Presidential Candidate Research Project--Assignment Overview
ENC 0010 Essentials of Writing II
Instructor, Sherry Siler

As you can see from the figures above, this project is very important. 

350 of your one thousand points for the course are earned while working on this project.

Your primary goal in this writing class is to prepare yourself for success in Composition I. 
Success in Comp I is largely determined by your ability to:

• Control the independent clause

• Organize your writing

• Provide your reader with interesting & relevant details
  AND

•   Conduct, Present & Document Research

This assignment requires that you successfully incorporate all of these skills.

Your assignment is to conduct research on one potential candidate and three major issues in the 2004 presidential election.  You will work with a team to conduct and organize this research.  The team will organize a research paper in which each student will:

·       Present a researched analysis of 3 “planks” of the candidate’s platform.  Each of these topics will be presented in an organized paragraph that establishes both the importance of the issue and the candidate’s unique perspective on the issue.  Each paragraph will include citations of research.

·        Either:

                 Write the Introductory paragraph

                  Write the Conclusion paragraph

                  Serve as the editor of both the Intro & Conclusion

Summaries.  Each student is required to submit 3 annotated summaries of documents that you have found in your research.  The format for these summaries will be reviewed extensively in class and will include a correctly constructed bibliographic entry, a summary of the key points of the source, your evaluation of the source, and the quotes, at least 3, that you intend to use from the source.  The quotations will include the proper parenthetical documentation.  For those of you who have used notecards to keep track of work for a research paper, you should be beginning to see that these summaries will act as your “electronic” notecards.

Extra credit opportunity:  These summaries, when done correctly, are such a valuable tool that I will award up to 10 points extra credit for each of up to three well-written summaries.  These may be submitted with the final research paper.

Summary Due Date:  July 17

Required resources. 

Each student must include references to the following resources within the project:           

·        3 sources obtained through Lexis-Nexis and/or Custom Newspapers

·        1 source from the Republican National Committee Web Site

·        1 source from the Democratic National Committee Web Site

·        1 source from the Statistical Abstract of the United States

You may choose to include additional resources including video tapes, personal interviews, material from books within the circulation collection, articles in periodicals, and appropriate websites.  Regardless of the use of these additional resources, the project’s required resources must be met.

Plagiarism is unethical and will not be tolerated.

Students are held accountable for learning to work with and benefit from the research of professionals.  Students who are unsure about how to properly cite another person’s unique work and ideas have many resources to guide them. 

These include:

• The Holt Handbook
• Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
• The library website links to online citation help
• The library’s tip sheets
• Your classmates
• Librarians
• The TLCC tutors
• Your instructor

So, you shouldn’t have any worries about unintentional plagiarism with all of those resources available to help you figure out how to remain a responsible researcher.

First Submission:  TH, July 24        15 points

Note that I do NOT refer to this as a rough draft.  I expect you to have completed extensive revision of this work in progress before it is submitted to me.  When I read your first submission I will make a set of notes for each student.  These notes will include my ideas about your project—its strengths and weaknesses.  I will not be indicating your grammar and mechanics errors or make suggestions for untangling unclear sentences.  You are responsible for reading each other’s papers, working with a tutor, and finding people who like you and will listen to your paper, or better yet, read it to you, to make sure that your work is clear, strong, and correct.

Documentation Test  100 pts

I will determine your documentation test score by evaluating the group’s Works Cited page(s) as they exist in the first submission.

The biggest mistake that I see groups make with their Works Cited pages is waiting until right before the first submission deadline to compile the group’s citation pages.  Start now, and make sure that every team member maintains an updated file of the group’s Works Cited pages.   Do not rely on one member to maintain this copy; things happen to disks; make sure that nothing happens to your Works Cited page.  The Technology Guru should compile the list by collecting members’ updated Works Cited pages.  But every member should always have a current working Works Cited page(s).

