For this project, you will conduct primary research through observation and interviews. The research component of the project involves selecting a site where a particular activity occurs, carefully observing and taking notes on the activity, and interviewing at least two people involved in the activity.  As part of your research, you should also collect 1-3 “artifacts” from your chosen site.  Artifacts are items that you can physically and legally take with you from the site (e.g. a program, a leaflet, an instruction card, etc.)

The project has two components. First, it asks you to be descriptive, using observation and interview to answer questions such as who is at the site? What are they doing?  How are they interacting?  What rules or expectations seem to influence the activity they are involved in?  What routine processes are involved in the activity?  What do you notice that creates tension or disrupts the activity?  How do the participants seem to feel about the activity?  How have they come to be involved? What do they see as their role(s)?  You should also consider the physical characteristics of the site: How is the site set up?  What significant objects are there? How are the participants interacting with these objects?  Through careful observation and interview, you should try to discover details that a casual viewer or a regular participant in the activity might not notice. 

Second, the project asks you to compile and analyze the details you have gathered through your observations and interviews.  You should consider questions such as why do you think the participants interact the way they do?  What do you think is the significance of their interactions?  Why might particular procedures, habits, or routines have developed?  What values do they seem to reflect? 

Based on your research, you will produce

1.   An oral presentation of your findings and analysis to the class.  As part of the presentation, you will share your artifacts with the class and explain their significance to the activity you observed. (10%)

2.   A paper in which you explain and analyze the site and the activity. (15%)

Project Two:  Archival research project North Carolina Collection (25%)

For this project, you will apply the skills you’ve developed in selecting and analyzing artifacts to research involving special collections.  Following an orientation session at the North Carolina Collection in Joyner Library, students will select an item from that collection for analysis.  It might be a pamphlet, a magazine, a map, a paperback book: any object from the collection that you want to analyze in detail.  You might want to begin with the following questions:

1.  Where, how, and by whom was this object produced?

2.  What purpose did it serve when it was first produced?

3.  What does it indicate about the place that it was produced?

4.  What does it tell about the time that it was produced?

5.  What does it suggest about its author or maker?

6.  Why do you consider it significant (i.e., an important part of history, or an important part of North Carolina culture)?

Based on your research, you will produce both of the following graded assignments:

An oral presentation (5-7 minutes) of your findings and analysis. As part of the presentation, you will share your artifact with the class and briefly explain its significance. (10%)

A paper in which you provide an expanded version of your presentation contextualizing and explaining the significance of the artifact you have chosen from the N.C. collection. (15%)

Project Three:  Research and Problem-Solving (30%)

For this project you will identify a problem that needs to be addressed.  This problem should have some personal or professional interest for you. Consider, for example, a problem you have noticed on campus, in your local community, or in the profession you see yourself entering after college. You will research this problem, using a variety of sources, with the ultimate goal of writing a well-informed proposal that suggests what should be done to address the problem.  The project includes the following parts:

Evaluative Annotated Bibliography (05%): You will locate and read at least 12 sources, of which not more than four must be online, relating to the problem you have identified.  You will then produce a bibliography, in MLA format, that includes a summary and evaluation of each source.

Research Process Reflection Statement (05%): This component of the project asks you to describe and reflect on your research processes.  What was your knowledge of and belief about the problem before you started your research? How did you go about finding and evaluating your sources?  What surprised you about the search for sources? What difficulties did you encounter in finding sources? What advice would you have for future researchers interested in your topic (or a closely related one)?  Once you found your sources, what interesting or surprising things did you learn? How did your research change your thinking about the problem you selected?  What new topics have you discovered for possible research in the future?  The style of your statement may be informal like the “personal research paper” sample included in WRR (page 236).

Proposal (20%):  Based on your research, you will write a research paper in which you suggest what might be done to address the problem.  The paper must reflect careful consideration of the many issues involved in the problem and should acknowledge alternative points of view in the process of explaining why your proposed approach is a good one. You must also determine an appropriate audience for your proposal and direct the paper toward that audience. For example, if you are addressing your high school library’s lack of current resources on computers and are proposing an increase in funding for technology-related book purchases, you should direct your paper to someone—such as the Superintendent of the school district, school board members, or parents of students at the school—who has power to influence funding.

Final Exam (10%):  During the final week of classes, you will be provided with two web site addresses (URLs). Following the guidelines discussed in our textbooks and in class, you will write a 3-4 page paper in which you compare and contrast the credibility of the two sites as sources for research writing. Your evaluation will be due in class during the designated final exam time..