Project Three Overview

Project 3 asks students to develop a Reflective Analysis of 3-5 pages, based on the reflection prompts provided in P3.6.

In Projects One and Two, you explored what research is, how to conduct it, and how to present research in an academic essay. In Project Three, we are considering what writing and research in academic and professional contexts requires; you will do so by exploring the question: “How is researched information presented in a discipline, and what concepts of writing are important for writers to consider?”

What you’ll be doing

writing a prompted Reflective Analysis of 3-5 pages minimum, connecting the research and writing knowledge you’ve developed through all the Projects over the semester, reflecting on how that writing knowledge might be used in future

locating additional sources or examples of writing in your major or discipline (minimum of 3) that show how researched information is presented in that discipline — sources from P1 and P2 can be used, if appropriate

analyzing those sources by identifying the writing concepts that might be evident in them, or informed by them

reflecting on your knowledge about writing and your thinking about what is important to consider when approaching any writing situation

In Project Three, students move from conducting and presenting research to critically reflecting on how research is presented in publications of their academic major or discipline (or one they are considering). By using the knowledge and practices developed in the previous projects, students will apply concepts learned in the course in order to analyze how research is presented to specific academic audiences.

To do so, students should consider these questions, among others:

what are the genres of writing in which research is featured?

how is it cited in academic and non-academic contexts?

how is it presented, considered, and analyzed in a particular discipline?

what purpose does research serve for a particular discipline?

Students might explore scholarly works, key publications, professional outreach, and/or subject matter communication to understand how researched information is shared in their discipline. They will analyze what a writer in that discipline/career space might need to understand in order to engage in the writing of that discipline successfully. This will help students understand their discipline further, prepare for their continued learning as a writer in that discipline, and develop knowledge about the real-world applications of the writing they’ve started to learn about in 1102.

The knowledge we gather from research, as you did in P2, has a place in the world of information. There are more sources now than ever, and more reason than ever to understand how information relates to other information, how it works differently in various contexts and genres and for different audiences and is used in the world for various purposes. The old saying, “knowledge is power” holds – the more we know and understand the more power we have in a situation, or to understand something, or to achieve our goals. In order to understand what is being communicated, we must consider key concepts about writing and develop our knowledge about how to strategize writing in various situations to ensure our communication is effective.

Reflecting on and analyzing what we know about writing generally — and in each writing situation we encounter — is a practice we must develop for success in academic, professional, and personal contexts.

Assignment

Write a brief response to this overview by addressing the following:

Identify some of the concepts about writing we have discussed in this course. There is research of course, but beyond that, what are the writing concepts that you consider important for a writer to know?

For example, is there any concept within the rhetorical situation we need to consider when we write? Are there other concepts that impact us as writers in the world?

What do you know, or think you know, about the kinds of writing that are practiced in your (potential) career field and what are the expectations or conventions of those types of writing?

What do you imagine is important to understand about the writing in your chosen career or your academic major in order to participate in the conversation of that discipline or community or field of work?