Research Proposal

CLIFFORD STUMME GRADING COMMENT KEYCODE

To find the correct comment, press ctrl+f (or command+f for Macs), enter the code I wrote on your paper, and press enter. That should take you right to it.

ST – Either this error appears frequently or it won’t be marked again. Try finding it on your own and fixing where you see it occur.

CONTENT ISSUES

ABS – Overly-Absolute

Be careful that you don’t make claims that can’t be completely supported. For example, almost always it’s better to say that “many” people believe something, rather than to say that “all” do if you can’t prove that all do. You still want to make your arguments boldly but use language that keeps you from sounding like you’re asserting things that aren’t completely true.

MT – Missing Thesis

Your thesis should be the last sentence of your introduction paragraph. Normally, an introduction introduces the topic/problem/gap, and then the thesis sentence gives your central idea/argument/proposal.

CN – Citation Needed

You should put a citation here for the source referenced, or you should find a source that backs up this statement. Be careful you don’t make statements that aren’t proven or that need more backup you haven’t given. It can hurt your credibility, or sometimes makes your writing sound sensationalistic or dramatic. Academic writing should be calculated, specific, and backed up by solid evidence.

CONCSEN – Concluding Sentence

The last sentence of a body paragraph should be a strong statement about what was argued and proven in the above paragraph. If you skip the concluding sentence, your audience won’t have a clear idea of what you said in that paragraph. Your concluding sentence should summarize the main point of the paragraph and preferably connect it to the main idea of your thesis statement so your reader knows how this paragraph fits into the overall big picture or argument of your essay.

CONTSEN – Controlling Sentence

The first sentence of each body paragraph should be a strong statement that gives the big idea of that paragraph and (at least minimally) references the overall thesis or idea of your paper. When you do that second part, you are contextualizing this paragraph and its purpose in your paper overall. Your CONTSEN should not be a question, a statement of fact, or a piece of source material. A CONTSEN makes a small part of your overall argument and pushes your audience one step closer to accepting your thesis.

OBVS – Unnecessary Obvious Statement

What you’re saying here is a little obvious like saying that there are “pros and cons to a position.” There are always going to be pros and cons to anything, so there’s not a huge need to tell us. Instead, tell us about a notable strength or weakness or something interesting that moves your topic along instead of stalling it with filler language.

SOI – Sentence of Incorporation

After (or sometimes before) every source use, you need to include a sentence of incorporation that makes clear how the source supports your controlling sentence and main argument. You don’t want to just have a quote floating by itself. Just saying that some author said something doesn’t make clear to your audience how it supports the controlling sentence of that paragraph. Integrate the source material into the paragraph by integrating it into your paragraph.

Q – Qualify

Sometimes when you make too strong a statement, your audience will easily be able to point out counterexamples. Thus, sometimes it’s better to say that “many parents have their children’s best interests in mind,” rather than that “all parents” do. Since it’s extremely difficult to prove that something is true in all situations at all times under all circumstances, qualifiers can make your job significantly easier.

EC – Ending Conclusions

Your conclusion should usually end with a big picture summary of your argument or with a quick emphasis of why your topic or idea is important. Refrain from ending it with an overly spiritual twist (unless your paper has been spiritually focused throughout), and don’t end with a quote, Bible verse, or cliché. What’s the big thing we should be remembering about your ideas? End with that.

ORGANIZATION ISSUES

1Q – Avoid Beginning or Ending Paragraphs with Quotes

While it works well in informal language, your academic writing should be focused on your own words, and you should start and end your paragraphs with your own words. In an introduction paragraph, you should jump to your topic. In a body paragraph, you should begin or end with a CONTSEN or CONCSEN that explains the main argument of that paragraph.

FC – Don’t Forecast

Be careful about very obvious transition words like “first,” “in the end,” “finally,” and especially “in conclusion.” Most of the time, these words are unnecessary. For instance, many students use “in conclusion” at the beginning of their conclusion paragraphs, but at that point, the audience already knows the paper is concluding, so there’s no need to announce it.

AT – Lacks Transition

The two parts of this section don’t flow together smoothly. Try adding a transitional word or idea to make them seem more connected.

P59 – Ideal Paragraph Size

Paragraphs should be at least 3-9 sentences long. Any more than twelve sentences or ¾’s of a page, and you’re probably getting long-winded or maybe accidentally focusing on two topics (so you can split them into two paragraphs). Any fewer than five sentences or ¼ of a page, and your paragraph probably looks awkwardly small and may not go into enough detail about the topic.

EPTR – End of Paragraph Transition

Don’t put a transition sentence at the end of a paragraph. This was something many were taught in high school, but in college-level writing, every paragraph should be self-contained and have strong CONTSENs and CONCSENs sandwiching their material.

GRAMMAR/DICTION ISSUES

1P or 2P – First Person and Second Person

In most academic writing, you should use only third person perspective words like they, he, or she, not I, we, or you. This rule helps to keep your papers more professional and less biased. Note that telling your audience to do something like “imagine” or “think about it” assumes the second person because you’re telling the other person specifically to do something. Some papers will allow 1P (check the prompt), but few ever will allow 2P.

ATO – Academic Tone

Make sure that your writing maintains a professional, academic tone that sounds trustworthy and knowledgeable. Your tone should be logical and avoid emotional outbursts or dramatic language. You want your audience to perceive you as a source they can rely on. ATO includes not using slashes or “etc.” in your writing.

AWK – Awkward Wording

The wording here is awkward and should be reworked.

C’U – Contraction use

Contractions are more for informal writing and not academic work. Avoid using them.

CLI – Cliché

Avoid using words or phrases that are common catch phrases that don’t sound formal or professional.

FRAG – Fragment Sentence

Fragments are sentences that don’t make a complete thought or give a full statement. Add to them to finish the thought to make them a complete sentence.

DC, – Comma after Dependent Clause

Dependent clauses can’t stand as complete thoughts and often begin with a word like “because,” “after,” or “whenever.” When a dependent clause precedes an independent clause, a comma should separate them.

IC,DC – Comma Use between Independent Clause and Dependent Clause

If an independent clause leads into a dependent clause, there’s no need for a comma. Thus, you wouldn’t use one before “because” in the following sentence: Jenny went to the store because she needed a hat. But if you switched the clauses, you would use a comma.

IC;IC – Semicolons between Two Clauses

Make sure that both sides of a semi-colon include two full thoughts or independent clauses. They should be able to stand alone.

IP, - Comma after Introductory Phrase

Introductory phrases (usually of three words or more) in the form of a prepositional phrase or other kind of phrase usually are followed by a comma to separate the phrase from the rest of the sentence.

IQ – Italics/Quotations

Italicize titles of large things or anthologies—ships, books, movies, collections of other works, and plays. Use quotation marks around the things within those larger things or just self-contained smaller things like poem, book chapters, short stories, etc.

PAA – Pronoun Antecedent Agreement Issue

Pronouns need to clearly connect to an antecedent (or noun that a pronoun refers to). They need to be the same number and case, so “he” would be a good pronoun for “John,” but “him” wouldn’t. And “everyone” would work with “his” or “her,” but it wouldn’t work with “they” because “everyone” is singular. In fact, almost every word that ends with “one” or “body” is singular—anyone, somebody, no one, etc.

PV – Passive Voice

Avoid sentences that lead with the target of the action instead of the doer of the action. Better to say, “John ate the food,” than, “The food was eaten by John,” or, “The food was eaten,” because it’s less awkward and requires fewer words.

REP – Repetitive

Try to avoid using the exact same word several times in one sentence or one paragraph. A couple of spread-out repeats can be okay, but you don’t want to sound awkward.

RO – Run-On sentence

A run-on is a sentence that mashes two different sentences together without transitional words or punctuation.

SR – Self-Reference

Don’t refer to yourself or to your own paper in academic writing. Don’t refer to an “above” quote or a paragraph that your reader just finished reading. It has the same effect as when a boom mic operator drops his boom mic into the frame of a shot in a movie. You stop thinking about the important story or ideas and start thinking about the boom operator. You and your paper should disappear; your audience should only be thinking about your ideas.

SVA – Subject Verb Agreement

Make sure your subject and very agree in number: don’t say that “they was here” when you mean “they were here.”

S,V – Subject Verb Separation

You shouldn’t separate the subject and verb of a sentence with a comma unless there’s some sort of phrase between them that needs to be set off by two commas.

SPEC – Be More Specific

Vague or general words lack power and the specificity you need to accurately describe some things. Be as specific and precise as possible.

