NR610_ResearchWriting

=NR 610-028 Urban Ecosystems Research and Synthesis Writing - Spring 2011= This course is organized by Melissa McHale and George Hess.

Class Quote: "Everyone thinks they know how to write until they go to graduate school." (David Bunn)

Goal: For students and faculty to work together in a writing and editing circle, where each student completes a chapter, manuscript, or proposal associated with his/her graduate program.

Overall Learning Objectives:
 * To be able to critique a range of literature and evaluate how writing style changes depending on time, audience, publication type, and purpose.
 * To understand how to organize and write scientific manuscripts, literature reviews, and papers
 * To learn the value of constructive criticism and how to write reviews

Potential Topics for Discussion:
 * The importance of knowing your goals, objectives and audience
 * Journals - types, audiences, expectations, impact factors
 * How to turn an outline into a draft
 * Scientific Paper Structure
 * How to Review Articles
 * Providing useful critiques to your colleagues

Course Outline:

Week 1 - January 17-21
 * Learning Objectives - To understand why it is important to know your goals, objectives, and audience before you start the rest of the writing process.
 * TO DO - Read Required Paper (McKinney 2008 Effects of Urbanization on Species Richness) and answer the following questions - What type of scientific paper is this and who is the intended audience?, What was the author's overall goal? Where did you find the goals in the paper (one or multiple places)? Was it difficult to find/figure out? Provide a brief critique of this paper - describe why you did or did not like the paper.
 * Entire Class Meets - January 21, 10-12 EST - Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 1214, others via skype
 * In Class - Discuss 1. The Course Organization and Objectives, 2. McKinney 2008 critiques, 3. Various audiences and journals.

Week 2 - January 24-28
 * Learning Objectives - To be able to choose the appropriate audience for your goals and clearly communicate your goals and objectives to others.
 * TO DO - Determine your goals, objectives, and your audience (put this is writing and share with your partner), Find an example of a publication or chapter that you think is a good model for what you want to do, and turn that paper into an outline highlighting the goals and objectives throughout. Share everything with your class partner and then meet on your own to discuss these assignments.

Week 3 - January 31-February 4
 * Learning Objectives - To learn about the process of outlining and talking through a story.
 * TO DO - Write your own outline, share with your partner, provide a critique, and revise (2 people then send a file that includes goals, audience, and outline to the entire group)
 * Entire Class Meets - February 4, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - Two students tell the story of their paper using their outline in 10 mins each. Class then provides feedback to the two students on their outlines. Discuss effective methods for writing a first draft.
 * Cara is presenting, Melissa is reviewing Cara's story in more detail. Someone else?
 * Read paper provided by Wei-Lun. Wei-Lunwill start a discussion on this paper about writing a manuscript during class
 * Also discuss: partner switching, partner list, discussion leaders

Week 4 - February 7-11
 * TO DO - Complete a section of your draft, share with partner for review, rewrite section

Week 5 - February 14-18
 * Learning Objectives - To understand the difference between a literature review and a manuscript, To learn the most important components and characteristics of a review and how to write an interesting review article, To learn how to write and edit an abstract for a conference
 * TO DO - Complete another section of your draft, share both sections with partner for review, rewrite both sections
 * Entire Class Meets - February 18, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - Read Article on writing a literature review, Neal leads discussion: Revise and discuss the ESA abstract drafts by Kevin and Michael
 * Resources: Shields et al. 1999,
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Week 6 - Feb 21-25
 * TO DO - Complete another section of your draft, share all sections so far with your partner for review, rewrite all sections

Week 7 - Feb 28 - March 4
 * Learning Objectives
 * TO DO - Complete another section of your draft, share all sections so far with your partner for review, rewrite all sections
 * Entire Class Meets - March 4, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - CLASS CANCELLED

Week 8 - March 7-11
 * TO DO - Make sure you have included a plan with goals for the rest of the semester on your draft page so we can review your plans for completing the course!

Week 9 - March 14-18
 * Learning Objectives - To understand the value and capabilities of reference software, like Refworks
 * TO DO - Make progress on your writing! Document the hours you spend on your draft, note the difficulty you had in finding time or motivation, think of solutions, and discuss with your partner, as well as the class.
 * Entire Class Meets - March 18, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - Meg Leads a discussion on Refworks as a tool. Review where each of us are in our goals for the class. Discuss personal methods we might implement to find motivation for continuing to write regularly as the semester pressures increase (Suggested by Kevin). Note: Melissa has to leave at 11:50 today.

Week 10 - March 21-25
 * Learning Objectives - To learn how to write official reviews (part 1).
 * TO DO - Make progress on your writing!! Read the book chapter sent to you by Melissa. Outline comments and suggestions. Also read over the material posted below (other resources).
 * Entire Class Meets - March 25, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - For the first hour we will discuss how to write a critical review and verbally discuss what we would include in a critical review of the book chapter sent out to each of you. For the second hour we will turn our attention back to one of our own pieces of work - any volunteers??
 * Other resources: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/critrev.html, http://www.people.vcu.edu/~aslee/referee.htm

Week 11 - March 28 - April 1
 * Learning Objectives - To learn how to write official reviews (part 2)
 * TO DO - Make progress on your writing!! As a team write a review of the book chapter that we reviewed together in class.

Week 12 - April 4-8
 * Learning Objectives
 * TO DO -
 * Entire Class Meets - April 8, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - Cara to present Results/Discussion; Kevin to present Intro/Methods for present paper?

Week 13 - April 11-15
 * Learning Objectives
 * TO DO -
 * Entire Class Meets - April 15, 10-12 EST, Those at NCSU meet in Jordan Addition 3213, others via skype
 * In Class - Wei-Lun to present Presentation; Michael to talk about his Lit Review; Meghan to present outline of Research Proposal

Week 14 - April 18-22
 * Learning Objectives
 * TO DO - Work on final drafts

Week 15 - April 25-29
 * NCSU Dead Week
 * TO DO - Submit your final drafts by Friday, April 29

Summer:

Chris Boone sometime in July?

Meetings Next Semester:

Doodle poll for meeting times Theme? More writing focus Urban ecology readings Presentation skills?