ENG 225 13.F: Reading Quantitative Research

Posted on April 5, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Extra Credit Reminder
  • How to Read Quantitative Research
  • Homework

How to Read Quantitative Research

I got an email question regarding tips on deciphering quantitative research. It is hard! I will admit that I am not an expert on this. I also recognize that I haven’t spent much time on the types of research this semester. Let’s do that today.

Generally, we refer to academic work using two terms: scholarship and research (note that some folks don’t like this distinction, but it works for me). Research tends to come in two flavors, qualitative and quantitative:

  • Hermeneutic: words as a result of reading and interpreting texts
  • Qualitative: words, numbers as a process of measurement
  • Quantitative: numbers as direct result of measurement

Both hermeneutic scholarship and qualitative research use words. One thing that distinguishes them is how they collect the texts they analyze. Think of our Sicart project. I didn’t use a method to select Sicart. Or Wolf Among Them. I picked them because my expertise as a scholar helped me identify them as engaging texts that could tell us something about the human condition. Compare this to the representations project–those were qualitative projects–and my emphasis was on helping you articulate a replicable process for selecting games, and detailing as clearly as possible the interpretive system you used to analyze those games. The lines between hermeneutic and qualitative scholarship can get blurry sometimes–but an emphasis on methodology (and whether you organize your paper like a quantitative one) tells us a lot about how you hope to position your work along the scholarship/research lines.

Quantitative work has even more precise methodological expectations than quantitative. There’s some (arcane) vocabularies built around answering and systematizing some pretty simple questions:

  • How did they collect their numbers?
  • If they collect their material from people, how did they find those people? Was the sampling “random”? How did they choose which subjects to include? How many people did they “sample”? How well does the sample reflect the general population?
  • What did they do to the data they collected? Did they synthesize or code it? Did they do frequency analysis?

I’m going to be honest here–I cannot always interpret quantitative analyses. I don’t really know how to calculate a p-value. But I do know to look for a discussion of a p-value and I also know that some researchers are trying to move away from p-values. It can help to have a good glossary of terms.

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ENG 225 13.W: Using Blogger For Our Collaborative Online Annotated Bibliography

Posted on April 3, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Using Blogger
  • Homework

Using Blogger For Our Collaborative Online Annotated Bibliography

Let’s take a look at this thing.

We might need some sample text to work with.

Homework

By Friday you should have completed 4 annotations for your research project. That is, by a conservative estimate, 6-8 hours of work. I know some of you have fallen behind. I’ll be doing a research check on Friday, examining your Google Docs to check on your progress. This assignment will be worth 40 points. That’s a lot of points. This is to help those who need to improve their grade to earn some points (and, of course, to reward those who have been keeping up).

If you have completed 4 annotations, 3 paragraphs each, and the paragraphs are doing what I’ve asked you to try and do, then you get 40 points. Boom. If you have completed 3 annotations, then you’ll get 35 points. If you’ve only managed to complete 2 annotations, I’ll still award you 30 points. If you’ve completed one annotation, I will award you 20 points. *But let me be clear on this: if you don’t complete the annotations soon, then you have a snowball’s-chance-in-hell of passing the final paper. Take this opportunity and catch up.

Make sure you have resubmitted a link to a Google Doc to Canvas by Friday at 9:00am (Gaming Journal March Resubmission). As of this posting, only 7 people have done this.

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ENG 201 12.M: ARC Deadlines

Posted on April 1, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • FIA Grant Review
  • Weekly Expectations

FIA Grant Review

Our grant writing team has worked on a revision of the Kush Desai grant. Let’s take a look.

Group Expectations

Grant Writing:

  • Matthew: Move forward with the FIA Common Grant Application
  • Everyone else: We want to put together a recommendation report (check ABO). Here’s what I am thinking for the sections:
    • Executive Summary [Introductory paragraph that highlights key opportunities]
    • First Steps [What does she have to do to complete each grant? Links to materials/applications? I have a sketchy idea here–some kind of list or table?]
    • Grant Research [sub-sections for each grant that summarize research; this is where we put the extensive information]

    Promotions/Social Media:

    • Two things this week. First, have updated versions of all flyers done by Wednesday. We will review them in class. I will create a portal in Canvas.
    • Create a campaign email for each event in Constant Contact. We will work on this in class on Wednesday.
    • Social Media–do you need me to tell you what to do?
    • Colorado Gives Day–let’s talk

    Organizational History:

    • I think it is time to get this done. Start by putting together the outline by decade. Decide how much material there is in total.
    • Here was my original expectation:
      • First, we should be able to develop a 1000 character and a 200 word organizational history for grants. This will be the final deliverable that we produce at the end of the project.
      • Second, we should be able to produce a 500 word history for the website (something for the About Us page). We can look at peer organizations to identify how long they tend to be, what to include, etc.
      • Third, we should be able to produce a 5000 word detailed organizational history report. You read that right.

      Does that sound viable? Given our interviews, can we produce something different/other? How do we divide up the work?

      Homework

      Grant Writing, I’d like a rough draft of the report by Friday. Promotions/Social Media–I am hoping that you can have everything done by Friday. Organizational History–it sounds like y’all might need until Monday to get the longer report done (?).

