ASSIGNMENT PACKET

WRT 205: Critical Research

Dr. Rusty Bartels, Spring 2019
* All assignments are due by the beginning of class
UPDATED 3/29 TO INCLUDE REFLECTION REQUIREMENT FOR SYNTHESIZING RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS

SHORT RESPONSES
Short Response 1 Due: Wednesday, January 23rd
Short Response 2 Due: Monday, February 18th
Short Response 3 Due: Friday, March 8th
Short Response 4 Due: Wednesday, April 3rd

For each short response you will be provided a prompt to reflect on. In responding to the
prompt you will be required to refer to at least one of the course readings that we have
discussed up to that point (including the day that the response is due). I will make the prompt
available one week before the response deadline so as to take advantage of class discussions,
current events, etc. They will be posted in several places on the course website (“Course Blog”
and “Assignments”) as well as in an announcement via Blackboard.

The short responses are meant to be an opportunity for reflection and exploration, during
which you will begin to synthesize and connect the course content and your interests. In these
compositions you can use a casual or less formal voice, but you should still be including
citations when quoting readings.

An effective short response will incorporate:

• Your own thoughts, experiences, and/or research project (depending on the prompt);
• References (that may or may not include direct quotations) from at least one course
reading to date;
• And a complete formal citation of the reading(s) that are referenced in the response,
regardless of if there is a direct quotation. 1

1This is to get you in the habit of creating citations for compositions we encounter, as you
will be required to do for the annotated bibliography.

Should you omit a full citation, your response will be deducted 1/3 of a letter grade (e.g. an
A-becomes a B+).

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Assignment Requirements:
• 1-2 page composition that responds to the prompt (when given) and the previously laid
out expectations.
• A proper citation (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.) of the course text.

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Short Response x” in your file name.

Strategic Reflection
Studio: Friday, January 25th
Workshop: Wednesday, January 30th
Peer Review: Monday, February 4th
DUE: Friday, February 8th

In a course on Ethics & Civic Discourse, knowing yourself is the first step to understanding [a]
what your ethics are, what your value systems are; [b] what civic communities you connect
yourself to; and [c] what discourses and conversations you want to be a part of. This is more
than saying “I’m a republican,” “I’m a democrat,” “I’m apolitical”, “I’m a leftist,” “I’m a centrist”
… this is asking you to think about who you fundamentally are as a person, and how that self,
and that self’s experiences, have come together to shape you and your understanding of the
world around you.

The purpose of the strategic reflection is to provide you with an opportunity to situate yourself
in the world as a researcher. Regardless of what major we hold, field we are in, or career we
hope to embark on, our own identities, positions, and intersections thereof are always going to
influence how we move through the world, how we are perceived by the world, and how we
view the world around us. These “positions” may or may not be visible to others, and they may
or may not be consistent in their presentation, and they may have greater or lesser presence
depending on any number of factors. Ultimately, I am asking you to reflect on how you know
yourself, and how that influences your understanding of the world around you.

This is an important step to undertake as knowing who you are as a person is implicitly and
explicitly going to influence who you are as a researcher, through the topics you research, the
questions you ask, the process you undertake, and/or the methodologies that you use.

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In this strategic reflection I want to see you do two things:
• Present a nuanced understanding of yourself. Do not feel pressure to disclose
information you would feel uncomfortable sharing.
• Identify ways that this has influenced your interests — academic, career, or otherwise.
While you don’t have to identify your research topic for the course yet, do think about
how this shapes your approach to research (whether it’s process, subject, questions,
etc.).

Assignment Requirements (2 parts):

• 3-4 page composition
o Proper citations (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.) when relevant.
• 1 page reflection essay detailing your writing process from initial conceptualization to
final draft, including reflection on choices and changes made along the way.

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Title your composition portion AND your reflection portion
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Strategic Reflection” in your file name.

