Unit Project 3 Guidelines

Y. Chen

Academic Discourse: Writing about Academic Writing Context: In Unit 1, we explored how our unique, personal experiences have come to shape (and continue to shape) our literacy. In Unit 2, we looked at how our own literacies experiences can be situated and developed in discourse communities. In this unit, we will now look at our place in one particular discourse community, the academy. In Unit 3 project, you will enter this discourse of your own particular field of academic interest (major/future major). Just as you learned in Unit 2, each community has its own language practices and uses texts and language to make meaning in different ways. Every field or majorfrom Agriculture to Political Sciencehas an academic community and produces texts to open conversations in their field. This is your opportunity to gain knowledge and skills to write authoritatively in your field. And perhaps most importantly, this is an opportunity to learn about your academic field and its concerns.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
You will need to conduct secondary research concerning a contemporary topic in your field, write an annotated bibliography, and then write a literature review of the secondary sources you found. You will begin with a hypothetical research question, and you will conduct secondary research as if you were writing a research paper on this topic, finding at least 3 research sources (peer-reviewed journal articles). Then you will write an annotated bibliography (a vital step to any research essay). Very simply, these include the bibliographic information and a short summary/ evaluation of your texts. Annotations are a great way to summarize sources you want to use in your own research and evaluate their worth to your project (300 words per annotation). Using these sources, you will practice putting texts in academic conversations by writing a literature review. In your project reflection, in addition to reflecting on your process, you will make conclusions about the discursive conventions of your field (i.e. how they write). Requirements: You will need to demonstrate your understanding of contemporary topics and important texts in your field. You will need to show your ability to read and analyze academic texts, using the texts we read in class as a guide. 1) Create a research question and conduct secondary research, finding at least 3 peer-reviewed journal articles. 2) Write an annotated bibliography that summarizes the text and evaluates its worth to your project. 3) Write a 3-4 page literature review of the sources. You need to put the texts in conversation and demonstrate how the texts speak to each other. Then, briefly discuss how you might enter in this conversation. Goals: 1) To understand the methods of writing and researching in your field of study. 2) To become acquainted with the texts (the genres, the styles, and the conventions) currently being produced in your field of study. 3) To investigate one contemporary issue or topic in your field. 4) To gain secondary research skills and learn how to navigate the Purdue library system. Unit Point Breakdowns: Total Points 300 Class Participation: 20 Journals: 20 Research Articles with Notes: 20 Annotated Bibliography draft: 20 Annotated Bibliography: 50 Peer Review and Writers Note: 20 Lit Review draft: 30 Lit Review: 100 Project Reflection: 20