Research Unit Overview / Calendar

Today is March 1, 2013, and my current Shakespeare students are embarking upon the last six weeks of our semester. They have read many works by Shakespeare and have done self-directed learning and a lot of online writing within a private online forum in our learning management system. From here on out, however, they will become more public in their conversation as they interact with one another and with those beyond our class in proposing and refining their research questions, then developing and publishing their formal research papers.

Blogging

Each student will post three times weekly to this, our course blog, and will also post comments in response to at least two other students' posts. But the goal here is not simply to produce writing. The blogging is a vehicle to meet the larger goals.

Goals

As I explained to my students in class today, the goal is not simply to produce a high-quality academic research paper. The goal is to find and develop a topic about which they care, and about which others demonstrate interest. This requires both reflection and interaction.

Along the way, the goal is to develop improved abilities at conducting research and using online writing and networking. This includes consulting traditional sources of literary criticism, but it also includes researching by way of new media and by tapping into social networks and online communities where the topics in question are being discussed. The online tools (including blogging and some video production) are not ends in themselves; they are to improve student ability at clarifying and refining their arguments, and improving communication and collaboration skills within the drafting and beta states of knowledge (rather than focusing everything upon a final, finished academic product alone).

Rather than simply listing detailed assignments for each class period, I would like my students to have an overview of the process in terms of these goals, which I will recast as questions:

Week One (March 4-8)

• Have I reviewed my own recent writing and thinking and identified texts and topics of real interest to me?
• Have I returned to primary texts and reread and analyzed these, looking for patterns and potential ways to analyze and make arguments?
• Have I sounded out others (within/outside of class) about my developing ideas? Has feedback helped me to become more clear and more interested in my potential topics?
• Have I articulated a select set of potential paper ideas in writing and in written interaction with others (especially via blogging or social networks)?
• Have I looked at the processes of past students and at the interests of current students, to get ideas for how to proceed?
• Do I understand "social discovery," the four types of audiences and four general phases of "social proof" and do I understand a socially-mediated research process? 

Week Two (March 11-15)

• Am I making plans for effective use of in-class, face-to-face interactions with fellow students (rather than awaiting to have all in-class activities designated by the instructor)? Am I taking advantage of the time and flexibility being offered?
• Have I been able to boil down my ideas to one or two claims and then circulate those for feedback (the "tweethis statement")?
• Have I applied various resources to help me analyze the primary TEXT(s)?
• Have I researched various secondary texts, both literary CRITICISM and sources providing historical or cultural CONTEXT(s)?
• Have I curated my research, condensing it into an annotated bibliography, and shared that bibliography (along with a working thesis statement)?
• Am I actively helping others develop or research their ideas -- both those within and those outside of our class?
• Do I know what online communities or individuals are discussing the texts or topics I am reading and researching? Have I reported on these in the blog?

Week Three (March 18-22)

• Post #1: Video preview of paper (optional)
  Watch a few of the video paper preview posts from past students. Then, make and post your own. Articulate your claim and outline your prospective paper in a 90-second video. Post it on YouTube and embed it on a blog post on Team Shakespeare.
• Post #2: Mini-paper
  Write an early rough draft of your paper, limited to 3-4 pages, and post this to the blog. Preface this or follow it up with comments about the status of your paper. [See this example from Dana]
• Post #3: Social scholarship
  In the spirit of the post on altruistic scholarship, help a classmate with his/her research. First, spend some time reading his/her annotated bibliography (or other posts about his/her topic). Then, do some research to help him/her and post some specific suggestions (as I did for Richard). Be sure to link back to that fellow class-member's post(s). Here are assigned pairings.
• Post #4: Audience post
  Describe the audience for whom your research and writing will be most significant. Research and briefly list possible publication or presentation venues for your paper that target this audience. [See this example from Marsha, though I'd like you to describe your audience and rationale for choosing them, as Kasey does]
• Responses
  Comment on two others' posts for each of the four listed above.

Week Four (March 25-29)

