Portfolio

Tables of Contents

Section 1: Cover Letter
Section 2: Key Concepts and Readings
Section 3: Research Proposal and Outline, First and Final Drafts
Section 4: Peer Review Feedback
Section 5: Letters
Section 6: Annotated Bibliography and Presentation Handouts

Section 1: Cover Letter

Cover Letter

Section 2: Key Concepts and Readings

Part 1: What is Research Writing? What does it mean to be a research writer? How are research questions developed?

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/post-1-what-is-research-writing/

Part 2: Genres of Research Writing

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/post-3-genres-of-research-writing/

Part 3: Reading Critically & Evaluating Sources

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/post-5-critical-reading-and-significance-of-an-audience/

Part 4: Understanding Formatting (MLA/APA/CMS)

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/post-6-apa-formatting/

Part 5: Creating a proposal and outline for a research paper

This site gave a easy-to-follow tutorial on how to write a research proposal or dissertation. Obviously, the first part of the paper is the introduction. It is important to clearly state the research question. In this paragraph, it is necessary to get the attention of the audience and be concise as well. The next part is considered the problem statement, where you define and present the question, or issue, at hand. Here is where you ask yourself many questions, and your issue is severely tested. Examples of such questions are: “is the intention of the research expressed clearly?” and “are the hypotheses, when applicable, well formulated and lucidly articulated?” (“Dissertation proposal writing,” ) Once this is finished, the “conceptual framework” is stated. In other words, this is where necessary background knowledge should be given to make the audience more aware of what the writer is trying to say. In this section would be where history or vocabulary is stated. After this is the “method” paragraph, where the ways a research issue being examined are laid out. This is where the means by which a paper to be written and researched are stated. Finally, a bibliography (or reference list in APA) and an appendix are added where references that aided in writing the proposal are mentioned (“Dissertation proposal writing,” ).

http://www.people.ku.edu/~ebben/tutorial_731.htm

Reference List

Dissertation proposal writing tutorial. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.people.ku.edu/~ebben/tutorial_731.htm

In the site that I found, it gave four suggestions on how to write an outline. It was very brief and to the point. When writing headings, one should keep the same form of speech. If you are using verbs in one heading, you should use them in the other headings as well. Headings should all have general aspects in common, but not be the same thing. Subheadings to the main headings should never be as important as the headings, but have importance and relivance. Headings should be very general, and subheadings should be focused and more detailed. And finally, headings should have multiple subheadings. This ensures that you have a lot of related topics and information to discuss in your paper and that subtopic of the main paper (“Four main components,” ).

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/01/

Reference List

Four main components for effective outline. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/01/

Part 6: Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliographies are created for the purpose of summarizing and evaluating sources used in research. There are many different ways to do annotations but it usually involves a combination or assortment of summarizing, assessing, and reflecting. While summarizing the main arguments, topics included in the source, and the point of the source at all should be included. When assessing, evaluating the source on validity, legitimacy, modernity, and etcetera should be done. Also, checking from what angle the source is written is important. Biased sources can leave holes in your research. After doing the steps above, reflecting can lead to a decision on how a source can be used in a paper or research project. Also, asking yourself if the article has changed your topic or your ideas on a topic can help you decided if the article is useful at all (Bisignani, & Brizee, 2010).

Annotated Bibliographies are essential for gathering information for your topic. Also, they force the writer to scrutinize their sources further and to really decide whether or not the information will be used by them in their research. Annotated Bibliographies help a writer form a thesis statement or strengthen a thesis statement already formed. They also are helpful in seeing what has already been done on the topic at hand (Bisignani, & Brizee, 2010).

To write annotations, write them in paragraph form. How long an annotation is depends on its purpose in the project. Usually, they are written in sentence form as opposed to fragments or bullets (Bisignani, & Brizee, 2010).

Reference List

Bisignani, D., & Brizee, A. (2010, January 08). Annotated bibliographies. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/

Annotated Bibliographies are basic summaries of what has already been done in the topic of your research. From previous blogs, I found that introductions and literature reviews include summaries of what has already been done and why your topic is unique. Annotated Bibliographies are summaries of sources and research that have already been done, so they are essential in writing lit. reviews and introductions to our paper.

One can distinquish whether or not a source is valid, useful, etc. by using the tools we researched in blog # 7. Evaluating your sources can test many different aspects of usefulness to your topic and can cut out a lot of time spent otherwise trying to implement information that doesn’t really work.

Part 7: Understanding Audience

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/post-5-critical-reading-and-significance-of-an-audience/

Part 8: Drafting and Revising

http://marlenharrison.com/images/sfds.pdf

Part 9: Peer Review and Feedback

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/post-15-peer-review-project-reflect/

Part 10: Publishing Research
http://www.editorialmanager.com/aseb/

This site was especially helpful, because it told me exactly what I needed to do to prepare for submitting my article. It was clear and concise.
Section 3: Research Proposal and Outline, First and Final Drafts

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/introduction/

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/proposal-and-outline/

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/methods-section/

Results, Discussion, Conclusion: Results, Discussion, Conclusion

First Draft

Full Research Paper

Section 4: Peer Review Feedback

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/post-15-peer-review-project-reflect/

http://campbellheatherwlvp.wordpress.com/letters/

Second Reflective Letter

Letter to a Publisher

http://www.springer.com/psychology/personality+%26+social+psychology/journal/10508