Sunday, December 15, 2013

Blog #6: Starting My Nonfiction Project

Due: Tuesday, December 17 at the end of the class.
Words: 300-350
Minimum Links: 1

Welcome to your first post on your nonfiction project.

You've been thinking of topics for the past few days, and most of you have settled or nearly settled on a topic to start researching. Use this post to help you chronicle your thoughts at the onset of this project and work through the steps you'll need to take first. Remember, you have a whole quarter to work on this, but your first steps are very important and should be taken soon.

Some questions to get you thinking:

  • What topic (or perhaps what two topics) are you considering?

  • How will you share your project. Think about videos, presentations, Podcasts, websites, VoiceThreads, interactive multimedia, or other options. Don't say "PowerPoint." Describe different ways your finished project could look.

  • How could you turn this topic into a question or two?

    • For example; If you are studying the impact of grades on learning, you may have questions like "When can grades be harmful and helpful?", "Are grades fair?", "What do grades really reflect?"

  • What are your thoughts or preconceptions on this topic at the start of it. What would you imagine you'd find out about the topic? Go ahead and make assumptions and hypotheses here and don't worry about being right or wrong.

  • What kind of research can you do about your topic on the Internet or through print resources?

  • What kind of first-hand research could you do?

  • What experts or professionals do you hope to contact? Where and how can you start looking for these people?

  • What questions you do have at this point or what roadblocks/setbacks are you anticipate?

  • Do you have any links or sources that you have already consulted or are planning on using?