EXTENDED INQUIRY PROJECT ASSIGNMENT

Malcolm W. Campbell, Instructor UNCC English 1102 Spring 2013

Total Point Value: 300 points (A holistic score that includes consideration of performance on Topic Proposal & Review of Research assignments) Completed Project Due: M/W: Monday, April 8 Peer Reviews: Week of April 1

T/Th: Tuesday, April 9

Explanation
An extended inquiry project (EIP) is the presentation of what youve learned this semester about your topic of interest related to our class theme of Digital Identity. The final form of your project is up to you: it may be an essay, website, blog, documentary, or any combination of these. Extended means this is what youll work on for the entire semester, with the exception of your portfolio and regular thinking book and informal writing assignments. (Of course, your informal writing develops your inquiry project.) If you trust the process and try, this assignment will be fun. Really. You get to choose your topic we will work together to confirm the potential for research and exploration and then you get to learn about what interests you. You will become an expert on your topic; youll understand and be able to communicate information to people who know little or nothing about it. More importantly, youll be able to converse intelligently with other experts in the field. I am excited for you because this process of curiosity leading to discovery is what makes life fascinating. Also, Im happy because I know that many of you will go to parties and visit with friends and ride in elevators and tell people what you know. This will, most of the time, make those people happy, too.

Process: Inquiry Sequence

An Inquiry Sequence is a multi-stage process of questioning, researching answers, asking more questions, reporting answers, and so forth, until you compose and turn in your final project. The EIP consists of three tasks: the Topic Proposal, Review of Research, and Final Project. Throughout, you will engage in reflective writing in your thinking book, which will help shape another major assignment: the end-of-semester Reflective Letter to appear in your e-Portfolio. The process begins with using questions to identify a topic of interest to you that you want to explore in depth. Finding a topic that youre interested in is critical because you will stay with this topic throughout the semester. After your topic proposal is approved in conference with me, you will not be able to change your topic, unless you discuss the changes with me. The inquiry sequence leads to an inquiry question that starts your process of searching and researching.

The Purpose of Your Composition

Every act of communication is shaped by rhetorical elements/forcesaudience, purpose, genre, medium (where the communication appears), and more. At the beginning of this project, we will focus primarily on two elements: purpose and audience. Purpose is what you want the communication to do: How you want it to impact the reader. There are two primary forms of composition your EIP will likely become. Either you will prepare an exploratory or analytical essay with the purpose to share your process of inquiry, what you learned, and to have the reader appreciate/enjoy the journey of discovery your essay leads provides. Or you may compose an argumentative essay with the purpose to persuade your audience to think differently about some issue and/or to take some action. (We will discuss more about both types of essays.) Your EIPs purpose may change during the process, and this is normal. Also, various elements of exploratory/analytical and argumentative writing overlap and can blur the structural lines between them. So be open to where you go, as you go.

The primary purpose of this assignment from a learning standpoint is to discover knowledge that you did not know, information that intrigues you and makes you want to learn more. You may not complete this assignment by finding and presenting definitive answers. It is natural to want to settle on correct answers, but as you move through the process of inquiry, you might discover that very few topics even in some forms of math produce only one answer. Your audience will be you, your peers, me, future employers/admissions officers, and the community of people you find who are engaged in conversation about your topic. We will dive deep into academic research. During this process, you will discover more about your audience: who they are, what positions/beliefs they have about your issue, and what credentials make them qualified to speak to the issue. As you learn more about your topic, YOU will develop knowledge and your own credentials to join the conversations you follow through research.

