Research Article

(2000-2200 words)

⦁ Using research to understand an issue
⦁ Selecting, analyzing, and integrating sources
⦁ Synthesizing
⦁

PRODUCT:
A 2200 word researched article in APA format written for a scholarly OR popular audience that discusses an aspect of well-being that is of particular interest to you.

:
For this assignment, you will forward the ideas from other thinkers/experts/scholars/artists and synthesize the “conversation” that is happening in the public about well-being and your object of study. After you read and think and draft and read again and think again and write again, you will begin to see your own “new offering.” It might be an argument you want to make about something. It might be a question you think the experts should be asking. It might be a recommendation for a program or a system. It might be a solution to a problem. It might be the insight you’ve gained from your own unique experiences in life. Your new offering will emerge the more you read and the more connections you make. It will be deeply connected to your exigence, your purpose and your relevance.

RELEVANCE:
Who are you writing for? Well, it depends. Who do you think would like to read about this idea you have? Do you want to write for other students? Other people your age? Others interested in your hobby? Do you want to write for experts to ask them to think about something in a new way or to do something about a problem you see? Your research will guide you. You’ll have a question that you want answered and you’ll be thinking about who would be interested in the answer to this question. Once you figure that out, that will be your audience. The next step is for you to think about whether you should communicate this message to your audience in a popular magazine article like Flora (2009) or an academic article like Deci and Ryan (2018).

All of these steps are integrated into our course calendar, so that you move towards your final product intentionally and step by step:

⦁ You will search for 15 sources (5 popular magazine articles, 5 academic articles/book chapters, and 5 audio/video sources) that seem to line of inquiry and object of study. You will not read these closely. You will just skim them and collect them in a file on your computer or in the cloud.

⦁ You will begin filling out a Project Plan to help you refine your research question, your social and personal exigencies, your purpose and your relevance.

⦁ Research, skim, and decide on 8-10 sources that will help you write this article. You will need to have the following types of sources and summarize/justify them in your Individual Annotated Bibliography Assignment:
⦁ Two scholarly sources
⦁ Two audio/video sources
⦁ Two popular articles (newspaper, magazine, blog, or website article)
⦁ Two chapters from a nonfiction book

⦁ You will meet with your professors for individual conferences to discuss your project plan and your annotated bibliographies and prepare you to write your first draft.

⦁ You will identify a ⦁ magazine or undergraduate academic journal from the provided list that seems interesting to you and that you think would publish an article that begins to answer your research question and explain that choice.

⦁ Write a “shitty first draft” that synthesizes your sources and submit for professor and peer feedback. You will include a Post-Script to help guide your readers on what you’d like feedback on. This doesn’t have to be long at all. Just a few sentences to guide us.

Post-Script Questions:
This is informal writing, but it must be submitted with your draft essay that you submit to Discussion Board for Peer-Review. Please include your post-script as a new page at the end (after your References page).
⦁ What do you like best about your draft?
⦁ What concerns do you have about your draft?
⦁ What do you want me and your peers to pay special attention to or comment on?

⦁ Revise your draft based on your feedback from peers and professor and meet with one of your professors for a one-on-one conference to get another round of oral feedback before the final submission.

⦁ You will submit the final and revise again for submission at the end of the semester. This revision must include a “Revision Memo” (informal writing) that addresses the following.

Revision Memo
This is informal writing, but it must be submitted with your essay. I will not grade an essay without a meaningful revision memo, and your paper will accrue late penalties while I wait for it. Please include your revision memo as a new page at the end (after your References page).
⦁ What aspect of your essay did you “re-see”? How would you describe this revision as a large-scale revision, a re-seeing?
⦁ What feedback did you prioritize and why?
⦁ How do you feel like the essay better addresses the audience and genre now?
⦁ What’s your favorite part of this piece?
⦁ What’s your least favorite part?
⦁ If you had more time, what would you do?
⦁ Discuss what you learned from this project: about research, writing, yourself as a writer, etc.
⦁ What process steps would you use for another assignment? For what types of assignment, and why? What would you rethink, and why?