Using Wavelength in EN 102

Overview: Writers and writing teachers alike may find it easy to want to look past annotated bibliography, as so often these can feel dry, formal, a box to check, and not at all as lively as the more personal writing generally assigned in EN 101. But look at little closer at the work of Creel Richardson, Molly Schulz, Bobby Wells, Savannah Grasmick, and Tiaya Hubbard. In it you’ll see authors beginning to grapple with their sources even as they are beginning to articulate their own ideas about their sources. You’ll see studies and statistics, yes, but you’ll also see writers working through how they might reconfigure their initial assumptions or hypotheses in light of that research. You’ll see writers bring their own backgrounds and interests to the table and reflect on how their research mirrors and extends those. You’ll even see writers work to place separate pieces of research in conversation with one another—and by so doing come to understand that the process of composing research is deeply akin to the process of entering a conversation. You do it slowly at first, and then your confidence grows. Finally, you’ll see writers openly acknowledge the role peer and instructor review plays in their drafting process.

Questions for students: You should be able to find research papers from most of the authors listed in this section. Comment on the relationship between each writer’s annotated bibliography and their finished research paper. What features do they share? How do they differ? How might you begin to account for these differences? Based on your reading of both annotated bibliographies and research papers, what is the role of the annotated bibliography in the research process? In their annotated bibliographies, what strategies do these writers use to work with their research?

Resources:

Consult the Purdue OWL for information on annotated bibliographies.

Looking for a step-by-step guide to teaching this genre? Look no further than Ashley Palmer‘s annotated bibliography packet and Natalie Loper’s Powerpoint slides.

Overview: In this section you’ll see authors keenly engaged with the world in a rich variety of ways. Some take literary works as their focus. In ‘The Exeter Book’  Sam Mabry draws upon historical and critical resources to flesh out his reading of one of the few remaining examples of Old English verse. ‘The Titles We Claim’ features Abigail Perkinson’s close reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, a chronicle of Nigerian women immigrating to the United States. Alexa Mayfield (‘Historical Representations of Indigenous Peoples’) digs deeply into cultural studies and local histories to argue for a richer representation of Native voices on a Tuscaloosa landmark. Tiaya Hubbard’s essay uses research to better educate her audience about a social concern; she documents the lack of nutrition education in minority communities in ‘Greasy Hands on Fresh Apples.’

Still other authors use research to speculate and advocate. In ‘The Validity of a Pathologized Absence,’ Robert Niemira discusses asexuality, one of the best treatments of this identity that you will ever read. Creel Richardson looks to a future of electric vehicles in ‘Electric Vehicles are the Future’; Micah Simpson advocates for paying college athletes in ‘Should College Athletes Be Paid?’; Logan Sparkman considers the implications of closer US-Cuba ties for Major League Baseball in ‘MLB Relations with Cuba’; and in ‘Mental Health During COVID-19,’ Bobby Wells helps us think through the impact of the pandemic on young people. Katelyn Perkins debunks myths of athletic stardom in ‘You Can Dream It, But Can You Achieve It?’

Questions for students: What does ‘doing research’ mean to you? What has your previous experience of doing research been like? Do you enjoy doing it, avoid doing it, etc., and why? What kind of research do you do/have you done? What kind of research would you like to do more of? What forms can research take? What are the advantages/disadvantages of these methods? How do the writers in this collection use research? That is, what function does research perform in their writing?

Resources:

Consult the Purdue OWL for information on research writing.

Several FWP instructors have graciously contributed materials that will help you develop a robust plan for the research unit. For a comprehensive overview of research processes and skills, be sure to review Ashley Palmer‘s research materials. These include activities focused on developing research questions, making claims, using primary and secondary sources, and working with sources. Rachel Morgan has developed a concise outline of the research process, with a sample research excerpt, clearly identified skill sets, and citation/formatting information. Jenifer Park’s research proposal assignment positions research skills rhetorically, as part of proposal writing, and Natalie Loper’s materials emphasize the argumentative skills that are integral to research.

And if you’ve ever worried that your students might lack the curiosity necessary to doing good research, check out Van Newell’s materials. Van has provided several compelling links that will help students assume a more inquisitive mindset.

Overview: At this point of the semester, writers have a vast understanding of their topics and are thinking of ways to present their research in innovative ways. By reframing work that they have already done throughout the research projects, our writers are able to consider new audiences for their work and re-imagine their traditional academic writing as multimodal projects. By considering key rhetorical concepts—genre, audience, purpose—our writers are able to transform their research and text-based writing into multimodal elements. Some take the form of infographics, such as Cameron Woodward’s “The Integration of AI in Finance,” and Karysn Dickerson’s “Making Improvement for Sustainable Infrastructure,” showing awareness of the presentation style that would most benefit a business-oriented audience. videos, podcasts, audio essays, and visual elements. Ella Grossomanides and Josie Ryan create videos directed at UA students and their mental health—discussing the hidden effects of virtual learning, and how adopting and spending time with animals can benefit all parties, both furry and non. Anna Kate Crumpton gives a harrowing and compelling video essay about the dangers of CTE. And Spencer Pennington gives us a hilarious audio essay evaluating why he can’t listen to Blue Suede’s “Hooked On A Feeling,” without wanting to smash his stereo to bits.

Questions for Students: Comment on the effectiveness of each of the Remixes—is the research presented in a compelling and interesting way? Does the medium of the Remix match the message? Who is the perceived audience of these remixes? What are some concepts you can borrow from these authors for your own Remix project?

Resources:

Ali Alalem walks students through crafting a Video Essay, including analysis and reflection on video essays, assistance on creating a video essay, writing a video essay script, and keeping writers organized as they craft.

Thank you for reviewing this resource. Again, I hope you find it useful, and I hope you will take some time to review the other materials in Wavelength, which you can find in the ‘About’ and ‘Students’ sections of the website. If you have any questions about these materials or this project, please don’t hesitate to contact Luke Niiler at lpniiler@ua.edu. For technical matters, please contact Brian Oliu at beoliu@ua.edu. If you’ve read this far and find yourself thinking, ‘yes, but,’ or ‘that’s fine, but they left out,’ or ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ I want to hear from you. Wavelength is intended to be crowd-sourced and perpetually growing, so there’s no reason not to register your voice and your ideas.

Last but certainly not least, I want to thank everyone who’s contributed to this project to date. Thank you, first, to all of the students named above, and all of their amazing instructors: Sarah Sprouse, Brett Shaw, Louise Stewart, Vic Kjoss, Juliella Parsons, Angeline Morris, Heather Roach, Brian Whalen, Abbey Perschall, Sarah Cantrell, Ray Wachter, Ashley Palmer, Brock Guthrie, Natalie Loper, and Rachel Morgan. None of this would have been possible without y’all. Thank you, too, to the First-Year Writing administrative team of Jessica Kidd, Natalie Loper, Kathleen Lewis, Melinda Fields, and Brian Oliu. Brian gets a second shout-out as well, as he has very capably digitized this formerly analog project. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed to this work in the past, when it was known as Analog—Chase Burke, Marni Presnall, Brooke Champagne, Lad Tobin, and all previous authors and their instructors.