1. Determine your general area of interest (e.g., literary period, genre, author, theory; or a particular issue in composition/rhetoric or TESL). Check a) history of research, b) recent research. Don't neglect the variety of bibliographic resources--such as indexes, annotations, and reviews--to be found in books, periodicals (journals, newspapers, etc.), unpublished manuscripts, dissertations, anthologies, even publishers' catalogue listings. Once you've chosen your topic and begun digging in, you'll continue this process with more focus and depth. This stage, often called the "review of the literature," involves becoming familiar with the published conversation already going on in your profession about the subject you've chosen.

2. With Step 1, develop your "Best Sources" list: Print & Internet Tools":
a. (print tools): potentially useful reference resources gleaned so far from Johnson, Hawisher & Selfe, or Altick & Fenstermaker, as well as other sources. *(Tip: Altick & Fenstermaker will be especially useful in solving the "Research Exercises" assignment.)
b. (Internet tools): list potentially useful "gateway" web sites you've found, as well as best search engines and search strategies. (In-progress lists due 10/4)

3. After skimming the reference sources you've located, determine your specific interest. Be as precise as you can at this stage. What aspects of your chosen author, work, or subject do you want to investigate? What are your central issues or questions (pedagogical, theoretical, or textual)? Why this focus? Imagine that you plan to write a 10-15 page essay about this subject. What kinds of insights might you want to contribute in this essay? What would you need to have researched in order to write it? Write your tentative plan up in a half-page proposal: include your defining question. (Due 10/4)

4. Develop a research strategy (half-page) for compiling an extensive annotated bibliography of works dealing with the issue, author, or work you've selected. Refine the lists of relevant research tools you developed in Step 2. Decide which are likely to be most useful, and the order in which you plan to use them. (Due 10/4)

5. Come up with questions for Kate Seifert in preparation for the library database workshop this week. (Note: Be sure that you're well into your sleuthing of the "Research Exercises" by now.)

6. Find, and do brief annotations on:
a. one work that appears to support your research direction;
b. one relevant work with which you have disagreements, in either approach or conclusions. For both: 1) define the author's credentials (i.e., why the work should be taken seriously); 2) indicate the parts of the work (chapters, sections, arguments) which seem most pertinent, and why; and then, following Lazere's "Guidelines," 3) give a brief, accurate synopsis of the author's main arguments and approaches, 4) identify underlying assumptions and biases, and 5) acknowledge fairly what you see as the work's strengths as well as its weaknesses. (Due 10/11)

7. Write essay #1 (around 3-4 pages): your own (past or projected) "adventures and perils of research," making explicit comparisons and contrasts with the experiences of Byatt's characters. (Due 10/11)

8. Using your readings in Tyson, define the theoretical approach most appropriate to your project. Be prepared to explain in class both your approach and your reasons for it. (Note: It's easier to identify clear-cut theoretical "schools" in literature than in rhetoric/comp or TESL, which are much younger fields. You may need to define your approach in terms of central controversies in your field, and prominent spokespeople for different sides of these controversies.) Which of the writers you've been reading do you feel most kinship with? Which arguments do you find most convincing? What seem to be their underlying theoretical assumptions? I don't expect you to have a definitive theoretical perspective at this point. However, the closer you can come to knowing where and with whom you stand--who your allies and worthy opponents are--, the easier your research path will be. Turn in one paragraph on your planned theoretical approach(es), and your reasons. (Due 10/18)

9. Complete your Research Exercises, including a) a precise written account of the initial strategy you devised for each of the problems you chose, b) the steps (and mis-steps) you took in the process of solving the problem, + c) solutions (as far as you've been able to determine them). Report to class, with emphasis on the specific kinds of reference tools you found most useful in answering questions of this nature. (Due 10/18)

10. E-mail specific research questions to Reference Librarian Kate Seifert (kwseifert) for 11/1 individualized library workshop. Kate recommends that you bring questions to her or other reference librarians as soon as you encounter them, to avoid traffic jams at the Reference Desk. (Due at the latest 10/22, the Friday before class.)

11. Select a writing sample of your own scholarly work, a past research paper including documentation (internal citation and "sources cited" page). Note in the margins specific flaws or omissions, with the corrections you'd make if you were redoing it now. Make good use of the APA or MLA handbook. Bring your essay to class for use in workshop on full and accurate documentation of resources. (Due 10/25)

12. Compile a preliminary bibliography. List the most useful books and periodicals you've located (using Document Delivery whenever necessary). Determine through initial skimming which specific works (e.g., books, essays in books, articles in journals or newspapers, etc.) on your developing bibliography you'll need to keep and what you should exclude. Note any changes necessitated by accessibility of materials, adjusted interests resulting from initial information found, etc. (Due 10/25)

13. Finish amassing your file of information access issues. Bring to contribute to the class discussion on Michael Parenti's Inventing Reality. Apply Lazere's "Guidelines" to your reading of Parenti and the other pieces you've collected: identify the authors' credentials, as well as apparent assumptions and biases; look for strengths in what you're inclined to disagree with, and for flaws in what you're inclined to agree with. (Due 11/8)

14. Making use of Lazere, write fair and accurate summaries of the central ideas of Parenti and a second book of your choosing on issues of information access (around 2 pages each). Include specific examples as appropriate. Begin compiling ideas for your later comparative review of both in the context of your own, more current, understanding of information access issues. (Due 11/8)

15. Complete Essay #2, your comparative critical "book review" of Parenti and a second work, in the context of your own understanding of current information access issues. (4-5 pages, building on your earlier summaries) (Due 11/15)

16. Compile near-final draft of your pared-down annotated bibliography, including in each annotation an explanation of the relevance of that entry to your specific project. Provide as preface a) the research question that defines the focus of the bibliography, and b) a brief narrative explanation of the parameters limiting its scope (the kinds of material you included and excluded, and why). (Due 11/22)

17. Determine the titles of 3-5 professional journals suitable for submission of work in your area of interest; include the publication's stated focus and a brief outline of submission guidelines and criteria. Bring to class for session on publishing your scholarly work. (Due 11/29)

18. Glean from your own experience in this seminar a 1-page list of "Best Research Tips" for students in future English 500 classes (anything from specific print or on-line tools to how to navigate the research process or effective ways to survive the course). (Due 11/29)

19. Prepare a handout for all class members in conjunction with your colloquium report: a plan for your (hypothetical) continued research, based on the bibliographic searches you have conducted and the determinations you've made about your topic and scope as a result of those searches. Include a rationale for the essay you might write--why the subject is important and what your essay would contribute to the current discourse in the field. Outline form is fine. (Due 11/29)

20. Take part in class colloquium on individual research projects, with handouts. (11/29 & 12/6)


21. Complete your revised annotated bibliography. You should have around 30 entries, 1/2 to 1/3 page each, double spaced (or 10-15 pages). (Due 12/6)

Don't forget additional class assignments, including:

Brief tasks related to Internet and library workshops (continuing)

Midterm and final self-evaluation and course-evaluation (by e-mail) (10/25 & 12/6)

Internet/Research journal: required first weeks (due 10/4); recommended thereafter (turn in 11/22)

Various class presentations, including: "Community Forum on the Politics of Information Access: Divergent Perspectives/ Proposed Solutions" (11/15)