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Assignments
Reflection Papers
A full 5-point paper will be well written, both for argument and form (e.g., grammar, correct word choice), summarize in-class presentation, synthesize ideas, and offer evidentiary support for critiques offered.
Use the Guidelines and Methods Considerations
Be careful with your choice of words. Make sure you are using the exact word you want. Words do matter.
Try to keep your writing simple and direct. You do not have to impress me with your ability to embed modifying phrases or dependent clauses. It is more important to convey your message than to sound smart. Read it aloud; does it scan? If you are tripping over your own prose, it needs smoothing.
Be concise. Say only what you want to say and no more. Eliminate unnecessary words (see Strunk & White).
Where to start?
Read the news. Your piece must be timely.
Talk to professors or other students in your department. They may have good ideas for what types of controversies are current in your field. Pick their brains for ideas about lessons the general public could use from your discipline.
Look at professional websites or newsletters from your discipline that might have an "in the news" section.
Once you have a topic and a paper in mind, make an outline and begin to work on a draft. The draft you bring to class should not be your very first draft but at least a second or third version.
Op Ed guidelines from the Wall Street Journal
Media tips and training from the Communications Consortium Media Center
Indiana University Writing Tutorial: guide to thesis statements
St. Cloud State LEO guide to thesis statements
Samples of Dr. Arcus's op ed pieces will be critiqued in class. Link to the most recent editorials on Teen Suicide and UMass Tuition & Fee Structure.
Use this Peer Review sheet to prepare your review of classmate's drafts
You must submit your op-ed to an identified media outlet in order to receive full credit. Be sure to include a biographical line at the end of the piece that includes the sentence, "NAME is a student in the Honors Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell majoring in DISCIPLINE."
When you submit your essay to the newspaper of your choice, be sure to include a cover letter with it. This is best done by e-mail. In your cover letter or e-mail:
Topics:
ARQ website has links to NYT e-themes
International Debate Education Association Debatabase
Preparing your evidence:
Format and expectations for the debates and papers
Remember that your job is to bring in evidence. One source is enough; more is great. You will get maximal points for bringing in primary source empirical data from peer reviewed journals that have relevance to the question at hand. Please use ARQ for suggestions and guidance about the types of reasons and evidence tht might be useful. Remember that your evidence might not be direct. For example, if we were debating whether adolescents should be required to obtain parental consent prior to obtaining contraceptives, you might bring in data about adolescent cognition or decision making or the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in adolescents compared to other groups. After presenting the data, you would then be able to draw inferences with respect to the question being debated. Please ask me any questions as soon as you have them.
We will conduct these debates as follows. Each member of the YES team will present his or her evidence, following in the same manner with the NO team. We will then see whether any YES members have anything to add, then any NO members. We will then open it up to questions and answer exchanged between the members of both sides. Finally we will open things up to the whole class.
These debates have two objectives: (1) to give you experience identifying appropriate evidence for controversial issues, and (2) to give you experience in communicating your finding--orally rather than in writing (as you do in the op-ed). Under no circumstances should you read aloud to your classmates. Put things in your own words and do your best to convey what you have found. Remember you are among friends!
Debate I
Should undocumented immigrants be able to earn their citizenship?
Monday 2.26
YES
NO
Jacob
Annalisa
Celia
Paul
Timothy
Sarah
Evan
Theresa
Andrew
Debate II
Should passing MCAS be a requirement for HS graduation?
Monday 3.5
YES
NO
Timothy
Annalisa
Theresa
Celia
Paul
Sarah
Craig
Evan
Jessica
Andrew
Written summary of one debate (your choice)
due in class Wednesday 3/7/07
A best effort CV brought to class will count for 10 points.
Remember that your CV is a guide to your educational and professional qualifications for the world to see.
There is no place for personal information (beware of dated advice to include marital status or hobbies).
Do not include your Social Security Number unless you want to invite identity theft when extra copies get left at the Xerox machine.
You don't need fancy paper and should not cram things onto one page. Make it readable in no less than 11 point font.
Use margins judiciously--one inch at the end and indent appropriately.
Center your name and contact info and left justify everything else.
Try to use parallel terms for like items. Under employment history, for example, don't use a verb as one job title and a noun for the next one.