SP or SP: [word] – Incorrect Spelling w/ Correct Example

Your spelling was wrong and need to be fixed.

CS – Comma Splice

A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses or full thoughts are joined by only a comma. You can fix this in a few ways: splitting them into two sentences, replacing the comma with a semicolon, adding a coordinating conjunction (like and, or, but, yet, so, etc.), or making one clause dependent (like changing “The man went to jail, he committed a crime” to “Because the man committed a crime, he went to jail.”).

*[word or letter or punctuation] – Change to [Word or Letter or Punctuation]

The word, letter, or punctuation I’ve suggested will be a better or smoother fit here. Try reading your sentences out loud to make sure all parts fit well.

IIT – Indefinite It/This

Be careful about the words “it” and “this.” If you’re not clear what they’re referring to, you can confuse your reader. Especially be careful of using them at the beginnings of sentences.

WM – Word Missing

Needs another word or two here for clarity.

WW – Wrong Word

You’ve used the wrong word here. Try another.

W – Wordy

You’ve used too many words here and should find a more concise, clearer way to say what you’re saying.

?X – Question Use

Don’t use questions in academic writing. You want to focus on giving strong statements and powerful answers. Besides, questions assume a second person listener, and we want to keep things in third person.

, or ‘ or : or ; or . or “ - Insert This Punctuation Mark

+ or -[punctuation or word or letter] – Add or delete [punctuation or word or letter]

+CAP or -CAP – Capitalize or Don’t Capitalize This Letter

# - Needs a Space Here

.” – Commas and Periods Always Go inside Quotation Marks

This is just a standard academic writing rule. Your high school teacher may have taught you differently, but things have changed.

,NE, - Commas around Non-Essential Elements

Don’t place commas around essential modifying clauses but do use them to block of non-essential modifying clauses. For instance, read the two below sentences:

The general who won the battle was given an award.

Roger, a friend of mine, got fired.

In the first sentence, we need to know which general it was for the sentence to make complete sense on its own. With the modifying clause we now know which general it was who won the award, so that clause is essential. In the second sentence, we don’t need to know that Roger is a friend of the speaker’s because we already know that it was Roger specifically who got fired. Essential elements are necessary to narrow down who it was. If we already have a pretty specific idea of who it was (i.e. Roger), then we don’t need further clarification.

Of course, if there were two Rogers, we could end up with a sentence like this: The Roger who is my friend was fired. The word “the” tips us off to there being one specific Roger out of the many who this sentence could be referring to. So the modifying element further clarifies which of the many Rogers this one could be, so it is essential.

,TW – Commas before That and Which

Commas almost never come before the word “that” since the word “that” often precedes an essential element (see ,NE,). But, on the other hand, commas often precede the word “which” since the word “which” usually precedes extra, parenthetical information that is not essential.

IC:L – Independent Clause before a Colon When Introducing a List or Something Else

Anytime you are introducing a list using a colon, make sure that the portion of the sentence before the colon is an independent clause and can stand alone as a complete though. For example: I really like certain fruit: apples, bananas, and pears.

S/T – Sentence Case and Title Case

Sentence case is how you would normally capitalize letters in a sentence—first letter and proper nouns. If you’re using sentence case to capitalize a title, you’ll also capitalize the first letter after a colon. Title case capitalizes the first letter of the first and last word plus every important word in the title. Usually, the only words that get left out are conjunctions (and, or, but, etc.) and prepositions (for, before, to, etc.). In APA, sentence case is used in the body of the paper and in the capitalization of article or book titles in the references page. Title case is used for the title of your paper and for journals or books that contain an article you are referencing on the references page.

FORMATTING

CR – Citation Rules

When you cite something in general, you usually want to mention the author’s name first so the audience knows who we are listening to and that a piece of source material has begun. If you are quoting something, check out DST, PST, EST or SW: for more information on how format them properly. If you’re summarizing or paraphrasing, you don’t need quotation marks, but you usually still need a citation in parentheses at the end of your source material. In any case, the period at the end of your source material should go after the citation, not the last word of the source material (unless you’re doing a block quote). Here is an example: Johnson says that the world will end if we do not fix squirrel overpopulation (2). (Other formats may differ in the exact information given.) In addition, use only the last name of the author.

CF – Citation Formatting

If you are summarizing or paraphrasing a source in APA, you should share the author’s last name and the year of publication—no need to share anything else. If you are quoting something, you need to ALSO share the page number you got it from.

