Writing & Research

Cultural Landscapes Research Workshop with Librarian Sarah Pedersen

Human Subjects Review Form (pdf)

 

In the winter quarter, students will be expected to complete the assignments described below.  These assignments are designed to further develop college-level writing, research, and analytical skills, building upon our work in the fall.  New, this quarter, is the opportunity to engage in more in-depth research and writing on a topic of interest to them that is clearly related to program topics.  In the spring quarter, students will have the option of doing a community-based internship with a cultural, environmental, immigrant, or labor organization, or conducting a more in-depth research project on a related topic.

In the winter quarter, students will be expected to complete the following writing assignments and presentations:

• 4 Reading response papers (2 pages, double-spaced).  These concise essays on the readings will respond either to faculty reading questions or to your own clearly stated question.  Using supporting examples and quotes from the readings, you should give a brief, focused summary and analysis of how the author attempts to deal with a particular issue in the context of the work as a whole.  Include at least two direct quotations or page citations to support your inquiry, and include any connected questions the readings sparked for you.  Due weeks 1, 5, 7, and 9.  Here are some possible strategies for writing the reading response papers:

  A.  contextualized question: pose a substantive question and explore how the text attempts to answer this question by including relevant page references for further analysis;

  B. quotation analysis: offer a key quotation, then restate the idea in your own words and, with close attention to the context, word choice, and logic of the argument, explain the significance of this quotation for the larger text;

  C. theoretical analysis: in texts offering theoretical frameworks or models, offer a summary of the steps or components of the theory or model;

  D. connections: explore one important connection between the text and other program materials.

 

• 5 Index cards (4 x 6 inches) on the seminar readings in the weeks when response papers are not required.  On one side of the card, you should write 3 topics or quotes of interest that you derived from the readings.  On the other side, please write 3 questions for discussion in seminar, inspired by the readings.  For all 6 of these notations, you are required to reference the specific pages in the readings to which your topics, quotes or questions relate.

• 2 Synthesis papers (5 pages).  These papers will go through at least two drafts and you will work on them in writing groups.  They should draw together some of the program materials--films, texts, lectures--in an original way, with a clear, focused thesis or argument and supporting examples.  You will be given more specific instructions in class.  All papers must be written in Times font, size 12, with in-text citation references (MLA style).

As a rule, synthesis papers will be submitted on Tuesdays and presented on Wednesdays in the order that follows:

Writing Group #1	Writing Group #2	Writing Group #3
Weeks 2 and 6	Weeks 3 and 7	Weeks 5 and 8

On Tuesdays, students who will be presenting their papers on Wednesdays should bring enough double-sided copies of their papers to give one to each of their colleagues.  One single-sided copy will be given to the seminar leader.  Final essays, along with drafts and a group comment sheet, are due on Wed. one week after your peer review (at the beginning of workshop). 

• Poetry from the Field.  Using extensive notes taken during our week 4 fieldtrip to Seattle, students will describe and interpret what they observed, felt and learned through the artistic medium of poetry.  A workshop will be given on February 2 to help students with this assignment and more information will be provided in class.

 

• Research Paper and Presentation. The goals of this assignment are to engage in in-depth “reading” and analysis of a particular local or international landscape (country/city/region), its peoples, and the power relations that shape and dominate that landscape.  In the process, you will be developing skills in historical research, descriptive writing, interviewing/oral history, and/or artistic representation/intervention.  With attention to the forces of globalization, you are also expected to tie local landscape issues to the international context and/or interview local people with a connection to international issues (US/Mexico border, Israel/Palestine, Brazil, etc.). Working in groups, students will write a collective introduction and conclusion to their project, but each student will contribute a different aspect to the project.  Students should spend 5 hours/week on this research, use authoritative sources and follow current media coverage of their landscape.  Each student will write either a final individual chapter of research or interviews, put together a photo exhibit with descriptions, or interviews (audio or written), or compose some kind of artistic rendering of the landscape based on specific research. The group will give a final collaborative presentation during week 10.  All research groups will circulate drafts of their work in week 8, in preparation for peer review in week 9.

 

Academic Honesty

The work we submit--in discussion, writing, etc.--must reflect our own ideas.  When we incorporate the ideas of others, be those published authors, filmmakers, or classmates, we should acknowledge our sources.  While much of the work in this program will be collaborative and the ensuing ideas will reflect the contributions of more than one person, we will get in the habit of acknowledging the people and ideas that have influenced us.  Failure to cite copyrighted sources, or presentation of the work of others as one's own, is plagiarism and will be treated in accordance with the provisions of the Social Contract.