Example:
Here is Karen's resume. It looks pretty good.
Here is Karen's resume revised. Is it improved? Why? What changed?
As you go along in your careers, and especially if you have career shifts in there, your CV can become complicated. Try to make it easy for the reader to find relevant information with headings and subheadings.
Here are some suggestions:
Job Search Guide, UML. Includes information on cover letters, resumes and all aspects of the job search.
Writing a CV by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A 28 page handout that is quite comprehensive. Primarily written for graduate students but still some worthwhile pointers in general
Writing a Curriculum Vitae, University of Virginia. Another comprehensive treatment with some nice examples.
Curriculum Vitae (CV). Marquette University contrasts resumes and CVs.
From CV to Resume. Chronicle of Higher Education compares CVs and resumes from the point of view of someone thinking of leaving academia and needing to revert to a resume.
Vitae vs. Resume Rutgers University when to use which one.
E-mail inquiries or follow up? A Primer on Electronic Communication Inside Higher Education
Final paper due to my office (MA 106A or SO 320) 5/14/07
Your final paper should apply three diverse perspectives to one topic with appropriate evidence, documentation, logic, and clarity of expression. I suggest you:
Select a topic dear to your heart and in which you have some expertise, most likely by virtue of your major and specialized coursework
Select your own major as one perspective and then two others that might be quite different from each other (e.g., chemistry and literature).
Focus on diversity of perspectives here. Make sure they are from different disciplines. For example, you would not want to discuss how a community psychologist, a behavioral psychologist and a cognitive psychologist would approach terrorism or some other topic because these three approaches--different though they are within the discipline of psychology--are not broadly diverse as you might find by comparing a psychological perspective with an engineering perspective with a historical perspective.
Don't try to cover all aspects of a broad topic; instead aim for a basic discussion of one way to approach the topic from a given disciplinary or methodological perspective.
Draw on the diversity of presentations we have had in our workshop. Imagine all the speakers sitting around a table and bringing their backgrounds to a discussion of some topic.
Again, don't try to be comprehensive in your discussion of each disciplinary perspective. Focus instead on the different questions the disciplines would ask, the different methods they would employ, and the different evidence they might seek.
Plan to present each perspective and then to tie them together with some critical synthesis. What do they each have to offer? How is it helpful to understand how another perspective might view the issue?
Here is an exercise to start the wheels turning.
The outline should be as detailed as you can make it. Remember to outline each major section--including the introduction and synthesis. You want to focus on how each perspective adds something different to understanding the central problem or phenomenon. One to two pages with at least two references for each perspective.
The paper can probably be done well with 3-5 pages per perspective, a page for introduction, and a page or two for synthesis for a total of about 12 and absolutely no more than 18 pages. As always, use double spacing and document your sources.
For each perspective covered, introduce it by identifying the discipline and its basic principles and methods. Then present an example of how the topic has been or might be covered by referring to studies in that discipline done on your paper topic or on other topics from which you can make applications to your paper topic.
Use your own words. Use direct quotes sparingly. You almost never need them unless you are bringing forward a quoted passage for your own analysis.
In addition to submitting a hard copy of the paper, please submit to Turnitin.com. Watch for an e-mail with instructions to register.
The presentation should be clear, complete, and use adjunct materials to promote engagement. Adjunct materials may include power point, writing on the whiteboard to illustrate, posters, brief video clips, or examples of items. Under no circumstances are you to read to the class. Remember you are among friends. Share what you have learned with us.
Writing
Grammar pretest feedback and suggestions: Most frequent mistakes
EndNote can be purchased from the publisher at academic discounts
Student version $110; Can also check UML bookstore
Can download free trial
Other citation management programs with which I am not familiar include:
SciFinder
ProCite
Reference Manager
WriteNote
Reliable Sources of Information on the Internet
Dr. Gallagher's Fall 05 presentation examples and other resources
Harnad, S. (1996). Implementing Peer Review on the Net: Scientific Quality Control in Scholarly Electronic Journals. In: Peek, R. & Newby, G. (Eds.) Scholarly Publication: The Electronic Frontier. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Pp. 103-108. Located using Google Scholar
Justice et al. (1998). Does Masking Author Identity Improve Peer Review Quality? A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA