{"id":1674,"date":"2023-08-24T23:53:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T06:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2024-09-08T21:38:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T04:38:46","slug":"the-research-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/the-research-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The Research Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inquiry Project Research Update<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(20 *Quiz* Points)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t care how you take notes and track your work, but I need to see proof that you\u2019ve seriously begun your research. What I\u2019ll suggest is that you try out Evernote<\/a><\/strong>, Diigo<\/a><\/strong>, and\/or Zotero<\/a><\/strong> as methods for keeping track of your notes and work this semester. Because I\u2019m going to ask you to use ScreenPal<\/a><\/strong> (or something like it) to present your research update, you also might want to learn about taking screenshots<\/a><\/strong>, which you can use to take a snapshot of what you\u2019re doing onscreen at any time. These programs (and associated skills) may be terrific assets as you tackle your research and writing this semester, and some (or all) of you may find that one (or more) of these tools is useful for the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your research proof could be a lot of different things, though I\u2019ll urge you to think in terms of things I can review onscreen: images and documents, including maybe photos or scans of physical stuff. Maybe you\u2019ll turn in a set of carefully typed notes about articles you\u2019re reading. Maybe it will be your list of articles and reference works to thoroughly investigate, with some notes about the reasons these works are on your list. Maybe it\u2019s a very rough draft of your \u201cauthor snapshot\u201d that makes clear reference to the things you\u2019ve been finding and reading. Maybe it\u2019s a professionally produced graphic novel following the course of your research. The main guideline here is that you give me substantial proof that you\u2019ve not only begun thinking about the project, you\u2019ve begun some serious research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll create a 5-minute video. At the start, quickly (in < a minute) summarize your sense (so far) of the author\u2019s life, work, reputation, and themes, and then, for the bulk of your time, explain your proof and how it shows me what you\u2019re up to. The tool to use is Screencast-o-matic, which is a straightforward online \u201cscreencasting\u201d tool. I\u2019ve posted several samples at the course wiki to explain further. (If you have other kinds of voodoo you do to make screencasts, you should feel free to use those alternatives. No matter what, keep it to five minutes or less<\/strong>.) Often, a screencast video will be thorough enough to be ALL of your proof. Sometimes, it will pay to send some kind of further documentation of your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that a lot of people \u201cdraft\u201d this video update once or twice in practice runs and then re-record, once they have a good sense of what they want to say. That may or may not suit you, but it\u2019s worth considering. (It\u2019s also worth thinking about how this can be a sort of planned \u201clive\u201d composition\u2026) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Scoring for the Research Update<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n