Data analysis

Choose a Writing Situation, Research Question, and Research Methods

for Unit 3 Project (ASSIGNMENT)

1. Choose your topic for your final major assignment by identifying a particular writing

situation in which you currently find yourself writing or have found yourself writing in the

past. Do not choose writing you've completed in this class. In 2-3 paragraphs, reflect on

why you participate in the writing situation, who you are writing to/for when participating

in it, the role of writing in the related activities you are participating in, and the types of

texts you produce when you’re participating in those activities. You might also consider

how the writing situation influences the texts you produce.

2. Choose your research question, which will guide you during your research project.

(Question options are found in the Unit 3 Project Guidelines, or you may write your own

research question.) In a few sentences, explain why you think this will be a good question to

explore for your particular writing situation.

3. List the three data collection methods you think will help you answer your research

question. Explain why you’ve chosen them.

1st Data ANALYSIS Activity: Closely Reading Your Texts (ASSINGMENT)

For this assignment, you’ll do a close reading of your textual artifacts using what you learned

this week. Use the information on the 1st Data Analysis Method: Closely Reading Your Textual

Artifacts to Reach Insights page to guide your close reading of the artifacts particularly the

characteristics and features to look for as you analyze.

To complete this activity, you will develop and upload an annotated version of your textual

artifacts. If your texts are long (over about 5 pages), you can choose just one for this

assignment to analyze thoroughly. If you can though, you should closely read all of the texts this

week, as you’ll need to do it anyway on your own time.

Evaluation Criteria

Complete:

The writer has clearly chosen at least one of

the characteristics or features listed in 1st

Data Analysis Method: Closely Reading Your

Textual Artifacts to Reach Insights to analyze

the text/s.

Incomplete:

The writer’s chosen characteristics or

features of the text/s are unclear or random.

OR

The writer does not demonstrate

thoughtfulness and care in the analysis

OR

The writer has clearly chosen a different

characteristic or feature of the artifacts to

analyze that makes sense with the writer’s

project.

AND

The writer demonstrates thoughtfulness and

care in analyzing the textual artifacts

throughout the text/s by using a thorough

annotation method/s and including

annotations from beginning to end.

because the annotation method/s is not

thorough or because the analysis is

unfinished.

1st Data ANALYSIS Method: Closely Reading Your Textual Artifacts to

Reach Insights

Previously, you collected data by gathering textual artifacts. Now you will begin the analysis of

your data. The first step you’ll complete in analyzing your data is to look closely at the textual

artifacts you gathered. There are a number of methods for analyzing texts, but for this project

you’ll use the “close reading” method to learn about your textual artifacts.

Think About When you close read texts, you carefully observe the internal features and characteristics of

your texts with a particular goal in mind. In this case, you should observe the features to

understand the strategies, choices, and moves you make when writing your texts. You can think

about one or more of these features of your texts:

• The content of the texts, or what the texts talk about (e.g., major subjects and topics of

discussion)

• The language in the texts, or how the texts use words to make claims, build evidence,

invoke emotions, or build credibility for the author

• The use of source material, or how texts rely on other texts or other people to make claims

and build evidence

• The organization or design of the texts, and how the organization or design helps the author

meet her/his purpose for writing

• The multimodal nature of texts, or how texts integrate words, images, and other media

(e.g., sound and video) to make meaning

• Other elements of the texts you notice while reviewing the texts

Overall, the focus of close reading is to notice what is in the textual artifacts themselves. This

will likely lead to some insights about your textual artifacts, and when you practice a second

data analysis method next, you will have a chance to review your textual artifacts with other

forms of data in hand.

Below you’ll find an example of a student demonstrating that she has closely read and made

sense of one of her textual artifacts. Please note that this is just an example of what you might

do to demonstrate the close reading of your artifacts as you engage with them. Your own close

reading practices do not need to look like those used in the example—you might write marginal

comments instead of using colors, for instance.

2nd Data ANALYSIS Activity: Looking Across Different Forms of Data to

Reach Insights (ASSINGMENT)

Complete the Data Analysis Grid, which walks you through several steps that will help you

analyze, synthesize, and reach insights about the data you’ve collected. Submit the completed

template here.

Evaluation Criteria

Complete:

The writer completes all prompts in the template.

AND

The writer uses data collected from multiple

methods to find patterns or trends.

AND

The writer demonstrates thoughtfulness and care

in analyzing the data by offering detailed and

thorough examples and interpretations in the

template.

Incomplete:

The writer does not complete all prompts in the

template.

OR

The writer does not use data collected from

multiple methods to find patterns and trends.

OR

The writer does not demonstrate thoughtfulness

and care in analyzing the data because the

examples and interpretations in the template are

not detailed or thorough.

Data analysis Grid:

file:///Users/Faisal/Downloads/Data%20Analysis%20Handout.html

Portrait Peer Review Draft (Assignment)

Bring a complete draft of your portrait (at least 1000 words with an introduction, body

paragraphs, and conclusion) to class for peer review. Be ready to talk to your peer reviewers

about the areas of focus, challenges, and questions you have about your draft during the peer

review meeting.