review the discussion of ideology and commonplaces beginning on page 191 of the text since a theoretical framework will be based on an ideology and commonplaces.) You may need to do some careful analysis here since the researcher may have left the theoretical framework somewhat or nearly completely unstated.
Your essay should be 300-500 words. For this assignment, use one of the following texts:
• Psychology: “Focused Expressive Writing as Self-Help for Stress and Trauma” (457- 465)
• Political Science: “Iraq and the Democratic Peace: Who Says Democracies Don’t Fight?” (505 – 509)
• Chemistry: “Realms of the Spring” (573 – 576)
REMEMBER TO READ FOR THIS WEEK:
Chapter 7 (pages 207-35)
Objective: demonstrate your ability to determine the theoretical framework/network of interpretation of a text.
Description: Because of the complexity of human relationships, sociologists are careful to detail the theoretical framework of their research. By doing so, they articulate the underlying premises and assumptions that shape their claims. Not all researchers make this theoretical framework as obvious as sociologists do, nor do they label it as a “theoretical framework.” You may hear the terms “commonplaces,” “ideology,” “underlying assumptions,” or “warrants,” all of which refer to similar concepts or beliefs that underlie a writer’s work.
Your task for this assignment is to identify the theoretical framework of a piece of academic scholarship (see below for selections).
1. Read the piece carefully and describe as specifically as possible what it is that the researcher is curious about. You may find it helpful to formulate this as a research question or a hypothesis.
2. Once you have identified the question(s) that the writer is trying to answer, you will need to determine the theoretical framework: how the writer views the world and what kind of knowledge the writer values. (You might want to review the discussion of ideology and commonplaces beginning on page 191 of the text since a theoretical framework will be based on an ideology and commonplaces.) You may need to do some careful analysis here since the researcher may have left the theoretical framework somewhat or nearly completely unstated.
Your essay should be 300-500 words. For this assignment, use one of the following texts:
• Psychology: “Focused Expressive Writing as Self-Help for Stress and Trauma” (457- 465)
• Political Science: “Iraq and the Democratic Peace: Who Says Democracies Don’t Fight?” (505 – 509)
• Chemistry: “Realms of the Spring” (573 – 576)
REMEMBER TO READ FOR THIS WEEK:
Chapter 7 (pages 207-35)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
BA 2 Tips
Here are some tips for BA #2:
-Read the article more than once! Each time you read, you will get a better understanding of the author's meaning. Both articles are short, so this shouldn't be a problem.
-Look at the grading rubric in the book. Be sure that your work fulfills the parameters of the grade you want.
-Read the prompt here and on Raider Writer several times. Be sure to answer EVERY part of the question. Not addressing one part of the prompt will affect your grade.
-Ask me questions! Don't hesitate to ask questions about the assignment (provided that your question can't be answered with information on this blog or that I stated in class!)
-Reread your work before submitting! Carefully read for grammatical errors.
-Use correctly formatted MLA citations anytime you cite in your paper.
-Read the article more than once! Each time you read, you will get a better understanding of the author's meaning. Both articles are short, so this shouldn't be a problem.
-Look at the grading rubric in the book. Be sure that your work fulfills the parameters of the grade you want.
-Read the prompt here and on Raider Writer several times. Be sure to answer EVERY part of the question. Not addressing one part of the prompt will affect your grade.
-Ask me questions! Don't hesitate to ask questions about the assignment (provided that your question can't be answered with information on this blog or that I stated in class!)
-Reread your work before submitting! Carefully read for grammatical errors.
-Use correctly formatted MLA citations anytime you cite in your paper.
Brief Assignment 2
Hello Everyone,
Just a brief reminder that BA #2 is due, turned in to RaiderWriter, by midnight Monday night.
The instructions for this assignment are :
Description: In a 300-500 word essay, address one of the following prompts:
o In “The Holocaust” (363-365), Bruno Bettelheim confronts terminology that has become part of our vocabulary, part of recent history. Why does Bettelheim object to the use of the term holocaust? Do you agree or disagree with his objection? Why, or why not? In addition, review the “Language as Power” section in the text (194-199). What view(s) of language does Bettelheim’s essay reflect?
o In “Learning the Language” (367-369), Perri Klass states that in learning this new language she is also absorbing “the logic, the attitudes.” Give some examples of doctors’ attitudes and explain how these attitudes are revealed in their use of language. In addition, review the “Language as Power” section in the text (194-199). What view(s) of language does Klass’s essay reflect?
Please respond to one of the above prompts, ensuring that you have answered EACH part of the question. It should take at least 300 words to completely fulfill these requirements.
For our next class, please be sure to have read Chapter 11 (pages 391-433) in our textbook, and Chapter 3 (pages 36-48) in our handbook.
Just a brief reminder that BA #2 is due, turned in to RaiderWriter, by midnight Monday night.
The instructions for this assignment are :
Description: In a 300-500 word essay, address one of the following prompts:
o In “The Holocaust” (363-365), Bruno Bettelheim confronts terminology that has become part of our vocabulary, part of recent history. Why does Bettelheim object to the use of the term holocaust? Do you agree or disagree with his objection? Why, or why not? In addition, review the “Language as Power” section in the text (194-199). What view(s) of language does Bettelheim’s essay reflect?
o In “Learning the Language” (367-369), Perri Klass states that in learning this new language she is also absorbing “the logic, the attitudes.” Give some examples of doctors’ attitudes and explain how these attitudes are revealed in their use of language. In addition, review the “Language as Power” section in the text (194-199). What view(s) of language does Klass’s essay reflect?
Please respond to one of the above prompts, ensuring that you have answered EACH part of the question. It should take at least 300 words to completely fulfill these requirements.
For our next class, please be sure to have read Chapter 11 (pages 391-433) in our textbook, and Chapter 3 (pages 36-48) in our handbook.
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