RESEARCH AND WRITING

Spring 2010             Friday 9:10-12:00          文學院413

編號: 1308552

 

Updated 2010/6/7

 

ONLINE RESOURCES

 

Coordinator:

 

James Myers (麥傑)

Office: 文學院247

Tel: 31506

Email: Lngmyers at ccu dot edu dot tw

Web: http://www.ccunix.ccu.edu.tw/~lngmyers/

Office hours: Thursday 10 am - noon, or by appointment

 

Goals:     This class is designed to help linguistics graduate students practice arguing and writing more effectively and professionally. You will study examples of good writing, critique examples of bad writing, and do lots of writing and revision of your own work. The end result will be a long term paper, which may or may not be expanded later into a thesis, which must relate to a research area that you have already taken a class on, which does not significantly overlap with any term paper from a previous or current class, and which can be written without having to make regular meetings with your advisor.

 

Evaluation:

 

10% Participation

5% Paper proposal [3/26]

20% First presentation [4/30-5/7]

 

15% Conference abstract [5/14]

10% First draft [5/28]

20% Conference presentation [6/11-18]

20% Final paper [6/25]

 

        Class participation means coming to class prepared, and actively helping other students improve their own work.

        The paper proposal is a short (max. 3 pages), organized description of the background, goals, hypotheses, methods, and overall structure (including indication of what work you still need to do). You should make copies for me and the other students in the class.

        The conference abstract is a one-page, single-spaced English description of the research in your paper. Students are strongly encouraged to submit a version of the abstract to an actual conference, though this may be possible only after the semester ends.

        The first presentation (15 minutes, 5 minutes discussion) describes the progress being made on your paper. Presentations should be given in whatever language your paper is going to be written in. The other students should discuss each presentation in a helpful, constructive way. Evaluation of the presentations is based only on your academic style, logic, and progress, not on the content.

        The first draft is a complete copy of your whole paper, with the data, arguments, references, and overall structure clearly presented. Evaluation is based only on your academic style, logic, and progress. Make three copies, one for me and two for student reviewers who we'll select in class.

        The conference presentation (15 minutes, 5 minutes discussion) should be up to international standards and should be given in the language of your final paper.

        The final paper is due one week after the end of class (6/25). I will evaluate it solely on your academic style, logic, and progress, not on the content (though I may give my personal opinions on the content as well).


Schedule

* marks due dates

 

Date

Activities

Things that are due on this day

2/26

What's the point of this class?

Thoughts on good and bad writing

3/5

How to choose a research topic

Description of possible paper topics

3/12

Linguistic resources

 

3/19

Linguistic argumentation

Outlines of sample papers

*3/26

Discussion of proposals

Paper proposal

4/2

*** NO CLASS ***

 

4/9

Handling literature

Introduction & references of your model paper

4/16

Conference abstracts (I)

Comments on conference abstracts

4/23

Presentation style

 

*4/30

First presentations (I)

Handout/slides

*5/7

First presentations (II)

Handout/slides

*5/14

Conference abstracts (II)

Your own conference abstract

5/21

Responding to criticism

 

*5/28

Discussion of first drafts (I)

First draft of term paper (three copies)

6/4

Discussion of first drafts (II) [class un-canceled]

Comments on fellow students' first drafts

*6/11

Conference-style presentations (I)

Handout/slides

*6/18

Conference-style presentations (II) (last class)

Handout/slides

*6/25

Final term paper

Due in my mailbox by 5 pm (don't be late!)

 

Some writing guidebooks

 

Allison, Alida, and Terri Frongia. 1992. The grad student's guide to getting published. New York: Prentice Hall.

Gibaldi, Joseph. 1999. MLA handbook for writers of research papers. New York: MLA.

Slade, Carole. 1997. Form and style: Research papers, reports, and theses (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Sternberg, Robert J. (ed.) 2000. Guide to publishing in psychology journals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, John M., and Christine B. Feak. 1994. Academic writing for graduate students: A course for nonnative speakers of English. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Thyer, Bruce A. 1994. Successful publishing in scholarly journals. London: Sage.

Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations (6th ed.). Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Wood, Nancy V. 2006. Essentials of argument. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

 

Some sample papers

 

Caponigro, Ivano, and Lisa Pearl. 2009. The nominal nature of where, when, and how: Evidence from free relatives. Linguistic Inquiry 40.155-164.Lng

Myers, James. Not dated. All about fruit. National Chung Cheng University ms.

Gouldthorp, B., & Coney, J. (2009). The sensitivity of the right hemisphere to contextual information in sentences. Brain & Language, 110, 95-100.APA

 

Lng Formatted in Language style

APA Formatted in American Psychological Association style