The second biggest mistake that I see with Works Cited pages is failure to follow the form.  Make use of your resources.  Refer to your tip sheets and your Holt Handbook MLA section.  Check one another’s work for accuracy.  Remember that the Documentation Test grade comes from the accuracy of the group’s Works Cited pages.

Every member is responsible for ensuring that the project’s resources are accurately cited within the Works Cited pages.

Individuals are each responsible for their own accurate and ethical presentation of their resources within their written paragraphs

Tutoring in TLCC

I will allow you up to four total sets of TLCC tutor extra credit for working on project revision.  Remember, that is 3 points per session.  Ask the tutor to sign your verification form indicating that you were working on a revision focusing on:                                              

• Organization
• Use of resources
• Strength of Material
• Control of grammar and mechanics

Many groups have found it very useful to visit a TLCC tutor together to get ideas about how to effectively organize the whole paper.  If your group works with a tutor on project organization, each group member who attends will get the three points.  Only ask for one verification form, and ask the tutor to fill in the name of everyone who works in that session on the form.  Turn in all tutor verification forms with your final submission.

Project Organization

As you know, successful collaborative projects require that each member performs a meaningful task role.  Each group will need to develop an effective organizational strategy based upon the strengths of its members.  Each group must designate a member to fill the following roles:

• Project Coordinator:  The project coordinator must be a fantastic listener, must be enthusiastic even when the going gets tough, and must be great at inspiring other people with that enthusiasm.  Additionally, the project coordinator must be very organized, must be a fantastic communicator, and must be able to work within a deadline.
  
  
• Technology Guru:  The tech guru will work with each member to make sure that updated backup files of all member’s work are constantly maintained.  The tech guru will make sure that at least one other group member has an updated copy of the most recent draft of each member’s work.  Again, this is important to do to make sure that no one ends up with lost work because of a malfunctioning or lost disk.  These updating issues are probably most easily dealt with by e-mailing the updated files to one another.  All group members must always have a current file of the group’s Works Cited page.  One of the easiest ways to handle this would be through a “My Yahoo,” “My MSN,” or other Internet portal page. The technology guru will be responsible for providing access to these updated files. The technology guru must either be proficient with copying and pasting electronic files and with e-mailing files or be willing to work with the Computer Tutors in the TLCC to do accomplish this.  These tasks are not difficult and can be quickly learned by someone who doesn’t know computers well but recognizes the importance of learning to work with them.  Additionally, the tech guru must be very organized, must be level-headed under pressure, and must be able to work well independently.
  
  
• Information Coordinator:  The Information Coordinator will be responsible for maintaining organized copies of all the groups’ paperwork.  This includes keeping a copy of every member’s resources.  These copies must be included in the group’s submission packets.  The information coordinator will NOT be responsible for finding the copies of the resources but simply maintaining an organized copy of all resources.  These files should be helpful for other group member, so they must be accessible at every group meeting.  The information coordinator must enjoy working with research and be a very organized and responsible person.  The information coordinator must be an excellent communicator.
  

Deliverables

So, what are you actually turning in?

Thursday, July 17

Each student turns in 3 annotated summaries following the class model

Thursday, July 24

Each TEAM turns in a research paper with a Cover Sheet, an Introductory paragraph, a Conclusion paragraph, 3 paragraphs by each member discussing the candidate’s perspective on the issues, and a Works Cited page containing entries for all sources cited within the paper.  The Works Cited page(s) will function as the group’s Documentation Test.

The Cover Sheet will indicate all group members and their role within the group. 

In the left margin of each paragraph, the team will neatly indicate the initials of the author of the paragraph.

In the left margin of each bibliographic entry, the team will neatly indicate the initials of the member(s) who integrated that source into their research.

Final Submission:   Thursday, July 31

Each team will turn in a complete, edited version of their research project.  The project will be organized the same as the first submission, including the initials by the paragraphs and bibliographic entries.  This is critical, as students will be graded only on the part of the paper that they wrote!