Hi everyone!
We’re going to be moving to a new eportfolio for Spring 2014–Jenny is putting together a shiny new site for us!
So for the latest course information, please check out http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/honorsthesis14/. The site is currently in progress, but it will be ready and raring to go when we meet again in late January.
Cheers,
Lindsey
You can also view this chart as an interactive web page (which might be the easiest way to see the details), or as an image file (PNG).
On November 26th, we’re going to gather for a session on abstracts–and, a little more broadly, on effectively summarizing arguments. We’ll also talk a little bit about how to be awesome at academic conferences.
Please come to class with an abstract fully drafted. (This is a minimum of 250 words, a MAXIMUM of 450 words–NCUR will not accept longer.) It should explain either your entire argument, or a section of your argument–whatever you’d like to actually present at NCUR. Bring enough hard copies for the entire class–one for each student and each instructor. (Hard copies are going to be necessary for the activities I’m planning for that session–please print them ahead of time so that you’re not rushing or late.) Use the guidelines for abstracts found in The Craft of Research to put together your abstract draft.
Please also review the NCUR 2014 web site before class, familiarizing yourself with the conference and the abstract submission procedure.
Students can submit both papers (to be read aloud as part of a panel, with a Q&A) and posters (to be hung and explained to passers-by) to NCUR. Generally, we would prefer you to plan on submitting a paper. If you think you can make a case for submitting a poster instead, talk to me BEFORE we get together on the 26th.
I encourage you to write an abstract even if you don’t “feel ready.” Not only is it a good exercise in condensing your ideas, submitting an abstract to a conference and having that abstract accepted simply secures you a place in the conference. You can always revise & refine your ideas before you present them!
E-mail with any questions.
Thanks,
Lindsey
Here are the results of today’s class on argumentation. Above, you can see Lindsey’s whiteboard musings, and below are the results of both of our activities! (Hover over any photo to see a caption; click to enlarge it for easier viewing.)
After writing down questions and discussing the primary points behind The Craft of Research‘s chapters on argumentation, we began the activity portion of the class with an “exquisite corpse”-style game, where we traded off writing theses and evidence. Later, these papers were annotated for places where warranting seemed a probable necessity.
After some work isolating each paper’s primary claim, we used that as a starting point for an expanded version of the reasons and evidence activity in Chapter 9 of The Craft of Research. Colby and Laura wrote out their reasons/core ideas (white notecards) and key pieces of evidence (blue & green notecards), and then placed those two sets of information in relationship to one another visually. They were then invited to trade places and rearrange the other person’s material according to what they felt was the most logical pattern. Prof. Isenberg then weighed in, rearranging the work of both students into what he felt to be the most logical pattern. Finally, Colby and Laura added warrants to this structure (gold & yellow notecards), placing them where they seemed most likely to come up. Thank you to everyone for a constructive and thoughtful session!
We began this appointment by talking about Kerishma’s current secondary source research and her goals for that research. In addition to the books from last week, Lindsey suggested Tor.com’s A Song of Ice and Fire discussion, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database, and Strange Horizons. Our general goal is to boost Kerishma’s current reading in the history of the fantasy genre with current material about Martin’s series specifically. The SFFRD includes both scholarly and journalistic materials, and Tor hires prominent professional and semi-professional writers for its blogs, making both of them quality sources within this field.
After that, we devoted much of our discussion to project management, thinking both about specific tools Kerishma might use (including Zotero for sources and citations, SelfControl and focus booster for a productive working experience, and Mural.ly for a virtual whiteboard/keeping a handle on the big picture) and about the intellectual scope of her paper. Recognizing the need to firmly ground this thesis in the fantasy genre, the desire to discuss the question of book-to-TV adaptation, and the real possibility that this project could get quite unwieldy, Lindsey suggested Kerishma organize her paper around 3-4 themes (with adaptation as one of those themes), and then discuss each of the five characters which interest her in relationship to each theme. If the information about the fantasy genre could serve as a sort of extended introduction or launchpad for thematic analysis, this would allow Kerishma to familiarize her audience with her field without having to explain every last bit of the worldbuilding of A Song of Ice and Fire. Just as people write about The Lord of the Rings without spending tons of time explaining “what hobbits are,” our goal here is to write about Martin’s books without letting the focus simply divert back towards an explanation of the universe in which the books are set.
Once Kerishma is generally set on the themes she wishes to analyze, Lindsey suggested a follow-up meeting in November to specifically address relevant pieces of literary theory as ballast for those sections. (The idea being not to read all of Derrida, say, but to find the tiny piece of Derrida that might be relevant to the paper and build it into the draft.)
