EDHE 6500

third class meeting

10.16.2008

Missed half an hour of discussion; ask for notes from Baaske

Discussion of Reflection Papers

Writing groups: good to start when you are a grad student, even if unpublished

Help with writing abstract and creating an outline: abstract is the first thing someone will read, and helps them determine if this is something they want to read

• What question you’re trying to answer
• What methods did you use to learn this?
• What did you find out?

APA: 150 words for abstract; journals are typically 100 – 150 words

MS Word “summarize” function

Is writer’s block real or not?

• Angel makes the point that it is a neurological condition.

see Education Book Review as a possible place to review for

do you need to identify a specific journal before you write; is general writing a "waste of time?"

• most research articles are very similar from journal to journal
• most academic journals will be similar for length of piece (12 - 20 pages, roughly)
• rarely shorter; some up to 30 pages
• don't worry about it, just write--you may be rejected and have to submit to a different journal, anyway

to be a successful junior scholar, you need 6 projects at once; 2 near-published, 2 in progress, 2 in conceptual stage--true?

• you do need to work on several things at once
• you can publish research that is a decade old

Reviews of Literature

why do a literature review and read other research in the field?

• what do we know? (has this already been answered?)
• what don't we know? (especially in the section on recommendations for further research)
• what are the limitations of prior research?
• what's the theoretical base?
• how do we know what we know? (what were the research methods used to find an answer, methodological flaws, is it out of date, can it be generalized to other groups, etc.)
  • there are many methods available for each question--read to find out which has been tried and/or which might be most appropriate or feasible
  • especially creative methods, like studying cheating by going through trashcans and bushes near classrooms where students toss cheat notes after class

handout on research reports

are there certain authors that you shouldn't use as a source?

• if it's opinion instead of research
  • in that case, cite them gingerly--as a secondary source
• use the original research that this author was looking at (primary sources)
• synthesis, strictly speaking, is not research in and of itself
• if it's particular insight, you may want to use it--but do this as little as possible
• if Adams cites Brown, find the Brown work and cite that
• exceptions: internal (unreachable) research, research in a foreign language

handout on questions to ask when reading research

Where is Everyone in Their Projects?

• I've finished reading the book, am reviewing background materials and will begin writing soon.
• Also working on turning a thesis chapter into a peer-reviewed article: not decided what content (what from chapters) to include, or what journal(s) to try for.

NOTE: have book review ready to look over by the next class period

list of good, frequent publishers in field of Higher Education:

• stylus
• sage
• josey-bass
• rutgers UP (has diff name)
• coumbia UP
• michigan UP
• johns hopkins UP
• look at the publishers for books/authors you have liked in the topic