APACCC – APA Citation Crash Course

Check out CR, STN, CF, and ().

DST – Dialogue Signal Tag

You use a dialogue signal tag when you introduce a quote by saying something like “Smith says” or “Johnson writes” or “Cooper asserts.” If you don’t use the word “that,” you’re likely using a dialogue signal tag, and the proper way to format that is as follows: Smith says, “Quote” (citation). Note the comma after the dialogue verb, the space between the quotation marks and the citation, and the period coming after the citation rather than being within the quotation. The first letter of the quotation needs to be capitalized. If it’s not in the original quote, use brackets to show you’ve changed it yourself: [Q].

EST – Embedded Signal Tag

You use an embedded signal tag when you want your signal tag to flow naturally into your quote, usually using the word “that” to transition the sentence. An examples follows: Smith says that “there is only one way to win” (88). Not that there is no comma after “that,” the space between the quotation marks and the citation, and the period coming after the citation rather than being within the quotation. The first letter of the quotation needs to not be capitalized. If it is in the original quote, use brackets to show you’ve changed it yourself: [t].

ELQ – Ellipses in Quotations

Don’t start a quote with ellipses. Just jump into the words. If you cut out a middle part of a quote, use ellipses. If you cut out the end of a sentence in your middle-of-sentence-ellipses, or if you use ellipses at the end of a quote, use four dots. Always make sure that your ellipses have a space between each dot. You don’t want “…” You want “. . .”

GO – General Outline Rules

Outlines should be evenly double-spaced. Every line should have just one sentence and should be a full sentence. The first level should be Roman numerals, the next should be capital letters, the next should be numbers, and the next should be lower-case letters. If you have a point A, 1, or a, then you at least need a point B, 2, or b—they at least need one partner. If you have more than five points on one of those levels in a row, you might want to consider how some of them could fit under each other.

PST – Phrasal Signal Tag

You use a phrasal signal tag when you introduce a quote by saying something like “According to Johnson.” If you don’t use the words “that” or “says” you’re likely to be using a phrasal signal tag, and the proper way to format that is as follows: According to Smith, “Quote” (citation). Note the comma after the dialogue verb, the space between the quotation marks and the citation, and the period coming after the citation rather than being within the quotation. The first letter of the quotation can be either capitalized or not, based on the original quotation.

SU – Spacing Is Uneven

Select your entire document and go to line spacing options in MS Word. Select 0pts for before and after paragraph spacing. Make sure that there are no extra-large spaces between paragraphs and that everything is double-spaced.

SW: - Sentence w/ a Semi-Colon Signal Tag

When you have a full thought preceding a quote in the same sentence, you should use this kind of signal tag. It looks like this: Smith says something interesting: “Quote” (citation). Note the colon after the introductory sentence, the space between the quotation marks and the citation, and the period coming after the citation rather than being within the quotation.

TAB – Add Indent

The first line of every paragraph should start with a half inch space.

STN – Signal Tag Needed

You should include one of the signal tag forms here (DST, EST, PST, or SW:). Beginning a quote without some form of introduction is usually awkward.

(). – Formatting the End of a Summary or Paraphrase

When using APA or MLA, the period always go after the citation and never before it. Thus, a proper citation should look like it does right here: (p. 48).

SPQ – Summaries and Paraphrases vs. Quotes

APA as a formatting style vastly prefers summaries and paraphrases to quotes. This doesn’t mean you can’t quote things but a good rule of thumb is to only quote things where the exact wording is vital. For me personally, this factors out to using direct quotes about 10% of the time. If you need to quote something more than 40 words long, consult OWL Purdue’s APA guide on how to do this.

INDS 400 LITERATURE REVIEW SPECIFIC COMMENTS

LRI – Literature Review Introduction

A solid literature review introduction focuses on introducing the concept of reviewing research to set a context for a research question and mentioning the research gap. It’s tempting to start out by being topical and introducing your research as a whole, but remember that you’ll already have done that in the research proposal’s overall introduction, so for now you’re just introducing the concept of surveying the research context of your research question. Consider whether your current introduction paragraph (or parts of it) would better serve as the introduction for the proposal overall.

