Monthly Archives: October 2012

Classes will resume on Friday, November 2

hi everyone,

The latest CUNY alert tells us that classes are cancelled again tomorrow, Thursday, November 1:

ALL scheduled Day and Evening classes at ALL CUNY campuses have been canceled for Thursday, November 1, 2012. Classes will resume on Friday, November 2, 2012.

See you all on Monday; we’ll pick up where we left off with the reading/blogging assignment originally due on 10/29. I’ll distribute an updated schedule of readings, discussion, and blogging assignments as soon as I can. Stay safe!

Best,
Prof. Leonard

Reading and blogging for Wednesday, October 31

I hope everybody is safe for the duration of Sandy.

For Wednesday, October 31 please complete the reading and blogging assignments originally due on Monday, 10/29.We’ll discuss advanced internet searching. Please read Badke, chapter 6 (all) and chapter 7, part 7.7 (pp.161-162) and view the web search strategies video. The research journal blog post originally due Monday 10/29 is now due on 10/31. I’ll update the schedule of readings and assignments later this week.

Stay safe, everyone!

~Prof. Leonard

 

Stay safe and dry, everyone!

HW 10 research blog post 1

The most difficult task i’ve come across with this project has really just been starting it. I’ve never really had an easy time getting ideas from my brain out to others, and more specifically, on to paper. I’m looking more and more to just brainstorm and get ideas out of my head and written down. This strategy hasnt brought any new success specifically, but its better than not having anything written out at all. What makes things like this difficult for me are that its an execution problem, not an understanding problem. I’ve a clear idea of the goals for the project, I just hope i can attain them.

Hw 10- Issues and Strategies with Research proposal

The main issue I had when coming up with a topic, was keeping my research topic proposal as a single question. I ended up using about 3 other questions aside from my main question so I’m having a hard time narrowing the focus of my research. I do believe however, that this can benefit me as I will end up with more information that I can later on start trimming down. It gives me more of a selection of information to put in my paper. One of the things that I have found to be helpful is sharing my research questions with other people and seeing which question got a better response or debate going.

Hw #10 _

I did have difficulties in making sure my research proposal question was making sense to what I was trying to proposed. I went through the topics covered in class to verify if I did feel comfortable in writing about the topic I picked. Also because I was making sure I would be able to write the length of a 5 to 8 pg paper. I am using the badke’s book for his tips in doing research, it has helped so far and am also using the guidelines handed in class to improve my assignments. I am still a little confuse for the sources selected, that is is journals and scholarly the same source?. Am using google scholar and the library databases.

Blog Post 10: Research Topic Difficulties – Ahmad Woods

The biggest issue I had with my research topic proposal was aiming it into the scope of this class. I feel like the best papers you can write are the ones you are actually passionate about and one thing I’m really into anime and other aspects of Japanese culture.  From the beginning I set out to write an academic paper on otaku culture once I was aware of the assignment.  The trick was figuring out how it fit into the class topics and at that point I had no idea how it could be done.  I even put aside a backup topic that had a higher chance of working in this class but one I was less enthusiastic to write about in the case this proposal fell through.  The discussion we had during class and the articles we read on social media however gave me some ideas.  A good portion of the discussion was focused on the negatives of social media but I wanted to make the case for the positives of it.  Then my topic idea hit me in the face; what if I can write about the positive effects social media has on niche cultures such as otaku cultures?  Of course I needed to flesh it out a bit more and the professor really helped me arrive at a proper sounding topic.

Homework #10 – Charles Baculima-Castillo

The main problem I have had with the Research Topic Proposal was finding and creating the topic question. I have had many ideas to start with but because I was trying to prevent my question from becoming too narrow, they ending up being too broad. I have always found it difficult to set the standard of a topic from being too general. The feedback from Professor. Leonard really helped me out with this problem. One strategy that I used to help deal with this, was that I choose a topic that I really liked, in this case, it’s the internet and media. I always tend to better when I write about a topic that I like rather than on something I do not. I honestly did not have any questions about the assignment since it was pretty straight forward.

How-to video — track changes in MS Word

hi all,

I found several videos that show how to use Track Changes in Microsoft Word to manage edits in a word document. I picked the one below because it is short and the narrator speaks clearly; start at about 0:48 into the video to get to the most relevant part:

Take a look in Youtube — if you find a better one, feel free to post it! And let us know if you find it helpful or not in the comments.

~Prof. Leonard

Notes from today, and reading and blogging assignments for Monday, October 29

Today we continued our discussion of the process of research. We took a look at Easybib.com, a new library resource that helps with documenting research resources and organizing ideas into an outline. For some help visualizing your ideas, try experimenting with concept mapping using bubbl.us, a way to organize your ideas by showing relationships between them. If you have questions about the annotated bibliography assignment, please get in touch. We’ll be discussing it more in the next few class meetings.

On Monday 10/29 we’ll discuss internet research strategies. For Monday please read Badke, chapter 6 (entire) and chapter 7, pp. 161-162 only. For your first research journal blog post, respond to the following questions in one 100-word post:

You are working on choosing a topic and developing a research question for your paper. What difficulties (if any) have you encountered as you work on your research proposal?
What strategies (if any) have you used successfully during this work?
What questions (if any) do you have about the assignment?

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

Notes from today, and reading and homework assignments for Wednesday, October 24

Today we discussed the beginning of the research process, including needs assessment, preliminary strategies, and topic development.

On Wednesday, we’ll continue our discussion of the research process and examine how to refine a topic and how to create search strategies. Please read Badke Appendix 1 pp. 223-257, review Badke Ch. 3 pp. 42-48.

Your research topic proposal is due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, either handed in to me or emailed to me as an attachment. If you have questions, do not hesitate to get in touch — and do not wait until Tuesday night. Chapter 2, “Taking Charge,” from the Badke book is definitely worth reviewing if you need practical advice and examples of good approaches to the development of a robust research question.

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard