English - Research Journal

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Add two entries of 250 or more words each to your Research Journal.

Write two Research Journal entries on a potentially useful source you have found in your research. The entry will include the following four types of information in the order that follows:

· One paragraph summary of the source

· One paragraph analysis of the source's credibility

· One paragraph reflecting on how the source shaped your search for a research question and related perspectives

Find tips on how to do a journal entry and examples of journal entries below:

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Here are tips on how to do each section of the entry:

MLA CITATION (Use this format or consult citation websites like Purdue Owl): Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Container (Newspaper, Magazine, Website, or Journal), version or vol. #, no. #, year, pages OR date. Database (SIRS, Proquest, etc.), doi (digital object identifier) or URL—don’t use the URL from the database. If you’re citing a website, use the url). Accessed day Month year.

SUMMARY OF YOUR SOURCE: 1 paragraph. Include attributive tags or parenthetical notations in EVERY sentence. Proper attribution will help you avoid plagiarism AND smoothly integrate your sources into your Viewpoint Synthesis.

ANALYSIS OF YOUR SOURCE: 1 paragraph. How credible is the source? Consider the writer's credibility, the credibility of the publication where you found the source, and how the source was written. Is the source intended for a particular audience, and would that audience grant the source more or less credibility than you do yourself?

RESPONSE TO YOUR SOURCE: 1 paragraph. ADDRESS SOME OF THESE QUESTIONS: How does this source influence your search for a quality research question? What surprised you about this source? Are you seeing different perspectives on an issue you might want to make the focus of your question? Have your views changed at all? How? What do you need to research next? Where will you look for that research?

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Here are two examples of a completed research journal entry:

SOURCE 1

CITATION: Slahi, Mohamedou Ould. Guantanamo Diary. Edited by Larry Siems, Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

SUMMARY: This originally hand-written memoir covers Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s 2002 arrest and subsequent imprisonment in Jordan, Afghanistan, and finally the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Slahi recount the “special interrogation plan” that he was subjected to in painstaking detail. Though the memoir was completed in the summer of 2005, it wasn’t officially declassified and published until 2015.

ANALYSIS: I’m not sure how a source could be more credible on any topic that Slahi is on “enhanced interrogation” and the psychological weight of torture. The facts that the manuscript was composed by hand during the authors’ imprisonment and that it took so long for the manuscript to be declassified, and the number of black-barred redactions present in the book suggests, that the information was considered sensitive (and so somewhat reliable) by sources beyond me.

RESPONSE: I think what I gathered after reading through chunks of this story is a sense of the sloppiness of the enhanced interrogation program, and the desperation that was so obviously behind it. On one hand, it’s difficult to believe that Slahi was held for fourteen years with absolutely no evidence to suggest his guilt. On the other, it’s hard to imagine he could’ve maintained a false innocence through such constant abuse.

SOURCE 2

CITATION: McCoy, Alfred W. A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Metropolitan Books, 2007.

SUMMARY: As the title states, this book details the development and usage of the CIA’s torture programs, from their early beginnings with the Cold War through 9/11 and the War on Terror. In his introduction, McCoy states that his goal is to “use the historian’s tools to trace the hidden history of torture in America...and expose intertwined aspects of its perverse psychology.’

ANALYSIS: Alfred McCoy is an alumnus of the Kent School, Columbia College, and Yale University. He is currently the professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The book “A Question of Torture” was published as part of a series called The American Empire Project, which critiques the US’s domineering foreign policy. This book is annotated exhaustively and cites an impressive number of sources, but there is a bias clearly present from the first page.

RESPONSE: Somewhere around the third chapter, when the term “willful mass blindness” was used, this started to feel like a cheap conspiracy report, and I had to remind myself that I was reading for background on a viewpoint and not for nonpartisan information. I was lead down a few interesting rabbit holes while reading, namely the Stanford Prison Experiment and Project MKUltra. I can’t say Dr McCoy sold me on the necessity of pacifism, but he brought the eloquence and finesse that Diane Fienstein is (I think) missing to his side of the debate

Add four entries of 250 or more words each (1000 or more in total) to the two sources already in your Research Journal. You must turn in all FOUR entries to receive full credit for this assignment.

