English 341 Independent Research Project Progress Report Guidelines and Desbib Help
Keep in mind these are only progress reports, not "final reporets." Your project does not have to be completely done, or even almost done, to present preliminary results, sources, problems, and questions. Students should use these preliminary progress reports to introduce the class to their research and involve them in their thinking processes. Explaining it to the class will be good pre-writing practice to help generate the written report for next week. Because we have many reports to deliver and respond to in one 120-minute class, presenters should plan and rehearse a concise delivery that should take no more than five to seven minutes. That will give us at least a few minutes to respond to each of the projects. I hope students in the audience also will take good notes and, if there is not time to tell the presenter in person, email suggestions, sources, responses etc. and post a copy of the email to the discussion forum to credit for it in “Class Participation.” Each progress report can be set up naturally into three stages.
For each progress report:
1) Presenters should hand out a printed preliminary Works Cited, including both primary and secondary sources. That will insure they have started to think about secondary scholarly source support, and they can build their final report documents on top of the Works Cited. (Please turn on page numbering, too.)
2)
Presenters should tell us what they have been studying and what they
have found so far. This can include types of evidence, specific
evidence, and patterns in the evidence. If they have digital
imaging to refer to, please post it to the discussion forum by the day
before the presentation day and let me know how to display it. If
the file is too large for Canvas, bring it on a flash drive.
Presenters who have outlined the evidence and patterns above a
Works Cited section would have the beginnings of a rough draft of their
final reports. Give it a working title, and add the course name and date, and you're another step on your way.
3)
Presenters should describe any concerns they have and ask questions we
might be able to help answer. If presenters include the
concerns and/or questions on the Works Cited handouts, it would improve
the speed and clarity of their presentations.
Click here for the presentation schedule.
One final note: If your research project seems too large in focus or your evidence too difficult to corral in order to "finish" this semester, please do not worry. Report accurately what you have accomplished at this time. Some of these projects can be pursued into the future at Goucher as an independent study or Peirce Center Fellowship project, or even to graduate school or a full-time job as a scholar-researcher. If you have time to read a very strange 12-page article about the tortuous path that led to the recovery of the long-lost and long-sought relic of St. George's head, one that rather resembles the plot of Hammet's "The Maltese Falcon," click here for Kenneth M. Setton's "St. George's Head," Speculum, XLVIII:1 (January 1973) 1-12. Researchers must be patient, and some projects just take more time. Be happy with what you can accomplish now!