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· Brief Description: Participants will formally propose a senior capstone project on a research topic in literature or writing (CUESTE students must connect their project to pedagogy, and design a lesson for practical classroom application). This class is writing intensive.

· Engl/WR 403 and 407 are required for EOU’s BA in English Discourse Studies. ENGL/WR 403 is spent working on developing a research proposal and annotated bibliography; ENGL/WR 407 Seminar culminates in both the final research paper and an oral presentation.

· Students should contact either Stacey the first week of classes: Deschutes 18, 383-7533, or sdonohue@cocc.edu

· Students have the option of signing up for the course with either an ENGL(ish) or a WR(iting) prefix, depending on their program needs and requirements, as a capstone to their cumulative work for the English Discourse Studies BA degree. As a general rule, sign up for ENG if your project focuses on literature and WR if your project is based on language/rhetoric.

· The Senior Project should satisfy both depth and breadth expectations for the capstone: that is, students will pursue further in-depth research and study a focused topic in the student’s area of concentration. CUESTE students must integrate pertinent interdisciplinary relationships across the fields of literature and writing and pedagogy.

· Orientation: Preliminary meetings with instructor—contact Stacey or Eleanor early the first week of the term: topic, research, selection and project development

· Plan weekly check-in time with your instructor, one-on-one, in person and via email

· Begin Exploratory research; Develop Research Strategy and begin preparing Working Bibliography

· Weekly meetings with your instructor to discuss Senior Project topics, plans for project design, work in progress, troubleshooting

· Midterm Evaluation conference with your instructor. Be prepared with the following:

1. Present (in writing and in our discussion) detailed Topic Description and Project Design plans.

2. Report on Preliminary Research findings and Work-in-Progress (including your Working Bibliography: you should have a research base of 20-30 effective (and varied) sources by this point).

· DUE: Preliminary Outlines/Drafts of Proposal, with a copy for another student and your instructor

· Meet with your instructor to discuss draft. Return evaluated draft to other student.

1. Depth: Choose a focused topic (issue, problem, questions, hypothesis) within your area of concentration Discourse Studies (literature or writing) that you wish to pursue in depth through sustained research and study over two quarters.

2. Breadth: Identify and integrate interdisciplinary relationships and applications across the fields of literature and writing (and perhaps other relevant disciplines as well), which extend and enrich the dimensions of your focused topic and project design in demonstrable ways.

3. Pedagogical Component (for CUESTE students) should be integrated into the project design to address the topic’s practical future application(s) to the classroom. CUESTE students enrolled in ED 309 are encouraged to use this and other relevant practical teaching experiences to help them identify an appropriate pedagogical problem or issue relevant to their areas of concentration and their Senior Project topic. Consider discussing the pedagogical content with your CUESTE advisor.

4. Capstone Experience: Your Senior Project is intended to be a “capstone” achievement, as well as a culminating learning experience. The project should, therefore, allow you to synthesize and apply, as well as build on and extend--in demonstrable ways--significant and relevant knowledge, skills, and experience gained from previous coursework completed toward the B.A. degree in English Discourse Studies (and Licensure in Secondary Education, if relevant).

5. Writing Intensive: This EOU designation requires that a significant component of ENGL/WR 403 will entail writing, both formal and informal. Formal ENGL/WR 403 writing assignments are the Senior Project Proposal and an accompanying Working /Annotated Bibliography. Informal writing assignments include research notes/journal, working bibliography, preliminary outlines, drafts, peer evaluations.

6. Preparation for ENGL/WR 407: You will have primary responsibility for designing, conducting research for, organizing, and executing your Senior Project--with the guidance and approval of your instructor. In addition to meeting the general parameters described above, you should also project your plans and goals for the major research paper and oral classroom presentation for peers to be completed in the second-term course ENGL/WR 407.

1. independent topic selection, project design, and in-depth study and research

2. critical and creative thinking and problem solving

3. synthesis and application of concepts and resources from other Discourse Studies courses appropriate to the Senior Project

4. Senior college-level research and study, including identification and sophisticated integration of theoretical and applied resources, primary and secondary sources, major journals in the field, and interdisciplinary relationships relevant to their Senior Project topic.

5. Senior college-level writing, emphasizing the genres of the academic research proposal and working/annotated bibliography

6. documentation of sources conforming to MLA style, and adherence to the academic conventions of standard written English.

1. Researcher’s Notebook should encompass not only research notes (in whatever forms, including, for example, annotations or highlighting of xeroxed copies of journal articles), but informal written tracks of your thinking at various stages of the ENGL/WR 403 learning process. Such informal writing will also be useful later in helping you write the Senior Project Proposal. Other entries should include:

A. Topic Exploration: Since the Senior Project is intended to be a capstone experience, in exploring topics, I recommend that you make use of what you have already gained. Even if you already have a good topic idea, the review process recommended below can help you synthesize and integrate relevant knowledge, skills and resources for the capstone. Look back, reflect and write informally to identify:

· Interesting topics, arguable issues, unsolved problems, and unanswered questions raised in past English Discourse Studies and related Education coursework--then single out those that you’d like to study in more depth and perhaps in new ways;

· Meaningful knowledge, skills, and experiences gained, as well as significant assignments and projects completed, in past courses--then single out those that you would like to develop, extend, and refine further.