Each entry will include the following four types of information in the order that follows:

· MLA citation (for help, see http://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/mla )

· One paragraph summary of the source

· One paragraph analysis of the source's credibility

· One paragraph reflecting on how the source shaped your search for a research question and related perspectives

Find tips on how to do a journal entry and examples of journal entries below:

*****

Here are tips on how to do each section of the entry:

MLA CITATION (Use this format, or consult citation websites like Purdue Owl): Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Container (Newspaper, Magazine, Website, or Journal), version or vol. #, no. #, year, pages OR date. Database (SIRS, Proquest, etc.), doi (digital object identifier) or URL—don’t use the URL from the database. If you’re citing a website, use the url). Accessed day Month year.

*****

Here are two examples of a completed research journal entry:

SOURCE 1

CITATION: Slahi, Mohamedou Ould. Guantanamo Diary. Edited by Larry Siems, Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

SOURCE 2

CITATION: McCoy, Alfred W. A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Metropolitan Books, 2007.

Part 1: Viewpoint Synthesis First Draft

Post your draft of the Viewpoint Synthesis First Draft. We assume you are continuing to research and so your paper will change substantially through revision, but post what you have. Then be sure to return and post peer responses for two other students.

Viewpoint Synthesis Assignment Description

Showing multiple viewpoints and connecting them to your own your own view

Synthesis means “putting together.” In this Viewpoint Synthesis paper, you will flesh out your own view on your research question in the context of what you have discovered about other perspectives through your research. This paper is not a researched argument or an objective report; rather, it is a brief overview of how your perspective fits in the wider social conversation going on between three significant perspectives, ways of thought and belief, about your question. All of your work in unit 3 is designed to help you with this task.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. 1000-1250 words (4-5 pages).

2. Identify and explain 3 views of your issue using sources to objectively explain each perspective. Each viewpoint will have a claim and supporting evidence (from your Research Journals.) Really, you are writing 4 short (1-page) position summary papers each with a claim and supporting reasons.

3. Your conclusion of the paper will be your own view of the issue. It might be a fourth perspective on the issue if you don’t fundamentally agree with any perspective.Carefully contextualize your views with and against the research you have found.

4. Use your rhetorical analysis of these sources from your Research Journals and the debate itself to make an argument about credibility of the sources

5. Use attributive tags (As Johnson argues… OR In contrast to Johnson….) to situate your view amongst your sources

GUIDELINES:

As you write, consider the following guidelines:

1. Remember that this is a new paper, not your Research Journal. While you may use some of the passages and language from your research journals, this is a different paper that is meant to show us the range of positions on the issue as well as the position you take and your reasons/evidence for this position.

2. Finding an organization that shows the complexity of the issue is part of the learning task for this paper (see above). Do not just transfer your annotations into this paper; think, instead, about grouping them to show similarities and differences in various positions. For each view, you will likely have several sources that speak to the view.

3. The rhetorical analysis you did in the Research Journals does not show up in this paper as such. You may certainly point out flaws in arguments, and you can indicate you think a source is very credible in the way you introduce it. For example, you might say, "Noted psychologist and professor at Harvard University, John Bramble, argues that ... "

4. If you do not introduce your sources within your text, use parenthetical in-text citations (Bramble 27) after any ideas or short paraphrases you use. Rely on paraphrase and quote sparingly, but ALWAYS signal to the reader when you are summarizing someone’s viewpoint. In order to avoid “armadillo roadkill,” direct quotes ALWAYS require attributive tags (Johnson notes, “Blah blah blah…”)

5. Remember that while this paper is meant to show you understand some of the viewpoints of your issue, it is also meant to give you the chance for you to "put in your oar" as Graff and Birkinstein say. Do everything inyour power to be credible and persuasive in giving your reasons for your position. Make sure toinclude evidence that adds to your ethos and logos.

ORGANIZATION:

You must show at least three viewpoints plus your own informed viewpoint about your issue

SAMPLE OUTLINE:

Introduction: Give context and explain the issue.

synTHESIS statement: Summarize the views.

View One: Explain the position with supporting evidence. One source isn’t enough evidence. Look for multiple sources to summarize the perspective.

View Two: Explain and support with a variety of evidence. (Ask your instructor if personal interviews are appropriate sources!)

View Three: Explain and support with a variety of evidence.

Conclusion: Your view. Explain your perspective on the issue in relationship to the other views and sources.