Final Project Format

While most students prefer to write essays, other composition formats are fine. Compose your final project in the format that best achieves your purpose in sharing your journey of discovery or in persuading the audience. Write an essay, create a website, produce a multi-media presentation, develop and promote a Facebook Group. There are many opportunies; however, if you decide not to write an essay, you must inform me of your choice. This way we can discuss the exciting opportunities and challenges of alternative compositions, as well as the necessary adaptations. Written Essay: The most common format of this assignment will be a written essay. You are to compose at least 7 pages, if you choose to compose an essay. This does not include your Works Cited page. (All sources must be cited on the Works Cited page in 2009 MLA Format, as well as in the text via parenthetical in-text citations. If you are composing a format other than a written essay, you will prepare a written Works Cited page, and well discuss how to cite your sources inside your composition.) I will provide an MLA-formatted Word document template on Moodle. You must use at least four sources for your paper, including at least one scholarly article (unless you have prior approval from me not to include an academic source), one reliable website, and one detailed popular source article. They do not have to be the same sources as those on your annotated bibliography. You may not use any unreliable websites such as Wikipedia, About.com, E-how.com, etc. If you have any doubt about a websites cred, ask me before you use it.

Evaluation
As always, Im interested in composition that shows that youve worked through the writing process. Additional criteria that Ill use to evaluate your projects strength include: Did you approach this assignment with genuine curiosity? Were you actively engaged in pursuing knowledge or were you just going through the motions to get the project done? (In other words, did you try?) Have you become an expert in your topic? Were you excited by what you researched and learned? Does that come across in your composition? Have you engaged your reader in thinking in a new way about your topic? Is the composition interesting? Does it accomplish the purpose you set for it? Does your project make a meaningful contribution to the on-going conversation(s) about your topic? Is the composition easy to understand with few distracting errors? How well did you perform on the two previous elements: the Topic Proposal and the Review of Research?

What Youll Turn In: The Complete Assignment Packet Uploaded to Moodle before class on the due date: 1. 2. Your composition, either written as a Word document or prepared as a link to your digital composition. Regardless of composition format, your project must have a Works Cited page. A Works Cited page is the last page(s) of a written essay. If you are preparing a different form of composition, we will discuss how to prepare and submit a Works Cited page.

Thinking Book Assignment: Reflective Commentary on your Project

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You will reflect on this project in your end-of-semester Reflective Letter to appear in your e-Portfolio. Prepare this now before you forget thoughts to the following questions and to have it ready. Compose a letter to me demonstrating genuine reflection about your process of composition and what you learned about yourself as a writer, reader and researcher from this project. This letter will become part of the final end-of-semester letter to me, so you do not need to begin this with Dear Malcolm The following questions are good guidelines for composing your reflections. You do not have to answer each question but you must prepare an honest, thoughtful response. Your commentary must also demonstrate that you put time into this and did not fly through the process just to get it done. Please do not prepare a numbered list of answers. Write me an informal note, as if were speaking together. Ultimately, you will work this into your letter to me at the end of the semester. 1. Reflect and share how the process of inquiry asking questions, researching, and developing more questions made you feel? Be honest about this. If you got excited at times, say so and explain why. If you wanted to give up, share that and say why. How did the process of asking questions and exploring answers work for you? Was this a new experience or something youve done before? What parts of the inquiry sequence were most enjoyable and least enjoyable? Be specific when you answer this. What part of your project are you most proud? And why? What part of your project could still be improved? Again, be specific.

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REMINDER NOTE ABOUT ALTERNATIVE COMPOSITION FORMATS If you plan to prepare an alternative composition format, please see the document on Moodle entitled Adaptations for Alternative EIP Formats.

OFFICE HOURS I can be available for appointments at mutually beneficial times. Otherwise, my office hours are Tuesdays, 3 to 3 p.m. NOTE: I can be of only limited help closer the deadline. In other words, I cannot read an entire essay and give thorough feedback shortly before its due. My close reading occurs when you first turn the draft in, and before that I help you focus on general shaping ideas.

REVISION FOR PORTFOLIO This project, including the Works Cited page, will be revised for your End-of-Semester e-Portfolio. You will receive comments from your peers and me to consider for revision. This is the only project that must be revised for your portfolio.

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