BECOMING AN EX

PERT

E N G L 11 6

UNIT 3 PROMPTGo to

readingnewtechnologies.wordpress.com

“Unit 3”“Prompt”

THINKING ABOUT RESEARCH AS PROBLEM SOLVING

WHAT PROBLEMS EXIST? ISSUES? WHAT NEEDS HAVEN’T BEEN MET?

WHY ARE THOSE PROBLEMS IMPORTANT TO SOLVE?

WHAT’S OUT THERE?Take 15 minutes to look up the following sites:

DVC databases (scholarly articles)Google (more broadly), scholar.google.com, books.google.com

TwitterDirect publications—NY Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Fast Company, Eduptopia, TechCrunch, EdWeek, Wired, etc.

Youtube videos (make sure it’s relevant/important/scholarly!)

STRATEGYWhat’s the question you’re exploring?

What’s the current dialogue?Who is important to know in this conversation?

Where are people talking about it?

What readings do you want to highlight?

“Has the future of college moved online?”

(Nathan Heller)

DOCUMENTING YOUR RESEARCH• Keep notes on your findings and what

your process is in locating the conversation.

• You will need to show this in your portfolio work for this unit

RECAP--SUMMARIZINGOne of the main learning goals for this

class is your ability to closely read a text and pull out its main argument and supporting points. In addition, you should be able to talk about the text and what it is doing…in terms of the moves it makes, its tone, its language, etc.

SUMMARIZINGHow to summarize effectively:

• What’s the topic, issue, or research question?• What is the author’s argument or main idea?• What are the strongest supporting points for that idea (or

the most significant ones for your discussion)? • What’s the big takeaway? What’s significant about this

article?

THE GRAMMAR SIDE OF SUMMARIESClear and simple sentences need an active

subject and verb. “Siegel views Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, and

almost all user-generated content with a combination of confusion or contempt.”

“Instead, he regards the explosion of online expression as the “narcissistic” bloviation of the masses and argues it is destroying true culture and knowledge.”

“But Siegel also disputes what he regards as such romanticized notions of “online participation” and “personal democracy.”

READ THROUGH: “NEGATIVE EFFECTS…”Write a 5-6 sentence summary:

PRESENTATION

HOMEWORKFor next week:

1) What is your research question2) What articles (name 2) do you think are most important so

far? (summarize & explain)3) Describe the “need to knows” about this conversation to

someone that is smart, but is new to the conversation. What does he/she need to know? What are people thinking/saying?

4) Type this up and include it on your “Unit 3” archive.