Planning Research: AKA the Research Proposal

Studio & Workshop: Friday, February 15th
Peer Review: Wednesday, February 20th
FINAL DUE: Friday, February 22nd

One of the central features of WRT 205 is following a project, or inquiry, throughout the course
of the semester. In the first part of the course we have spent time turning inward, to better
understand ourselves and our positions as it will affect and influence not just what we choose
to research but how.

(One of) the first step(s) in undertaking a research project is to put forth the parameters:
• what is the subject? Topic? What are the research questions?
• What kinds of methods or methodologies will be used?
• What theoretical framework(s)?

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While you will not necessarily need to answer all of these questions for this proposal, they are
questions that every researcher has to grapple with at some point in the course of their
research — and sometimes those answers change!

For this assignment, you will be required to submit a proposal for the research project you will
be undertaking for the duration of the semester. The proposal will be divided and organized
into the following sections:
• Background
o What is/are your subject(s)? Topic(s)?
o What is already known about it?
o What are the gaps? (This is setting up what you want to know more about.)
• Research Questions
o Each research project is guided by a set of research questions.
o We will spend time discussing research questions more in-depth, but one way to
think about them is something that goes beyond an “about” the topic, and
something that can’t be answered with a “yes/no”.
o For example: if I were interested in researching Onondonga Lake, I might
formulate a question like: “What role does Onondonga Lake play in the civic life
of Syracuse, NY, and how has that changed over time?”
o You should include 2-3 research questions in your proposal.
• Research Plan
o The Research Project will include 4 components:
▪ Primary Research Results
▪ Annotated Bibliography
▪ Synthesizing Essay
▪ Other synthesizing composition in a different genre
o For each part, I would like you to propose a bit of your plan for how you will
approach it. This includes anticipated deadline choices as well as anticipated
process.
o The plan(s) outlined here are not set in stone – I anticipate and expect them to
change. BUT! Laying out a plan now is still a helpful part of the process.
o Review the description for each component to understand what the plan should
discuss.
• Deadlines
o For each of the 4 parts of the research project, you will have a choice as to when
you submit it. You must choose a deadline for each one out of the choices
present. However, you will not be held to that deadline. For example, if you say
that you will submit your primary research results on March 22nd and your
Annotated Bibliography on March 29th, but you submit your Annotated
Bibliography on the 22nd, that is ok as long as your primary research results are
then submitted on/by the 29th.

After you submit your proposal, we will review them in conferences the following week after
they are due, during which you will receive feedback, approval, and your grade. The goal for the

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proposals is not to lay out a concrete plan that you must follow to the letter; rather, it is an
opportunity for you to begin planning something that can be changed as your process reveals
new information and you learn more about your own process.

A Note about Group Work:

• If you know NOW that you want to work as a pair/group, include that in your proposal.
• If over the course of the project you realize that you want to collaborate with another
student, you are welcome to do so but only on the portions mentioned below.
• Individual vs. Group requirements:
o Portions that each Individual must submit:
▪ Project Proposal2
▪ Reflections where required
▪ Annotated Bibliography
▪ Synthesizing Essay
▪ Final Portfolio3
o Portions that may be submitted as part of a group collaboration:
▪ Primary research results
▪ Synthesizing Non-essay
o There may still be collaboration on the individual portions (minus the reflections
— those should be purely individual texts) such as sharing resources, concepts,
ideas, connections, etc. — but the ultimate finished text must be individual work.

Assignment Requirements:
• A composition that addresses each component of the proposal.
• There is no page length requirement
• If you include references or citations in your background section, please include proper
citations (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.)

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Research Proposal” in your file name.

2If the proposal is for a collaboration, I expect [1] each individual to submit a proposal; [2]
the collaborative portions to be shared text submissions

3 If working collaboratively the Final Portfolio should still include the shared texts.

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Conducting Research
Studio for Conducting Research: Wednesday, March 6th
Workshop for Conducting Research: Monday, March 18th
Conducting Research - Part A/B DUE: Friday, March 22nd
Studio for Conducting Research: Monday, March 25th
Conducting Research - Part B/A DUE: Friday, March 29th

After planning your research trajectory, the next step is to actually conduct the research.
Research will (almost) always entail two parts: Primary Research and Secondary Research. In
this project, I am requiring you to undertake both types.

