Assignments

Requirements, guidelines, and grading scales for each of the course’s major assignments will be posted here as the semester progresses.

Class Presentation Monday, December 19 and Wednesday, December 21 | pdf
Online Documentation Project due Wednesday, December 21 | pdf
Research Paper Final due Wednesday, November 30 | pdf
Research Paper Draft due Monday, November 21 | pdf
Research Paper Outline due Wednesday, November 9 | pdf
Annotated Bibliography due Monday, November 7 | pdf
Research Topic Proposal due Wednesday, October 26 | pdf

Guidelines for the Research Topic Proposal

Your individual research project for this course is a series of writing assignments that lead up to a 5-8 page research paper: a research topic proposal, an annotated bibliography, an outline, a draft of the paper, and the final paper.

For your research topic proposal (worth 5% of your total course grade):

Choose a research topic that is both: 1) relevant to the course content, and 2) interesting to you. Your topic may be something we have already discussed in class, or it may be on a subject we will discuss in the coming weeks.

In your paper I will ask you to use a variety of different sources on your topic, including:

◦     at least one news source

◦     at least one internet source

◦     at least one scholarly source

It’s best if you choose a topic that is discussed in both academic and popular sources—please ask me if you are unsure about your sources.

Write a proposal presenting your paper topic. Your proposal must include your research question.

Your proposal must be at least 100 words, though of course it may be longer.

Please give considerable thought to whether your topic is focused enough to write about in 5-8 pages. We will also spend time in class discussing how to narrow your focus and decide upon a manageable research topic.

Please either: a) type up your research proposal as a word processing document and email it to me or, b) print it out and bring it to class.

Please submit the proposal as a word-processed document in 12-point font with 1” margins.

I’ll take a look at your topics and give you feedback fairly quickly. It’s possible that your topic may need to be further refined, and I can meet with you or discuss over email.

Your annotated bibliography is due on Monday, November 7 and your paper outline is due on Wednesday, November 9

As always, please ask me if you have any questions! Remember that I have office hours 11:15-12:15 Mondays and Wednesdays in A439.

Grading chart for your proposal:

 

Insufficient (0 points)	Developing (1-2 points)	Competent (3-4 points)	Excellent (5 points)
The research topic is not relevant to the content of the course.	–	–	The research topic is relevant to the content of the course.
The proposal lacks a main topic and a research question or problem.  The proposal is unfocused and unclear.	An appropriate topic has been selected, however, the proposal does not include a research question or problem.  The proposal is unfocused and unclear.	An appropriate topic has been selected and a research question or problem is included.  The proposal is somewhat unfocused and unclear.	An appropriate topic has been selected, and a research question or problem is considered reflectively.  The proposal is clearly presented and fully focused.
The proposal is less than 100 words in length.	–	–	The proposal is 100 words (or more) in length.
All sentences are grammatically incorrect.	Most sentences are grammatically incorrect.	Some sentences are grammatically incorrect.	All or almost all sentences are grammatically correct.
All sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization.	Most sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization.	Some sentences have errors in punctuation, spelling, or capitalization.	All or almost all sentences are free of punctuation, spelling, or capitalization errors.

 

Blogging Guidelines | pdf

Guidelines for Course Blogging

In this course you are required to write a minimum of 20 posts of at least 100 words each for our class blog (though of course you’re encouraged to write more!). Our blog will allow us to continue discussions outside of class, and I will participate along with you. You can also use your blog posts to explore ideas that you may wish to develop more fully in your research paper or documentation project.

You will write several types of blog posts during this course:

Reading response (posts from 8/231-11/14; see syllabus for details):

Write a blog post discussing one of the readings assigned for the class. Identify a topic or theme from the reading, briefly summarize it, and analyze it in relation to other readings and themes in the course. Does this reading raise any questions in your mind?

1. Research journal (posts from 10/19-11/09; see syllabus for details):
   Write a blog post discussing and documenting your process and progress on the research paper for this course. You may write about any aspect of this process, for example: deciding on a research topic, finding sources, writing the proposal/annotated bibliography/paper, etc. What have you found difficult or frustrating about this process? What successful strategies have you used?
2. Blog comment (throughout the semester; see syllabus for details): Select a blog post by one of your classmates and write a response to her/his post. What other perspectives on this topic can you offer? How does the blog post connect to the course readings and themes? Comments must also be a minimum of 100 words.

If you include or discuss text, images, or multimedia in your blog posts that are not from the assigned readings, please cite your source. Source title, author, date, and URL (if it’s a website) is sufficient for these posts. We will discuss citation styles in more detail as the course progresses.

 

Also, please give each of your blog posts one or more tags. We’ll talk more about tags in class, but for now you can think of them as keywords. Try to pick a few words that describe the topic of your post. Do not assign Categories; use tags instead.

Blog posts need not be written in the formal academic style you will use for your research paper, but please use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation when you blog.

How to Post on the Course Blog:

 

1. Go to https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu and log in. Go to My Courses > LIB 1201: Research & Documentation for the Information Age.
2. Click on the link labeled “Site” on the menu at right and from there, open the OpenLab Dashboard. To post your blog entry, click “Add New” under the “Posts” menu on the left navigation bar.
3. On Add New Post, enter a title for your post and then paste or type your blog post into the large field in the middle of the screen.
4. There are two ways to format posts: Visual or HTML. If you know HTML feel free to use it. Otherwise you may want to select Visual and use the buttons along the top of the field to add bold, italics, etc.
5. Give your post one or more tags by entering them into the field under “Post Tags” on the right side of the Add New Post page.
6. If you’d like to take a look at your post before publishing it live on the course blog, click the “Preview” button on the upper right side of the Add New Post page.
7. When you’re ready to publish your post to the blog for all to see, click the blue “Publish” button on the right side of the Add New Post page.
8. To view the blog after publishing your post, click the blog’s name at the topof the Add New Post page.

To post a comment on the blog, click the “Leave a Comment” link on any blog post.

For both blog posts and comments, I strongly suggest that you write in a word processor or text editor and paste the finished text into the Add New Post page or comment box.

Please let me know if you have any questions or run into any problems: aleonard@citytech.cuny.edu

Grading:

Blog posts are worth 20% of your total course grade. I will email your blog grades to you at the beginning of each week for posts published the prior week.

Each blog post will be graded as follows:[1]