ENGL6364: Projects

Connect Four Installments: 60 (4x15)

At four moments in the semester, installments are due in your Google Folder for what I'm calling the Connect Four Project. An installment is a document (1000-1200 words) that accounts for a research question or problem and a method. Installments must also include discussions of methodology and disposition(s). In effect, these will operate as sketches (provisional plans) and, in some cases, also as attempts or beginnings insofar as you may also enact the early steps of the study. If, for example, you select discourse based interview for one of your connect four installments, the document you produce will orient that choice, but it may also go as far as presenting questions or piloting, however tentatively, some of the steps involved--writing questions, conducting an interview, transcribing the interview, devising a coding protocol, and so on. The Connect Four project is meant to offer you the flexibility to sample a variety of combinations, to really mix your methods, or, conversely, to focus and to dwell more deeply on a narrow research question tested across a series of methods. Adhere to APA 7 and include references when appropriate. Titles and subheadings are appropriate. And, finally, assign a list of between 5-7 keywords you believe would do well to index the installment, and include this list at the start of the document.

Conference Proposal: 10

The conference proposal can extend from or otherwise reframe any one of the connect four installments, or it can strike off in a new or new-ish direction relative to the focuses of your work in ENGL6364, but it should bear relation to research design (even if this simply amounts to a line or two in the proposal that address methodology or method explicitly). Choose a conference related to your program of study and/or your research interests (e.g., RSA, CCCC, NCTE, IWCA, SIGDOC, ATTW, etc.). Write a proposal that matches the specifications indicated in an active, open call for proposals (note: the due date for the proposal is April 20, which coordinates intentionally with proposals for CCCC). Include in your document both the call and your proposal.

Poster: 20

On Monday, May 4, our class will convene a poster session open to R&W faculty and graduate students. For the session, prepare a poster that introduces or otherwise frames one or more of the emerging research designs you have generated in ENGL6364. The poster must be at least 18x24. Due consideration of typeface legibility, visual elements, spatial arrangement/layout, and quality content applies. We will look at other research posters and discuss in more detail qualities of rhetorically effective and successful research posters. Note that you have the material options of producing the poster digitally and printing it or producing it using a tri-fold backer onto which you position and affix clips and other single sheet elements. Each poster will present at least one question and respond concisely to its "so what?" premises.

Reflection: 10

For semester's end (due Monday, May 11), write a reflection that 1) accounts for an emerging research design and how the course has prepared you to approach it, or 2) identifies selected, specific moments of insight linked with course readings, course activities or conversations, writing and responses you received, or any other self-initiated extension of the course that you consider meaningfully connected to the course goals or to your research trajectory. The first option is more appropriate for second-year students; the second option is more appropriate for first-year students. For both options, let "Generative Questions for Research Projects" (the handout circulated on January 27) guide and organize your writing. This is a semi-formal reflection in that its style and format should adhere to APA 7; it should include a references page. The reflection should be at least 1500 words but not more than 2400 words.

Additional ungraded, or credit/no credit, items include the following.

Two check-in meetings to discuss your work

Because individual, informal conversations offer a valuable opportunity for considering researchable questions, as well as for tailoring the course to your emerging interests and priorities, plan to visit office hours or make an appointment to see me at least twice during the semester. These ten minute meetings function as check-ins about how the class is going and about how your research focuses are coalescing within and independent of ENGL6364. My office hours are 12-3 on Tuesdays. You are also welcome to suggest other meeting times that better align with your schedule, as needed.

Four notes/annotation snapshots

At four moments during the semester (indicated on the course schedule) upload to your Google Folder a snapshot of your reading notes. These can be Brooke Notes, marginalia, or some other notes system of your choosing.

In-class writing, activities, and heuristics

Several in-class writings, activities, and heuristics constitute an invaluable element of the course. Engaged, attentive participation during class makes a positive difference in the experience of the class for you and for your colleagues.

Certified Training in Human Subjects Protection from Virginia Tech (online)

In the final weeks of the class, everyone will complete Virginia Tech's Human Research Protection Plan (HRPP), which includes the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) certification module. Upload a copy of your CITI certificate (verifying completion) no later than the end of class on Monday, April 13.

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