It should be noted that there are two due dates here. Since you are submitting your research in
two parts, each part will be due on a different day. However, I want to give you the flexibility to
choose which day you will submit which portion of the research based on your research needs
and progress. This is something that I will ask you to choose when you submit your proposal,
but you will not be held to that choice (the goal, again, is to have you consider what that plan
would look like).

Part A: Primary Research

Primary research is when you engage directly with the primary sources of your research. If you
are a lab scientist, that includes the data you gather from experiments. If you are a historian,
that includes historical documents from the era you are studying (and those documents can be
newspaper articles, legislation, diaries, etc.). If you are an anthropologist, people will be your
primary sources. All of which is to say, each discipline has its own norms and standards about
what is and isn’t considered a “primary source.” That also means that each discipline also has
subjects that it will and won’t tackle: a doctor won’t be asking questions about the life cycles of
tropical poison dart frogs, and a sports team manager won’t be asking questions about the
religious practices of 18th century New Englanders.

How you gather your primary research is dependent in part not just on the questions you ask,
but on the research methods and methodologies you will utilize, of which each discipline has its
norms (as mentioned above). For the purposes of this project, I want your research to be
feasible given the limitations of time, skill, and opportunity in the course of a semester. Since
we are a course that is centered around the topics of “Ethics and Civic Discourse,” many of the
primary sources you may be interested in will most likely center around forms of
communication. Given that, some examples of primary sources can include (but are not limited
to):
• News, print, broadcast, and social media

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 • Newspapers, historical archives
• Legislation, hearings, and floor speeches (all levels of government)
• Literary and non-literary, nonfiction, texts
• Visual objects
• Observations of spaces and people
• Surveys, interviews, and focus groups

In your proposal, your discussion of the primary research will be based on your plan, which will
be based on your research questions. For example, if you are interested in sending out a survey
or conducting interviews, you would include sample drafts of what that survey or interview
questions would look like, as well as a time table for your goals to accomplish them. Or, if you
are interested in a historical question, you would include the potential sources you are going to
investigate and how you are going to access them (e.g. Digital accessibility, archives at SU, etc.).

In your Primary Research Results, which is the main document concerned with here, you will
provide an initial write-up of what you did, and what you learned from it. This should include
direct citations of your evidence that you have developed. Consider this the beginning of a
discussion, analysis, or interpretation of your results as framed by your research question. This
is also an opportunity to shift your research question(s) if needed.

Assignment Requirements:
• A 3-4 page composition that addresses the results of your research.
• A full citation list (to the best of your ability) of sources that you feel like will, or possibly
will, utilize (don’t feel pressured to include sources that you have found to be
irrelevant).
• A 1 page reflection addressing your research and composition process.

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Primary Research Results” in your file name.

Part B: Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a helpful tool in keeping track of your research and your sources.
While this isn’t just about secondary research as you can develop annotated bibliographies for
primary sources as well (depending on your field and methods), the goal here is to focus on
secondary sources.

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A secondary source is a text that is talking about the subject that you are researching. For
example, if you are asking questions about how the history of the Civil War is told in National
Parks, then the National Parks themselves (and the agency’s archives) are your primary sources,
and any other book, article, etc. that has written about the Civil War, National Parks, and the
intersection thereof is your secondary source. This is where you see what other people have
had to say on the subject; where they agree and disagree with each other; where you find
yourself in that conversation; and how you would enter into that conversation through your
own affirmation, disagreement, “yes, but…” or any number of other ways to bring in and say
something new or in a new way.

For this assignment then, I’m asking you to compile these secondary sources into an annotated
bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a bibliography — so a form of works cited — that
also includes notes and description about each source that is referenced. These descriptions
should not only summarize the text at hand, but also make a connection to how it connects to
the research questions that you are asking. Ultimately this is meant to help you [a] keep track
of your sources and [b] help you make sense of the primary research you develop.

And for the purposes of this project, I want to ensure that you engage with a variety of different
genres. There is no maximum number of sources you may include, but I am requiring you to
include at least 5 sources, from at least 4 different genres:
• At least 1 scholarly journal article or book chapter
• At least 1 book-length monograph4 (scholarly or popular)
• At least 1 video (can be a news video; could be a TEDtalk) OR podcast/radio segment
• At least 1 news/magazine/media article

Assignment Requirements:
• Each source should be accompanied by a description about one paragraph in length. The
paragraph should summarize the source and position it in relation to your research
question(s)
• There are no page length requirements - the focus is meeting the source minimum and
the descriptions for each source.
• Each source should be presented in proper bibliographic citation (e.g. MLA, Chicago,
APA, etc.); including alphabetical order by beginning of citation.
• 1 page reflection addressing your research & annotation process.

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins

4A monograph is a book that is entirely written by one (or a set of) authors. An anthology,
by contrast, has multiple contributors, usually one (or a set of) author(s) per chapter, and
an editor/editors that oversees the project. Most monographs have just one author, but
there are also multi-authored monographs.

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 • Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Annotated Bibliography” in your file name.

Synthesizing Research
Studio for Synthesizing Research Part A/B: Friday, April 5th
Peer Review for Synthesizing Research Part A/B: Wednesday, April 10th
FINAL DUE - Synthesizing Research Part A/B: Friday, April 12th

Studio for Synthesizing Research Part B/A: Friday, April 12th

Peer Review for Synthesizing Research Part B/A: Wednesday, April 17th
FINAL DUE - Synthesizing Research Part B/A: Friday, April 19th

If the first part of a research project is planning, and the second is actually doing the research,
then the third is synthesizing your primary and secondary research into a genre that can then
be disseminated in order to inform your intended audience. For academics, that synthesis
typically takes the form of peer reviewed articles in academic journals, book chapters, and book
monographs. However, that’s not the only way to disseminate research as other professions,
like investigative journalists, also engage in primary and secondary research and synthesizing
that information to their public.

In this part of your assignment, I want you to flex your synthesizing muscles and produce two
different compositions in two different genres that each synthesize your research. BUT,
because the medium, form, and/or genre will be different, how you synthesize it, and even
what points and information you emphasize, may be different. The purpose of this exercise is to
get you thinking deliberately about your composition choices as they are shaped by different
genres, and in turn how genre form might also influence content and argument.

Like the portion on “Conducting Research,” I am also giving you deadline choices here. There
are two deadlines: one for “Part A/B” and one for “Part B/A” — this means that one genre will
be submitted first, and the other the following week. As before, you should have proposed
initial decisions for that submission choice in your proposal, as well as potential genre choices,
but you are welcome to revise the submission order and/or genre as you see fit based on your
process.

Part A: The Standard Essay

At this point, (most) everyone has (probably) written a fairly conventional essay for a class at
Syracuse, although there’s nothing conventional about it because every discipline, every course,
every professor has their own quirks and preferences on what is expected of “an essay.”

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For the purposes of this assignment, I want you to compose an essay using a fairly formal voice
(does not necessarily have to be academic) that synthesizes your primary and secondary
research in a way that provides an answer (e.g. A thesis) to your research question(s).

Assignment Requirements:
• A 4-6 page composition that addresses the results of your research.
• Full and proper citations throughout where relevant, including parentheticals,
footnotes, or endnotes for in-text citations as well as a Bibliography or Works Cited page
in a specific citation style (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.)
• You are welcome to include images, tables, charts, surveys, etc. Just be sure to [a] label
them (e.g. “Figure 1.”) and [b] insert them after you have determined your finished page
length (may also be included as an “Appendix”).
• 1 page reflection essay detailing your writing process from initial conceptualization to
final draft, including reflection on choices and changes made along the way. (updated
3/29)

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Synthesizing Essay” in your file name.