      When we finish this project, then we will begin our final project on crafting job materials. To facilitate this, I’d like everyone to submit a copy of their resume to Canvas before next Monday’s class. If you don’t have a resume, make one (ABO has a section on resumes).

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ENG 201 12.M: Team Progress, Reviewing Grant Writing

Posted on March 25, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Extra Credit
  • Team Progress
  • Grant Writing

Team Progress

Grant Writing Team:

  • I think we realized on Friday that we might be able to tighten up some of Amelia’s sections. It is much easier to criticize than it is to revise. We collectively examined the Kush Desai application on Friday. Let’s pick that up today and finish reading the last section. Then let’s collectively read two other grants.
  • Read the WD Farr Fund narrative for a concrete description of the Wrightslaw Conference
  • Read the UWWC for a more concise description of the FIA program
  • Read Tech Coaching
  • Read Littler Narrative

Promotions and Social Media:

  • I’ve got images!
  • The image folders actually give us a concrete list of events–I think it contains more info than the calendar
  • Promotions: We need a template/mock-up of a promotional flyer template. We need a template/mock-up for Constant Contact. Let’s do the poster template first. By Wednesday, everyone in your group needs to have a draft of their flyer. We’ll share them with the class on Wednesday.
  • Social Media: How goes the post generation and the follower lists?

Organizational History:

  • One interview in the books. It is 45 minutes and needs to get transcribed.
  • Do we have an outline of events yet? Is there a Google doc in which all of our assets have been organized?
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ENG 225 12.M: Research Proposal Day

Posted on March 25, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Extra-credit reminder
  • How goes SuperBetter? Questions?
  • Research Proposal Assignment
  • Research Article Discussion

Research Proposal Assignment

Today I want to do a quick writing exercise that should help you develop a research question. First, I want to share the proposal assignment. We will be working on this all week. It is due this Friday at midnight.

Booth Exercise

I’m going to ask you to read a selection from Wayne Booth’s The Craft of Research. This reading should help prepare you to develop a research question for the final paper. Anticipating Booth’s strategy, I would specify that we want a meaningful and practical question. Booth’s strategy hinges on answering three questions as a way of identifying and narrowing a topic.

  • I am researching…
  • Because I want to find out… [who/what/where/when/whether/why/how]
  • In order to help my reader understand how…

Before I ask you to answer those questions, let’s do a bit of reading:

  • Pages 20-22, your relationship to your reader
  • Page 30, dealing with inexperience (Burke’s Parlor)
  • Pages 14-15, finding a topic in four parts
  • Page 41, 3.1, from an interest to a topic
  • Page 43, 3.2, from a broad topic to a focused one with four key terms: conflict, description, contribution, development
  • Page 45, Page 49: make sure you ask a question worth answering

A series of examples:

  • How does X’s description of Y differ from A, B, and C?
  • How could X contribute to our understanding of Y?
  • How has understanding of X developed over time?
  • How does X’s understanding of Y differ from Z’s understanding?
  • What are 3 different ways of fixing X problem?

Homework

In order to prepare you to draft a proposal, begin your second research annotation.

In Wednesday’s class we will examine proposals from the last time I taught ENG 123.

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ENG 329 11.F: Editing Down An Interview

Posted on March 22, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Schedule Change
  • Editing Video
  • Extra Credit

Schedule Change

I’ve made some changes.

Editing Video

Today I want to work on editing a longer video. In the LAC folder, download the Sharon_Video_A1.MOV. Put it in a folder on the desktop. Open Adobe Premiere and create a new project. Import the MOV file; then save the project file in the folder.

Our first step should be to watch through the video and break it into clips. Rename the clips.

Next, let’s edit each individual clip: we want to focus on the most informative part of Sharon’s responses.

Next, we should think about storyboarding our video. Remember that our final videos need to be around 1 minute long. We should save 5 seconds for our introduction (b-roll, music, title credits/logo). Near the end of class, we’ll get a sense of who has made the cleanest cuts and upload them to the folder.

We won’t have time today, but the next step of editing would be to j and l cuts.

Also, we will have to work to sync up the video file with the audio file.

Homework

I’m awarding points for the b-roll footage. So far, Taylor, Brenna, and Trent have completed this. Looking through their contributions, I think we could use more wide shots of buildings, something to use as an establishing shot.

By next Wednesday’s class, I want everyone to produce a 3-7 second intro sequence–something similar to Clark’s sequence but shorter. This sequence should use some b-roll, contain a Building a Strong Foundation / Liberal Arts Foundation logo, a way of introducing a class and the faculty member. LATER we will add some copyleft background music.

Because some people are lagging behind with their b-roll, I suggest you start by drafting a potential logo and title in Photoshop. Feel free to upload .psd file to the drive. I have a few files in there you can work with.

