Deadline: May 25, 2005

1. Post your reflections upon the drafting process in Chinese.
2. Post your revised draft on your blog and provide your feedback to your peers. Use the rubric as guidelines for your revisions and comments.

Your revised draft should include a list of annotated bibliography (at least 6 entries from the digital databases and 2 entries from the world wide web). Each entry should include three parts:
a) bibliographical information of the source: you can list the author, year of publication, title, retrieval date, database and etc. Check the APA sample or the CSE number style for reference.
b) source evaluation: you can describe what makes the source credible following the checklist.
c) summary: you can summarize, parapharase, and cite important quotations.

hi everybody!  it seems that msn has come back to life. those of you who prefer to keep your msn space can still stick to your original blog (i know what it meant to transfer all your files over). but if you do decide to switch to Boyake, let me know so that i know where to check your posts.  for your convenience, i will post at msn and boyake simultaneously till the end of the semester, just in case something goes wrong with msn again.  thank god!  btw, i just learnt that boyake is going to be the official site for beida weblog.  isn't it exciting?

New blog URL:
http://spiderspace.bybk.net
See you there!

Deadline: May 18, 2006
1. Reflection: Reflect upon the process of outlining in Chinese and post your reflections on your blog.
2. Draft:
a. Topic
b. Thesis statement (or hypothesis)
c. Revised outline
d. Outline map
e. Draft
f. References
Please email me your work and upload it to your blog. Bring a print version to the class next week.

 

Feng Shuang, a second-year economic major, regards the process of completing her digital research project a “miserable process of growing up”: 

The first stage of the research is choosing a topic and forming a tentative thesis, which I think is most important in the research process. However, it is one of my failures. My first topic is “the sensibility aspect in education”. I chose this because I find that even as a student with high scores, I didn’t learn much about how to love and how to conduct myself in the school. I am interested in the topic, but finally I have to give up because I am not familiar with the relevant literature and it’s beyond my ability to write an academic paper on this topic. Later I thought about “the medical care policy”, but I find it hard to form a thesis on it, so I didn’t dwell on it. When I reached my topic of the paper at last, half of the term has passed. The topic is about the favorable investment policy in china. I am interested in it because it is related to my hometown. Deeply, I hope the policy will bring prosperity to my hometown. When I first read these policy materials I did not intend to write a paper. But after reading them, I have some ideas (or worries), so I said to myself: Just this one! What I wanted to discuss in my paper is about the negative consequences of these policies. I wasn’t able to come up with a good thesis that can be well-developed at the beginning stage of my project, so I decided to form a thesis while searching.  I gradually had a thesis while searching and thinking on the topic--- the implementation of these favorable policies has formed a competition leading to some negative results.

When I started writing the draft, I found that my thesis and structure was not clear enough. The first draft came out to be hard to understand and the style is not as formal as APA style. I have to thank my partners, Dr. Spider, and Shirley who gave me so many good suggestions and encouragement. I tried to revise the outline to make it clearer, and the second draft came out to be much clearer than the former one. And I tried to use a clear structure to make my audience understand the oral presentation too.

On the whole I am not satisfied with my work.  Sometimes I didn’t try my best to make my work perfect.  With so many regrets, I want to share some of my experience with you.

First, do have a plan and control while searching digital information. Just as my partner Xu Huihui wrote in her paper, it’s necessary to use critical thinking skills before and during the searching process. I wasted a lot of time drifting on the web without a purpose or proper keywords in my mind.

Second, only through independent thinking can we promote ourselves. Sometimes, what really troubles me is not how many words I have to write or how many pages I have to read. Despite the fact that thinking on my own is much more difficult, I was gradually guided to analyze logically and being more thoughtful.

Third, we have to hold on and stick to our goals to achieve improvement. During the 16 weeks, many students, including me, had complained about the heavy tasks. However, as it comes to the end, we have all finished our work. If we complain less and work harder, I am sure the result will come out better. Facing any difficulty with more pleasure and more enthusiasm may be the right attitude.

• In what ways is this source relevant to your research?

 

• Is the publisher/database/sponsor of the website qualified in providing reliable information on this topic?  
• What is the author's background and professional affliation? With his/her background, is the author qualified to provide information on this topic?  

• Are the author's views supported with adequate evidence?  Is the evidence credible? 
• Have you encountered the author's ideas before?  How are these ideas connected? How do they differ?  
• Does the author recognize opposing viewpoints and present the information with a control of bias? 
• How accurate is the information? Does the author document all the sources in the list of references?  Does the list of references show that some serious research has been conducted? 

4. Currency
  

• How current are the author's views? Is the source up-to-date?

• Search strategy: List the keywords, the operators (e.g."", ~, OR, and etc.), and the databases or the search engine you used.
• Bibliographical information: Author name; date of publication; title of the article; name of the journal; name of the publisher/database; date of retrieval and the URL.
• Source evaluation: Evaluate the relevance, authority, accuracy, and currency of the source using the source evaluation checklist.
• Summary: Summarize the main points of the material in YOUR own words. If you want to include some smart quotations, remember to use quotation marks.
• Use of the source: Describe how you are going to use this source in your final product.

2. Post your refined topic, thesis statement and keywords.  Map out the main points of your research paper using Inspiration.  You can put your thesis statement at the center of your map and expand it to include the main points you are going to cover in your paper.  List the sources you may use underr each main point.

Xue Yining has displayed her secret weapon at

http://spaces.msn.com/dreamwizard/blog/cns!41B55D33AE144CD!280.entry

1. Zhang Liwen's interview might help you reconsider your topic. http://spaces.msn.com/happyeverforever/blog/cns!F846E08AFD6DF62A!166.entry

• Write down the bibliographical information of the article, which includes the author name, the year of publication  title of the article, the journal title, and the database you retrieve the article. 
• Transfer the notes you wrote in class to your weblog in Chinese.  You can insert some examples in English from the article to support your points.

2. List your interests and problems, explore Encyclopedia Britannica Online or other reference tools, titles and abstracts of relevant journal articles, and table of contents in textbooks to connect them to scholarly problems, ask questions and identify one  or two focused issues.  Write down your problems/interests, the process of exploring, the questions you have generated, and the focused issues you have identified on your weblog.

 

3. Discuss your topics with an expert in the area.  Prepare a list of questions before you meet the expert.  You can describe this course to the expert, and, if possible, ask for some further support throughout the semester. Take notes when you talk with the expert.  Transfer the main points of your conversation onto your weblog immediately after the discussion.  Remember to include a description of the expert you consult as well as the time and location of the discussion in your weblog.  What have you learned about your topic or topics after this discussion?  Write down your thoughts about your topic on your weblog.