Kerishma is applying to graduate school for next year; Lindsey discussed the particulars of the GRE Subject Test in Literature in English and noted that ETS’s practice materials [PDF] give a good overview of what the exam will be like. Given that Kerishma isn’t yet certain of her area of specialization, Lindsey suggested focusing primarily on MA programs, and noted UChicago’s MA in the Humanities, CCNY’s MA in English with a focus in Literature, and the Graduate Center’s MA in Liberal Studies as three good starting points for future doctoral studies in a subfield of Kerishma’s choosing. While Kerishma’s thesis is not going to be her writing sample, Lindsey suggested she mention that she is writing a thesis in her application letters. We also discussed setting up in-person meetings with faculty in the New York area and the nature of the personal statement.
Lindsey would be happy to meet with anyone else thinking about graduate school in the humanities, or to answer questions about it via e-mail.
We began with the following questions/concerns:
Source Management: When working with general sources, or sources written for a nonspecialist audience, use the index and the bibliographies rather than reading straight through. Taking the time to sort through what sources will be useful is not wasted time; it will allow you to direct your search more quickly. Helps distill the research question. In this case, we have a creative project and a critical project, and both are going to have to be built and grown at the same time. And if one part of the project isn’t flowing, you should work on the other part of the project–make time for the treatment as well as the critical introduction. But do a little bit daily–this will help manage the anxiety and make deadlines more realistic.
Colby’s DFW primary sources need a boost from secondary, lit-crit sources. Academic database searching is the way to go for this–on topics re: self-consciousness and autobiography in Infinite Jest. This is her next move!
Colby’s also going to keep an online whiteboard/general inspiration board online at Mural.ly. This will be an evolving, multi-dimensional space; the key is to always incorporate new material in relationship to old.
Zotero: We downloaded the standalone Zotero app for use on Colby’s Macbook, and discussed the benefits of the app versus the browser extension. We covered how you can use Zotero to take notes, how you can edit citations, Zotero for PDF management, and how to use it with Word when you are integrating your source material into your draft. Lindsey recommended making several Zotero folders (and/or tags) for sources: Sources I Have Read, Sources I Have Found, Sources I Have Yet To Find. She also recommended using Zotero’s “Notes” and “tags” functions for note-taking and file sorting.
Time Management: We talked about using Google Calendar for deadline management, and set suggested appointment dates in November in order to boost productivity. We also discussed the “pomodoro” technique (25 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break), for which Lindsey recommends something like focus booster, and free apps like SelfControl, which shut off the more tempting parts of the Internet while you are working
Tablet Apps:
We had 2 primary goals for this session:
Project Management: Lindsey started with Lifehacker’s list of 5 top project management tools. We then talked about Google Calendar as a means of projecting out long-term deadlines. This, in combination with Laura’s current to-do list practices, seems to make the most sense at this point.
Zotero: We downloaded the standalone Zotero app for use on Laura’s Macbook, and discussed the benefits of the app versus the browser extension. We covered how you can use Zotero to take notes, how you can edit citations, Zotero for PDF management, and how to use it with Word when you are integrating your source material into your draft. Lindsey recommended making several Zotero folders (and/or tags) for sources: Sources I Have Read, Sources I Have Found, Sources I Have Yet To Find. She also recommended using Zotero’s “Notes” and “tags” functions for note-taking and file sorting.
Productivity Applications: We discussed the “pomodoro” technique (25 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break), for which Lindsey recommends something like focus booster, and free apps like SelfControl, which shut off the more tempting parts of the Internet while you are working. We also talked about a goal of doing a little bit of work daily.
As we head into October I want to encourage everyone not only to mail me to set up a research strategy meeting, but to also consider me a resource to help plan and run group work sessions, be they at Macaulay, at the Hunter Library, or elsewhere. If you want someone around to work alongside, please e-mail me.
For your research meeting, it will help if you’ve already done some exploration. Use the material from today’s session on online research, continue with your library research, and come to me with your questions and frustrations after you’ve begun to get into your source material.
There are some additional topics I can tackle with you one on one, which we did not talk about today in any depth. If you’re interested in discussing any of these things, let me know before we meet!
Please set up a meeting with me on or before October 15th–that gives you some time to get into your sources and come up with questions I can help with, but it also gives you time to apply what we talk about in our chat. I’m at Macaulay on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons generally, but I can try to come in on another day if absolutely necessary.
After each meeting, I’ll send a record of what we discussed to both you and Prof. Isenberg.
Good luck, everyone!
–Lindsey