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ENG 201 11.F: Grant Writing Overview

Posted on March 22, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • 12 Basic Rules
  • Homework

Karsh and Fox’s 12 Basic Rules

I preparation for today’s class I asked you to read Lesson 6 and 7 of Karsh and Fox’s Grant Writing Book. Those rules are:

  • Make an Outline
  • Write as you Speak
    • Don’t be overly formal or pretentious
    • Don’t be too casual
    • Be clear, direct, factual
  • Double and Triple Think Your Choice of Words
    • Avoid all slang
    • “We also believe you must take great care in describing, precisely, the traits and attributes of the people who participate in your program and/or who live in your community or city” (123-24)
  • Don’t Exaggerate
    • Avoid hyperbolic adjectives (the best, cutting edge, etc)
    • Let facts speak for themselves
  • Buy a Grammar Book
    • Double check EVERY apostrophe
    • Double check EVERY comma
    • Double check every verb for a tense shift
    • Double check every introductory clause for agreement (“While riding a bus, the tornado ripped through our town”)
  • Buy a Dictionary and a Thesaurus
    • It is helpful to explore the precise meaning of terms and avoid too much repetition
    • LET ME EXERCISE CAUTION
  • Stick to the Active Voice
    • Williams and Bizup every sentence
  • Keep Your Own Voice Out of It
    • Avoid judgments, controversial ideas, political views, and humor
    • NO. SARCASM.
  • Limit the Adjectives
  • It’s Not Personal
    • When possible, avoid I, we, and our in favor of specific references
  • NO ACRONYMS
  • Prove It!
    • Evidence-based claims

To this list we can add a few of the driving ideas in Lesson 7: that a grant emphasize how it offers a solution to a problem or a strategy to address a particular need (pg. 139). Describe a clear target population (pg. 142). Have a sufficient but no overwhelming amount of research (pg. 145-146). What kinds of material can be considered research?

  • Community demographics
  • Anecdotal Information (“Can put a human face on a cold statistical problem”)
  • Focus Groups
  • Needs assessment [major project]
  • Newspaper reports
  • Police Precinct Data
  • School reading/math/attendance rates
  • Hospital and health department statistics
  • Scholarly Literature

Homework

Given the work we did this week generating memos and gantt charts, my hope is that you all know what has to get done.

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ENG 225 11.F: SuperBetter

Posted on March 22, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Extra-Credit
  • Discuss McGonigal
  • Homework

Extra Credit

I hope everyone has filled out check in #1! Keep meditating! Keep journaling! Check in #2 is coming on Sunday.

Discuss McGonigal

Reading Questions (address 2 of these in your gaming journal):

  • How/why can games help block pain or anxiety? What scientific concept does McGonigal introduce to support this claim?
  • What is flow? What conditions have to be in place to achieve it?
  • Why are games “better” at managing pain/anxiety than books or movies?
  • What is the relation between casual games and mindfulness?

Read McGonigal 77-130; address 4 of these in your gaming journal:

  • What happens when we play together?
  • What is “theory of mind”?
  • Tell me about social empathy
  • What is the “equalizing nature of games”?
  • What are the 3 dimensions of social online games?
  • What should we know about First-person shooters?

Starting SuperBetter

Once you have set up your account, you need to add me as an ally: marccsantos@hotmail.com.

Given the personal nature of SuperBetter, I won’t force anyone to share their account or ally with anyone else (and if you set a secret identity, I won’t necessarily know who you are). But I will make a space for you to do so on Monday. At the end of the project, I will need to know who everyone is for awarding participation (30 points).

For the next four weeks, I will expect you to complete your SuperBetter activity every day. Start by completing a PowerPack.

Homework

I’ve made a change here from the schedule I supplied last week. Rather than continuing to read McGonigal, I want you to begin thinking about your final research topic. To do this, I would like you to read one of the articles that we identified on Wednesday. Take a shot a writing an “annotation” in your gaming journal.

If you google “how to write a research annotation,” you’ll get a lot of different approaches. Here’s my general expectation:

  • Paragraph One: the first paragraph covers the purpose, findings, and recommendations of the article
  • Paragraph Two: the second paragraph details the methods, including how many subjects were in the study, how subjects were found, the location of the study (if relevant), the length of the study, how data was analyzed/synthesized, and any other significant details
  • Paragraph Three: the third paragraph does some thinking by connecting the article to other research (this thinking can compare or contrast). This is the hardest part, since unlike the other paragraphs you are called upon to invent material rather than simply summarize it. This is also the part that helps you begin to write the research paper

At this point, you might not be ready to write a third paragraph–you haven’t read much else, and might struggle to make a connection. Try anyways–consider it a free-writing opportunity. At the very least, you can compare what you find there to McGonigal, or connect it to one of the studies/sources she mentions/cites.

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ENG 329 11.W: Color Correction and Grading

Posted on March 20, 2019 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • LAC update
  • Color Correction and Grading in Adobe Premiere

LAC Update

I’ve seen a number of responses come in–let’s make sure we update the Google Doc with specifics.

Color Correction and Grading in Adobe Premiere

Today we are going to be working with the Adobe Premiere Classroom in a Book, chapter 14. Don’t worry if you don’t have your book with you (I’ve made copies). We are going to work with the b-roll footage y’all uploaded prior to today’s class.

We probably need some basic language for talking about color.

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