Projects

There are four projects this semester:

• Project One (Music and the Genres of Research)

• Project Two (The Career Planning Portfolio)

• Project Three (The WAC Portfolio)

• Project Four (The Multigenre Research Project)

Project One (Music and the Genres of Research) (Review)

Choose a song (or piece of music) from the 1960s or 1970s and analyze and interpret it from one of the following perspectives:

• Biographical (the song writer’s, not yours)
• Historical/contextual  (what was going on then that influenced the lyrics)
• Textual (in light of history, what do the lyrics mean)
• None of the above (another perspective, but clear it your instructor before you start writing)

This short paper (of about 500 words) will reflect a carefully reasoned choice of genre (why you chose to examine what you chose) and awareness of your audience (the “typical” ECU freshman) and purpose (to analyze and interpret such and such a “Song Title”).

Good luck with this!

Project Two (The Career Planning Portfolio)

Ask yourself what you want to be doing 10 years from now (e.g., Doctor, Lawyer, TV Talk Show Host, etc.).

Next, conduct some preliminary research about this career.

• What do people in this field actually do (for 8 hours a day, a whole week, etc.)?
• Will the projected salary be sufficient to support your desired lifestyle?
• Will there be a job for you in this field when you graduate?

What you need to do to prepare for it

• What type of undergraduate degree do you need?
• Is an advanced degree required?
• Should you enter this career field, what would your opportunities be in, say, another 15-20 years?
• Is certification/licensing required?
• Where can you look to find a job in this field?). 

Your research should include material located in:

• Joyner Library (journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.) ,
• The Internet,
• Personal interviews (with a relative, a practitioner, a professor, etc.),
• Other material to which you may have access.

This portfolio should include these parts:

• An overview of your strategy (what was examined and why),
• A brief review of your main discoveries/findings (answers to the above questions),
• A summary of your conclusions (in view of your findings, what do you think you want to do?),
• A preliminary bibliography

The Career Planning Portfolio will be about 1,500 words. 

Project Three (The WAC Portfolio)

Primarily, the Writing Across the Curriculum Portfolio will consist of three compositions (of about 1,000 words each from each of the following fields):

The Humanities

• An art review
• A book review
• A bibliographic essay

The Social Sciences

• A proposal
• A case study
• A journal article

The Natural Sciences

• A literature review
• A laboratory/research report

The assignment: identify a social problem, research it, and compose three compositions:

• a bibliographic essay (organization; be sure to include about the same number of sources for both sides of the argument)
• a literature review (of the social problem; be sure to include at least one contrary source for each of the reasons you argue).
• a proposal (for a paper that argues one side against the other

The Bibliographic Essay--Explaining the Issues

In the last couple of class meeting, we have been exploring the nature of issues. We define an issue as a disagreement with at least two sides that express different and usually incompatible ways to resolve the problem.

Issues develop when people find that they don't like what seems to be happening in areas of life that they care about. For example, an individual may be distressed at the amount of gun violence in the country. To take a formal position on this problem, the individual first studies the circumstances and then offers a review of the information (facts, figures, reports, statistics, "data") that portray the problem: "The 1980s were tragic years that saw nearly a quarter of a million Americans die from handguns--four times as many as were killed in the Vietnam War" (Brady 193). The individual may then offer a solution or make a "claim": "Two pieces of legislation can make a difference right now" (Brady 194).

A problem becomes an issue when other people either deny that the data described by the first party are true or complete, or that the circumstances do not really pose a problem, or that the solution originally offered is not a good one. For example, in response to proposals for gun control legislation, Mark McLean focuses on the circumstances of a madman crashing into a cafeteria and shooting 23 people there. This "data" suggests to McLean a solution that is quite contrary to the one proposed by Sarah Brady. He makes the claim that legislation should be passed to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns to protect themselves from violence. His main warrant is that an armed citizenry will discourage gun violence. 

Your assignment is to identify a problem, research it in Joyner Library, and compose an essay that explains the various issues involved in this problem. Use your text to find a topic that interests you, or go to http://core.ecu.edu/engl/snyderh/Links/socialissues.html to determine an issue.

Your audience is composed mostly of people like you. They are literate citizens interested in making ours a better society. They do not, however, know very much about the issues. Your job is to explain both sides of the problem for this audience who have a stake its outcome but who have not had time to inform themselves about it.

While your readers may want to be thoroughly informed, they are busy people, so they require succinct information. The final draft of your essay should, therefore, be a couple of pages long (format: Times Roman 12 point, one inch margin on all sides, double spaced), which is about 1,000 words.

Remember that in this essay your role is to simply explain the problem by addressing the issues on both side of the problem, not to take sides. You are doing your readers a service of conducting and synthesizing research so that they won't have to do it for themselves. You should examine several (6 to 12) articles that discuss opposite sides of your issue.

Your bibliographic essay should be organized alphabetically by source. Within each source, list information that would support either or both sides of the issue.

The Literature Review—Which Sources You Use to Make Your Argument

This part of the assignment will be similar o the bibliographic essay, except that here you are reviewing the background and the pros and cons of the issue.

Again your readers may want to be thoroughly informed, but they are busy people, so they won’t tolerate a rambling composition. The final draft of your lit review should, therefore, be a couple of pages long (or about 1,000 words).

Remember that in the lit review your role is to simply explain the problem by addressing the issues on both side of the problem, not to take sides. This review should be arranged first by background, pro, and con (alphabetically by source within each of these sections). 

The Proposal—How You Would Argue One Side Against the Other

This will have three sections to it:

• Introduction (background to the issue in general terms)
• Overview of your approach (which side you would argue and why)
• Organization (your arguments—1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd-- and how you would answer your opponent’s arguments—see “Standard Argument” handout; you)

This section will be a couple of pages long (2-3 or 500-750 words).

The final draft of Project #3 will be due November 2, 2001.

Good luck!

Project Four (The Multigenre Research Project)

This project contains the following components:

• A Reflection Piece (a composition of about 300 words that provides background information about any social problem, including the one you looked at in Project Three)
• Two short (about 500 words each) papers representing the pros (advocates of) and cons (opponents of) the issue for this project
• A Research Paper (a composition of about 1,500 words that argues for a solution to the problem identified in your Reflection Piece; includes a Works Cited page). Use the Standard Argument format.
• A Letter (to the instructor that evaluates your research process and your performance on the MGRP; the length of this letter will be about 300 words)

This paper is due December 5, 2001 (the last day of class).

Good luck!

Created Sept. 4, 2001  Last Updated Oct. 26, 2001