English 8175 Assignment:
Final Project
The overall goal of the final project is for your to apply what you have learned from the readings, class discussions, and previous assignments to a meaningful application of the knowledge by producing a final product that’s compatible with how far you are in this field and in your particular graduate program. For your final project, you have several options:
Option 1. Academic research paper (10-20 pages, single spaced)
For this option, you’ll write a paper that’s intended to be submitted to a particular journal for publication.
Research Topic
Your research topic is wide open. Anything related to the broad field of global rhetorics and/or cross-cultural communication will be fine. Be careful, though, about the scope of your topic. Make sure it’s neither too broad nor too narrow. If the topic is too broad, you will end up with too much literature to review and not enough focus on a particular issue in your article. On the other hand, narrow topics might result in too little literature for you to build your argument on. Ultimately, what topic you choose should depend on your research interest. A good way to start your research is to peruse some current articles in major journals in this particular field. It will give you a sense of both what each journal is focused on and how authors craft their titles.
Content Design
The content design of your paper is certainly up to you. However, to a certain extent, it will be determined by the particular research methodology you’re using for your article, e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative, theoretical vs. empirical, etc. Due to the broad and interdisciplinary nature of the field of global rhetorics/cross-cultural communication, there’re quite some journals that could be targets for this particular project. If you’re not sure what these journals are, take a look at the readings we’re doing in this class and see where each article was published. This will give you a sense of how broad this field is.
Each journal will have its own submission guidelines, which in many cases will outline the organization of your paper. Make sure you follow them carefully. Whatever journal you pick for your paper, there’re some common elements readers will expect from your paper (other than your intro and conclusion): problem/need/research gap contextualization (otherwise known as literature review), your methodology, your argument/claim, your reasoning for the argument, etc. I don’t expect you to exhaust all literature on the topic in your discussion, but I’d certainly look for support each time you make a claim. In addition to these common elements, the particular methodology you use will also dictate certain elements you must have in your article. A good way to figure out the organization of your paper is to look at similar studies published in the journals in our field.
One thing to keep in mind for this paper is that I’m looking for your original argument, not your ability to summarize current literature, although the latter is important, too. Focus, therefore, on how your paper will contribute to a solution to or a better understanding of the issue at hand.
Format Design
Your format design will be dictated by the particular journal you’re targeting for your article. The journal’s submission guidelines will typically spell out their format requirements. For example, style wise, it could be APA, MLA, or Chicago. Just follow the guidelines closely.
Option 2. Annotated bibliography (30-40 citations)
This option will require you to annotate 30-40 publications on a particular topic of your research interest.
Topic Selection
This bibliography will focus on a specific theme/topic related to global rhetorics or cross-cultural communication. The theme/topic should be neither too broad nor too narrow. One way to think of this is to come up with a tentative title if you were to write an article intended for publication in a journal. The other way to help you determine a topic is to peruse some recent issues of the journals in this field. You don’t want to pick a topic that’s been over researched and published. At the same time, be cautious in picking something that there’s basically no research on. While the topic may be unique and fresh, there’s also a possibility that very few people are interested in it. You’re always welcome to discuss your topic idea with me.
Annotation Format
For each annotation, you should have the bibliographic information on top, followed by an annotation of 100-200 words. Each annotation should contain two parts: 1) a summary of the source and 2) your review. The summary and review should be balanced.
Option 3. Literature review (around 10 pages, single spaced)
This too will focus on a specific theme related to global rhetorics or cross-cultural communication.
Topic Selection
For topic selection, see my instructions in the previous two options.
Content and Organization
This option will be one step further than option 2, the annotated bibliography. Assuming you have read a good number of sources on a particular theme, and you’re almost ready to write a journal article for publication, but not quite. Here’re some steps I’d recommend for approaching this project.
- Decide on a tentative title for the article–This will help you figure out what you want to write on and give you a clear direction where your paper is headed.
- Come up with a tentative thesis statement–This will determine the exact direction of your argument. It will help you determine what you need to do to contextualize your discussion in your literature review.
- Write your literature review
One thing to caution yourself against is to turn this literature review into an annotated bibliography. While both an annotated bibliography and a literature review summarize and review the current literature, the main difference between the two is that each entry in the annotated bibliography is separate while in a literature review the sources are brought together to form meaningful arguments. A good way to approach this is to develop several clear threads within your theme and organize your discussion of the sources along these threads.
Format
Your literature review should be around 10 pages and cover a minimum of 20 sources. I do understand that few published articles will have a 10-page literature review, but most articles will have a bibliography of over 20 sources. The reason for the page-length requirement is that since you’re not quite ready to write an article for publication, a detailed and extended literature review will be a very good way to prepare you for this ultimate entrepreneurial endeavor of the academic world. At the same time, it will also give you a chance to get well versed in a particular area of this field.
Option 4. Pedagogical application/syllabus design
For this option, you will design an elaborate syllabus for an undergraduate course entitled “Cross-Cultural Communication.” You will also design a series of assignments for this course with detailed assignment instructions. Accompanying all this, you will also write a justification why you have designed the particular syllabus and assignments the way you did.
This will be a junior- and senior-level course intended for anyone interested in cross-cultural communication. Very likely, you’re going to get English majors, communication majors, as well as students from other disciplines.
Below are some guidelines for designing each of the components for the course:
Syllabus
A syllabus is not only your introduction to the course but also your contract with your students. Therefore, it contains two categories of information: what the course does and what policies guide the course.
Typically, a course syllabus could contain the following:
- Basic course information: title, location, meeting time, etc
- Instructor’s contact information
- Textbooks, if any
- Course goals and objectives
- Assignments
- Attendance policy
- Academic honesty policy
- A detailed schedule
- …
Assignment Instructions
For a typical junior- or senior-level course, 4-5 major assignments/projects is normal. Of course, this depends on the level of complexity of the assignments. For example, your final project could contain a series of sub-assignments. If that’s the case, then you should consider reducing the number of major projects.
What assignments to design will be totally up to you. Think about the goals of the course: what do you want to achieve with the course? what do you want students to learn? how do you accomplish the goals through the assignments? At the same time, you want to vary the format of your assignments. For example, you probably don’t want all 4 or 5 assignments to be research papers. Consider a combination of theoretically oriented projects (such as research papers) with practical application projects (such as design). Of course, each course is different, and the particular goals of the course may dictate the particular format and nature for the assignments.
Each assignment should contain at least most of the following elements:
- Assignment objective
- Specific requirements: what exactly students are required to do
- Components students must turn in
- Content and format design requirements for each component
- Grading criteria
- Due dates
- Method of submission
Design Rationale
The third component to this project is a rationale that justifies your design of the course. Your design rationale should discuss the following:
- What theories have guided your design and why
- Why you have organized the course the way you did: what to cover first, what second, why such a sequence, etc.
- Why you have designed the particular sequence of assignments
- How the overall design of the course will help you accomplish your intended goals for the course
General Instructions
For any of these project options, you’re welcome to make it a collaborative project by partnering with any of your classmates.
Whatever option you choose, your final project will consist of the following components:
- Initial Proposal (50 points)—This will be a one-page proposal in which you inform me what option you have chosen for the final project, what topic your final project will be about, and your justification for doing such a project.
- Progress Report—About two thirds into the semester, you’ll be asked to present an oral progress report on the final project.
- Final Product (300 points)—This will be the product of whatever option you have chosen and is due at the end of the semester.
- Oral Presentation (50 points)—You’ll present your final project in the final week of the semester.