See our Course Calendar for assignments & due dates.
Element Overview: Your Research Journal will allow you to document all of your research experiences this semester in all aspects of your life (academic, personal, professional). Research is not just a stuffy scholarly exercise but an an activity we engage in on a daily basis, in both formal and informal ways.
The goal of this Course Element is to help you be more reflective and mindful about the various kinds of research you find yourself doing from day to day, the context, purpose and outcomes of that research, and what you learn about yourself and the discourse communities in which you are conducting your research in the process.
Element Time Frame: Weeks 1 – 14
Writing Tasks – Research Journal: Use this link to access the CI Docs Folder for our course. Once you are in our shared folder, select NEW to create a new document that will function as your Research Journal. Name the file as follows:
Last Name, First Name – Research Journal – English 330
Your document should contain a header that appears on each page and includes this same information as well as pagination (page numbers and page count).
The first page should also contain a photo of yourself (so your classmates can connect your face with your writing) and a brief profile.
Each update should begin with the date of the entry and a creative title that captures the overall theme/dominant impression of that particular entry. Use the guidelines in the Element Overview above in composing each update.
Updates are due prior to our class meetings in each of the following weeks, with a target length of 500 words or so (about 1 singled-spaced page with 12-point font):
- Week 2
- Week 3
- Week 5
- Week 7
- Week 9
- Week 11
- Week 13 (Final Reflection)
After Research Journal updates are posted every other week, you will provide feedback to at least 4 of your classmates on their own entries using the Comments feature in CI Docs. Comments will enable you to identify passages or details that you find noteworthy, intriguing, or thought-provoking in some way. Each comment should have a target length of 25 words or so. Comments are due prior to our class meetings in each the following weeks:
- Week 4
- Week 6
- Week 8
- Week 10
- Week 12
- Week 14 (Final Reflection)
Assessment: This Course Element will be evaluated holistically, taking into consideration the quality, thoroughness, and timeliness of your updates as well as your peer comments.