Part B: A Non-Essay Genre

Essays are only one way to synthesize information and research, and we are surrounded by any
number of communication forms that disseminate this research from TED Talks to Podcasts to
twitter threads to cable news to artists installations. The purpose here is to flex those creative
muscles and think both about your own personal interests, but also your potential major or
career interests.

For this portion of the assignment, the genre choice and medium is completely up to you. The
only requirement is that it is something that you can turn in to me whether in physical copy,
digital submission, or a digital representation of a physical form that cannot be transported
(e.g. a site-specific installation). Even though it will not be in an essay form, the piece should
still be advancing a response to your research question(s) that synthesizes your primary and
secondary research.

Assignment Requirements:
• There is no page limitations — the only requirement is that it makes sense given the
genre that you are choosing to compose in.

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 • Full and proper citations throughout where relevant and as appropriate to the genre
being composed in.
• Full works cited as befits the genre.
• 1 page reflection essay detailing your writing process from initial conceptualization to
final draft, including reflection on choices and changes made along the way. (updated
3/29)

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Synthesizing Non-Essay” in your file name.

Final Portfolio
Studio for Final Portfolio: Monday, April 22nd
Workshop for Final Portfolio: Wednesday, April 24th
Peer Review for Final Portfolio: Friday, April 26th
FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE: Friday, May 3rd, 11:59pm

The Final Portfolio is your opportunity to collect and share all of your work in one place as it
addresses your research project. This is an opportunity to look back through all the work that
you’ve completed this semester, from the first strategic reflection to the short responses to the
last synthesizing composition in an effort to trace your path over the semester.

Your portfolio will be organized around the following principles:

• Planning & Preparing for Research
o (I include the “Strategic Reflection” in the “Preparing” half here.)
• Conducting Research
• Synthesizing Research

The Final Portfolio will include:

• An opening statement that guides the reader on how to engage with the portfolio and
to what effect
o What was your topic? Research questions? Arguments?
o How did different stages of the process influence your finished pieces?
o What background does the reader need?
o Think of this as a homepage orientation.

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 • 3 sections that include the relevant course assignments, which may be revised and/or
updated from the original; can include short responses when/if relevant. Each section
should have a brief orientation paragraph to guide the reader as to the vision and
process for that section:
o Planning & Preparing for Research
o Conducting Research
o Synthesizing Research
• Course Reflection
o A 2 page reflection (or its equivalent) where you address your journey over the
course of the semester in terms of who you are as a writer and a researcher.

The medium of the portfolio is up to you: you may decide to build a website; you may create a
new google drive folder specifically for the portfolio; you may create a physical form; or you
may do something else. Ultimately part of what you will be evaluated on are your rhetorical
choices in assembling these texts. The other main part of my evaluation will be your reflection
and articulation of your research process. Revisions to the assignments will be considered, but
you will not penalized for omitting them.

Assignment Requirements:
• A portfolio that traces the research project over the course of the semester from initial
preparation to finished synthesizing compositions.
• There is no requirement for media form (although many of you will choose to build web
pages).
• As always, works cited are required where relevant.
• In composing your portfolios, please be mindful as always of digital accessibility,
including (but not limited to) using line breaks between paragraphs and watching
background/text color contrasts.

Formatting Requirements:
• 12 point font in a reasonable style (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.)
• Double spaced
• 1” margins
• Include: first & last name; course number; assignment number
• Uploaded to your shared Google Drive folder with myself. Please include a variation of
“Final Portfolio” in your file name.
• If you choose to create a website, please still submit a “Final Portfolio” file to your folder
with the link to the page provided therein.

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