• Post #1: Primary text analysis
  Show that you know the play(s) you are analyzing by doing a post devoted to analyzing the primary text. A set of relevant quotes from the play is one approach (see how Amelia has done this in her rough draft). Consider listing criteria and then listing under each criterion supporting passages. Consider bringing into this analysis the use of new media as a way of looking at the text in a new way. Be sure to have a sentence or brief paragraph in which you say how this new attention to primary texts will play into your developing paper.
• Post #2: Focused and diversified bibliography
  Now that you've completed a rough draft and done some additional talking and thinking about your topic, it's time to do a second round of secondary sources. While becoming more focused on your topic, I'd like you to broaden your research approach and the types of your sources. Here are a dozen possibilities. I'd like to see about eight diverse sources from you. As before, annotate these so we can see what they are about and why you see them as relevant to your project. After each entry, indicate in brackets which of the follow diversity types that that source represents (any one entry could be more than one type). See the example below for help:
• Diverse Methods of Finding (at least four of these)
• a source found by way of a library research guide (Shakespeare, Literature, but consider subject or research guides from other institutions)
• a source found within or referred to in a scholarly edition of the primary text
• a source found by browsing physical library shelves (with help of the Library of Congress cataloging system)
• a source found by way of a footnote or a bibliography from another source (print or electronic)
• a source recommended by a person with whom you've discussed your project (the instructor, a scholar, an enthusiast).
• a source that comes by way of a social network you've identified as an audience or group of stakeholders. This could be a conference, a publication, teaching media, etc.
• a source from an academic archive or special collections (could be a digitized primary text or a library exhibit)
• Diverse types of Sources (at least 3 of these)
• a scholarly monograph (a book by one author about one topic)
• a scholarly article (from a peer-reviewed journal)
• an academic blog (one hosted by an educational institution, kept by an educator, or otherwise showing a disciplined focus on topics or texts) 
• an eBook (see this list from the HBLL). 
• Diverse Time of Sources (at least one from each)
• at least one recent source (within 5-10 years)
• at least one older source (10-50 years) sources
• at least one very current source (within days or weeks) -- perhaps via social or new media.
• Post #3: Social process
  This boils down to addressing how you are drawing upon other people to vet and evolve your ideas; and how you are being a resource to others in the same way.
• Social proof
  Report on further interaction that you've done with people in refining your idea, making a query on a specific point, or further investigating or interacting with your potential audience. This social proof should be more advanced than your initial efforts to just bounce ideas off of others.
• Assistance to others
  Describe how you have helped someone else develop their focused/diversified bibliography or how you are assisting others (classmates or beyond) to do their research.

Week Five (April 1-5)

• Post #1: Annotated list of outlets
  Now that your paper is well underway, it's time to return to thinking about your audiences. Make an annotated list of at least one venue from each of the categories (except #1) discussed in my post on outlets for student research (conference presentation, submission to a journal, guest blog post). In your annotation, explain why that outlet is appropriate and refer to (and if possible link to) examples from that outlet that you've looked over. I want you to vet that outlet and make sure it is actually a good fit. 
• Post #2: First complete draft
  Post the first complete draft of your research paper by Wednesday night. This will give others a chance to respond to your draft by Friday. You may wish to review the grading criteria. 
• Post #3: Response to two drafts
  I want you to critique the drafts of two other students: someone you've been working with already, and another student you've had less interaction with on their paper. Rather than responding via a comment, make this a post (or two posts if you prefer). To make your critique, review the grading criteria. You don't need to address all of them. Focus on a strength, and focus on what one thing could most improve their paper. Keep it to a short paragraph or two.

Week Six (April 8-12)

• Post #1: Review draft feedback and posts.
  Explain where you are at and where you are going with your revision, based on 1) the feedback received on your first draft; and 2) going back over the calendar to review any steps you omitted or could profit from returning to (see next post). Pay special attention to audience analysis and pinpointing an authentic outlet for your work (see instructions for post on week three, post #4). This could help sharpen your claim.
• Post #2: Missing or needed steps.
  Based on the prior post or through discussion with the instructor, return to steps in the process that will help with your revisions.  
• Post #3: Final draft
  By end of Friday (or as arranged with instructor), post the final draft of your paper on the blog.
  --Use a post title like this: [your name]: [paper title] (Example: Gideon Burton: "Rhetorical Temporality in Shakespeare's Romances")
  --Do not copy the whole paper into a blog post. Instead, save your paper as a Word or PDF document, then upload it to Google Docs (be sure you choose either the "anyone with a link" or "public" settings as you do so). Copy the Google Doc link.
  --The blog post itself should repeat the title (Link from the title within your post to your Google Doc). In this post, do not include any casual commentary. Instead, include simply a one-paragraph abstract of your paper (not necessarily the first paragraph of your paper, but obviously tied to your central claim). This will help prepare you for the abstract/description required later when submitting your paper to ScholarsArchive. For models of such descriptions/abstracts, see those that accompany the ScholarsArchive entries from Mallory or from Janelle.

Week Seven (April 15-20)

• Post #1: Submission report (due by Wednesday, April 17)
  --Mention that you have successfully submitted your paper to the ScholarsArchive at BYU.
  --Mention that you have submitted your paper to a presentation or publication outlet. Name this, link to it, and copy your submission info into the post (for example, the abstract for your paper presentation, or the cover letter you include when submitting to a journal).
• Post #2: Final Exam post (1 of 2): Reflective Post on Learning Outcomes (due by Saturday, April 20th). Using our course learning outcomes (review them on LearningSuite), reflect on your learning during the semester (see example post by Dana or Gabe). I am especially interested in you discussing the various social components that were required and how this affected your writing and research.
• Post #3: Final Exam post (2 of 2): The Story of My Paper (due by Saturday, April 20th).
  Write the story of your paper's development, reflecting on both the process you have learned, and the specific things you've learned about your topic by researching and writing about it. Follow the model by Jessica in terms of linking back to the posts that document your process.