· Overlapping content, theories, methods applications, projects, resources, etc. addressed across your previous coursework--this review may remind you of explicit interdisciplinary relationships you can explore further.

· A list of sources and resources, tapped and untapped, from past coursework which may be relevant to the topic(s) you are considering and may prove useful for this project.

B. Research Strategy Entries: Develop ideas for your topic and project design, and test their viability, through exploratory research and notetaking. Such research will be more fruitful if you have a strategy: i.e., (1) What do you need to know? (2) Where are you likely to find the answers? Consider writing out working answers to the following:

· important questions to be answered, problems to be solved, issues to be argued;

· your own and others’ leading assumptions, (hypo)theses, and judgments to be tested;

· major theories, approaches, trends, and developments, experts, studies, scholarly/professional journals, etc., in the field(s) to be identified and investigated;

2. Exploratory Research and Working Bibliography/Notetaking: Exploratory research into potential and selected topics early in the quarter can help you generate and explore topic ideas, and/or test their viability, for the Senior Project: Does the topic have the potential to meet the parameters for the project? Will the topic sustain my interest and engagement over two quarters?

Write notes for all useful (or potentially useful) sources consulted during the exploratory research stage.

Suggested Length of proposal essay (not including bibliography): 8, double-spaced, word-processed pages, conforming to standard MLA style and the conventions of standard written English.

Review the parameters of the senior project as well as the Expectations and Learning outcomes. Integrate explicit demonstrations that these parameters, expectations and outcomes are being met at those points in your Proposal that seem most appropriate and logical.

· Introduce the focused topic of your Senior Project, including definitions of key terms and concepts, and a description of your own initial orientation toward the topic (your own assumptions, theories, approaches, etc.)

· Explain why you have chosen this topic: Why does it interest you? What previous courses, projects, experiences, etc., led you to it? What do you hope to gain from this project? How do you think it will benefit you personally and professionally as a capstone to your cumulative work in Discourse Studies (and Secondary Education, if relevant)? What might its value be to others?

· Identify the leading research questions, issues, problems, hypotheses, assumptions, etc., that you set out to answer, resolve, test, investigate, through this research project.

Based on the preliminary research you have completed thus far--and you should have a solid research foundation of 20 usable sources before the end of the term:

· Place your focused topic--as well as related theories, approaches, methods, applications, etc.--within the larger scholarly context of Discourse Studies (and the larger pedagogical context of Secondary Education, if relevant).

· Summarize the major trends, patterns, developments, theories, movements, schools of thought, assumptions, issues debates, problems, approaches, methods, experts, studies, and/or journals, etc., in the field--those most relevant to your topic.

Be concise and selective: choose and represent those that seem dominant and influential in the field, most reliable and authoritative according to your evaluation criteria, and most interesting and relevant. In the Review section, try to respond to these kinds of questions:

1. Where does your topic fit into the “bigger picture” of Discourse Studies (and Secondary Ed)?

2. What is the current state of scholarly and pedagogical work in the fields relevant to your focused topic?

3. What major scholarly and pedagogical “conversations,” debates, issues, and/or problems have your topic selection and research engaged you in?

4. It may also be useful to consider the historical development of these professional “conversations” in order to represent the present stage at which you and your topic enter the ongoing dialogue.

· Outline the design of your project: goals, theory, approach, organization, methods, materials, applications.

· Offer a prospectus of the type of ENG/WR 407 research paper and oral presentation that your project is designed to produce in Winter term 2000.

· Identify the most fruitful and reliable “answers” to your leading research questions, issues, problems, etc. (as identified in your Introduction) which your research has yielded to date. Credit specific sources, theories, approaches, etc., that have exerted important shaping influences on your project; and offer your rationales for choosing to adopt, build on, modify, extend, and/or apply the theories, methods, approaches, etc. represented in these sources.

· Integrate into your discussion demonstrations and/or projections how your Senior Project meets the given parameters.

· Outline significant work remaining to be accomplished (questions, issues, problems still to be resolved; further research to be completed, skills to be developed, etc.) to prepare you to finish your research paper and oral presentation in ENG/WR 407.

Your Annotated Bibliography will formally document the research base of at least 10 of your 20+ usable sources relevant to the Senior project, that you have consulted during the term. From this research you should be able to develop the Review of the Literature section and some parts of your Prospectus section of the Proposal.

Header and Title Format: Title should be “Annotated Bibliography” (to distinguish it from Works Cited). The Bibliography is due at the same time as, and should complement, your formal Proposal.

A presentation of at least 10 sources cited in MLA style, listed alphabetically, and annotated with concise descriptive and evaluative comments. The annotation should give readers a clear summary of the source’s contents, as well as a brief critique of the source’s major strength(s) and/or weakness(es). The sample page attached offers examples.

Select for this section at least 10 of the most valuable sources, influential in shaping your understanding of your topic and your design. I would normally expect you to include in your selections to annotate, those sources cited explicitly in the Senior Project Prospectus section of your Proposal.

On-site English/Writing Instructors: Dr. Stacey Donohue and Dr. Eleanor Latham