TSP – Literature Review Thesis or Statement of Purpose

Don’t forget to include a thesis statement or statement of purpose at the end of your intro paragraph for your literature review. Ideally, it’ll make it clear that you’re surveying research around your research question and may even mention the research gap since those are the two important parts of your literature review.

AVS – Arguing Versus Summarizing

It’s easy to let your literature review become about arguing for one side of your research question, but remember that you can’t argue for it since it’s just an unbiased question. And in the literature review specifically, your opinions and ideas are irrelevant. You should focus on summarizing what scholars have said about the topic in order to help your audience understand where your question would fit into the research and how it would add to or build on research that has already been done.

BIA – Keep Your Literature Review Unbiased

It’s easy to argue or to say things that make it sound like you favor one side of an argument or another, but keep your literature review as unbiased as possible. Just summarize.

SHA – Simple Survey Based on Personal Knowledge

Remember that the information needed in a literature review needs to be research-based and not just general knowledge on the topic. If you’re not citing things, saying things that are kind of obvious, or not really diving into a specific piece of research written by someone else, you’re probably just giving a shallow survey of the topic based on your own personal knowledge. A good way to start a deep, rich literature review is to do research into scholarly sources and summarize the main themes or ideas you find. If you start the process by outlining or drafting first, chances are good you’re just basing your lit review on your own knowledge.

GAP – Research Gap

You need to include the research gap in your literature review. This can take the form of a paragraph dedicated to explaining how scholarship has not covered or looked deeply enough into your topic you are interested in, or it can be spread throughout the literature review. But a central, important part of a literature review is demonstrating that your research is necessary. You may also consider mentioning the research gap in your TSP since it’s a central part of what your lit review is about.

SVR – Summary vs. Research

You want to be careful that you’re not just using scholarly sources to give a broad overview of your topic. It can be helpful to mention particular studies and to show their relevance to what you’re doing, or you can summarize them and connect to your topic, but you want to be careful that you’re not just introducing the topic. Go deeper and assume your audience already knows the basics of your topic. They need to see what new and interesting things scholars have been saying about it.

LRC – Literature Review Conclusion

A strong lit review conclusion will often summarize the main points and emphasize the fact of the research gap existing. This is a good segue back into the rest of the research proposal.

INDS 400 METHODOLOGY SPECIFIC COMMENTS

<D – Non-Methodology Material Present

Delete everything before this point because that material was more focused on being in a rationale, lit review, or introduction. Your methodology should just be very focused on outlining how you will study your subject.

SM – Scholarly Source Methodology

Looking up scholarly sources isn’t a methodology acceptable for this assignment. That kind of work belongs in a literature review or a different kind of paper. But in this class, we are proposing new research, so we cannot simply rehash what people have said before. Your methodology should focus on studying or analyzing people, items, or primary sources in an attempt to gain new information.

SRL – What Would a Significant Result Look Like?

If your hypothesis was correct, how would you know? What would that look like? Or what would it look like if your hypothesis was incorrect?

MSM – Methodology Structure Model

It looks like your methodology may need some reorganizing. Here’s a model you can use to restructure it to be most effective:

1. Describe the sample you are studying.

2. Describe your independent variable (whether that’s a thing you do to your sample, a way you sort your sample, or a type of analysis you use in humanities research)

3. Describe the data observation and collection process (survey, interviews, close reading and comparison of primary sources, etc.)

4. Describe the data analysis process (Once you have your data, how will you find results?)

5. SRL (see above). This can be one quick sentence explaining it.

INDS 400 RATIONALE SPECIFIC COMMENTS

AR – Assuming Result

Remember that your rationale shouldn’t assume that you know what the result of asking your research question will be. Why conduct the study if you already know the answer? It becomes a waste of time. Make sure that you’re not just trying to confirm your bias or that you’re using your hoped for result to promote your agenda. The point is to ask the question and to find the answer, not to do anything about it—that’s how unbiased research works.

RGAP – Rationale Gap

Mentioning the GAP in your rationale is a solid strategy for arguing to scholars. They care deeply about finding information and understanding things, so it can be a good strategy.

INDS 400 SYNTHESIS ESSAY SPECIFIC COMMENTS

NAY – Not about Your Biography

This essay is not about why you chose your areas of study or how you got to where you are right now. It’s not a biography or a backstory. It is simply an argument for why what you have learned will help you do to a job well or be a good grad student. Stay future focused and work on that argument rather than spending time explaining.