Assignment:

• Observe and make note of your encounters with technology over a two-day period.
• Working together in groups, examine various responses, generate possible cultural topics suggested by these, and determine a topic for consideration from the ideas generated by the class.
• Each member of the group will then develop a focus from these broader category/topic and determine a direction he/she wishes his/her investigation to take.
• Each member of the group will then find and contribute 2 articles on his/her chosen topic. These articles must have been published within the last five years (1993-1998). One of these articles should come from a national newspaper: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, etc. The other article should come from a popular magazine (use the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature as a resource). You will share these articles with your group.
• Each member of the group will next select and organize his/her material.
• Having completed these stages, each of you will draft individual three-five page  papers, focusing on your narrowed topic and using the resources compiled in your group.
• Once these drafts are completed, we will hold 2 peer-review sessions (Tuesday, January 28th and Thursday, February 2nd). Drafts are due in class on Thursday, February 4th

Format:
This paper will be 3-5 pages long-not any shorter or any longer. Keeping to this length will require that you use organization and editing skills. Check the syllabus for proper formatting of this and other papers. In the paper, you will draw on at least two of the sources you and/or your group gathered. Your bibliography pages (References if you're using APA and Works Cited in you're using MLA) should be on the last page. Document your sources following either APA or MLA guidelines.
 

Purpose:

Assignment:

• Working in groups, survey the information in Writing in the Disciplines about your own disciplines. Your beginning research questions for this assignment will be:
• What kinds of questions interest professionals in my major field?
• What do professionals in my major field write about?
• How do they go about researching the topics?
• How do they present their findings to other professionals and/or to the public?

 
• Together with your group, brainstorm a list of more specific questions, determine a topic for research be selecting from your brainstormed list, and conduct the research with other's help.
• Each person in the group will then find and contribute 2 articles from Professional Journals in your field on the chosen topic. There is no time restriction on the articles' publication dates.
• Each group member will then write a two-three page paper. Remember that a shorter, clear and succinct paper is your goal. In this paper you will draw on at least 2 of the 8-10 sources your group finds on your topic. You may also draw upon our textbook, Writing in the Disciplines as an additional source. Your Works Cited page should be on a separate page and adhere to the documentation guidelines of either the MLA or APA style manuals.

 

Purpose:
This assignment has several purposes and represents the detailed application of the strategies you learned in the first two essay assignments. First, you will again investigate how professionals in your major field research and write, this time focusing on the area of ethical concerns about technology in relation to your major field of study. You will learn more about how professionals in your field go about gathering information and determining its relevance, about how they present their research to colleagues and others interested in their work, and about what the major ethical concerns in relation to technology are in your field. In researching and writing this paper, you will again engage the steps of creating a researched essay, this time using books, surveys, interviews, and professional journals as sources.

Assignment:

• Working in the groups formed for your writing in the disciplines essay, devise a list of potential ethical concerns having to do with the use of technology in your field.
• Next, begin constructing a series of research questions based on your list of potential ethical concerns having to do with the use of technology in your field.

                    (I will collect the lists and questions from each group at the end of class)

•  Together with your group, brainstorm a list of more specific questions, determine a topic for research begin selecting from your brainstormed list, and determine a focus for your individual paper.

 

 

During the next several weeks we will be discussing articles focusing on ethical concerns about technology as a way to help you discover and determine possible areas for your investigative research. We will also spend time in the library doing research and in class sharing information, research strategies, questions, and concerns.

Final, polished paper with accompanying drafts & peer responses due Thurs., April 15th

These oral reports—the things you’ve all been dreading—are not formal presentations:  no memorized speeches folks.  Instead, I would like you to take 10-15 minutes to describe your research to the class.  You might tell us about your topic, including your initial views and whether or not they changed as you did your research; you might draw from your notes; you might directly quote from your sources; you might make use of the projector and show us various web sites of interest.  But, for the most part, this “report” should consist of  you talking to us.
 

Here are some guidelines you might follow:
 

WHAT I KNEW
To begin, you might briefly tell us what you knew, or thought you knew, about the use of technology in your field and some of the ethical issues related to that use.  You could tell us what your subject area is and how it may be part of your life now or in the future (i.e., will it be your major, your profession, or is it simply an interest you have?)

WHAT I WANTED TO KNOW
Here you could tell us what your questions were at  the beginning of your research.  Why were you interested in this topic?  What answers did you expect to find?

THE SEARCH
Here you could tell us about what happened as you researched the answers to your initial questions. Where did you look?  Why?  Did your search lead you to anything unusual or exciting that you hadn’t anticipated? Did you run into anything particularly frustrating?  In this part, you might tell us both how you did your research and what changes you made in your approach to this research as the project progressed.  In other words, help others understand some of the twists and turns research sometimes takes.

WHAT I LEARNED
Here you might do two things.  First, you might summarize your findings, noting the major answers to your questions, the evidence you found to support these answers, etc.  Did you come across personal stories, national or local events, statistics?  Second, you might tell us about some of the most fascinating, surprising, exciting, or humorous things you learned.  If, along the way, you ever found yourself saying, “Wow! I didn’t know that!” share those moments.
 
 
 

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