Cégep du
Vieux Montréal
TQ 1
Field of Study
Research Project (15%)
Département de langues
The Purpose
of the Project:
This assignment permits
students to deepen their
knowledge of and to
critically appraise an
aspect of their program
OR a potential program.
It also requires students to
learn correct English
terminology for related
key concepts.
Skills:
The project takes place
over 4 weeks. During this
time, students will select
a pertinent topic; do
research to select three
related articles; critically
read the articles; write an
introduction, summaries
and reactions; look up
and prepare definitions
for selected key terms and
give an oral presentation
on their subject. They
will also learn about
various topics by
listening to other
students’ orals.
Step by Step Instructions
The First Step: Selecting a Topic
Topics
Option 1: An important person in the field of study of the
student (e.g.: an innovator, researcher or practitioner).
Option 2: A current controversy in the field of study of
the student.
Option 3: New and important research (or a new method
or new approach) in the field.
The Second Step: Writing the Introduction
The introduction is 1-2 paragraphs long. It explains (a) why
the student chose this particular topic, (b) briefly, what the
topic is about and (c) why regular citizens &/or people in the
field should care about it.
The Third Step: Writing the Summaries and
Reactions to the first two articles.
The student should do research on the Internet, in
professional journals and/or in recent publications to find
two articles, which each have a minimum length of 800
words.
The student should then read the articles and write a
summary and a reaction for each of them. Both the
summary and the reaction, which is a subjective, critical
evaluation of the article discussing accuracy of the
information, the credibility of the text, the author’s bias
and writing style, are described on the next page.
Please attach 1st 2 pages of the three articles AND provide complete bibliographic
information (author, title, source, publication date OR complete internet address).
Page 1
TQ1 Field of Study Research Project
Writing Your Summaries, Reactions and Vocabulary List
Part 1: Writing a Summary and
Creating a Vocabulary List
Part 2: Writing your Reaction to an
Article
The summary should be a condensed version of
the article. This process involves boiling down
an entire article into a much shorter document
that conveys as much of the original information
as possible. A summary should answer all the
key questions about your article. In English, we
call these the 5 ‘W’s’ (Who, What, Where, When
and Why).
1. When you write your reaction to the article you
should begin by discussing the credibility of your
document. Credibility is established by considering
the following elements:
• Author qualifications - The authors should either
be experts themselves or they quote experts.
• Publisher qualifications - The publisher should
have a reputation for fairness and balance.
• Date of publication - This is particularly important
in technical fields.
• Peer Review - The article should be subject to a
review of the author's peers in the field.
One good procedure for writing a summary is as
follows:
1.
Highlight the objectives and the conclusions
that are in the introduction and the
conclusion parts of the article.
2.
Select and highlight sections in the body of
the paper that contain key information.
3.
Compile the above highlighted information
into a list.
4.
Condense this list into phrases that identify
the important information of the article only.
At the same time, identify key words that
could be used for your vocabulary list.
5.
Delete extraneous words and phrases.
6.
Delete any background information.
7.
Rephrase the first sentence so that it states
the main information contained in the
document. One way of doing this is to start
off the first sentence with the phrase "this
paper" or "this study."
2. You should then make a determination of bias.
Comment on the degree of subjectivity versus
objectivity in your reactions to the texts. If the
authors have a point of view, identify it.
Perhaps no text can be said to be truly objective; after
all writers are products of their time, place and
culture. That said, some writers strive to be more
objective than others or more objective about certain
issues.
In SUBJECTIVE writing the author expresses a
point-of-view and:
•
•
•
8.
9.
Revise the text so that the summary conveys
the essential information and has a terse
style.
Look up the definition of your key
vocabulary words and write them in your
own words.
Heavily adapted from: Wilkinson, Antoinette Miele. The
Scientist's Handbook for Writing Papers and Dissertations.
1991.
Page 2
•
•
•
May express personal feelings
I was sorry to learn that…
May make one-sided statements
Animal testing is wrong…
May give advice
We must act now…
May ask rhetorical questions
How can we stop this?
May use emotionally loaded language
This torture of innocent animals…
May only quote people who share his/her opinion
In OBJECTIVE writing the author:
•
•
•
Masks his/her feelings and tries to appear neutral
Tends to describe facts over opinions and does not
comment on them
Quotes others and tries to present a balanced point-ofview
Please note that subjective writing isn't necessarily
bad. However, your job as a critical reader is to be
able to detect a writer's bias and determine whether it
is so extreme as to mar the reliability of the text as a
source of information. If your text is so one-sided that
this compromises its validity, discard the text.
Autumn 2005 Semester
The Fourth Step: Responding to
the third article
The student should do research and find
a third article of at least 800 words in
length. The response to the 3rd article
may take the form of notes on the main
and supporting ideas on a separate sheet
OR consist of a creative representation
of the main ideas of the text in an artistic
form (e.g.: as a diagram, collage, or
dialogue). Please note: simply
downloading a photograph from the
Internet or photocopying a picture is not
an acceptable response.
The Fifth Step: Creating a
Vocabulary List
The vocabulary list with English
definitions/ explanations should contain
a total of 5-8 key terms from the articles.
See Page 2 for an explanation about how
to make this list.
The Sixth Step: Making an Oral
Presentation
The oral presentation (5%) is an
exchange of question & answer with
another student, lasting approximately 5
minutes, covering the same information
as the portfolio.
Evaluation Criteria
a. Research Portfolio (10%)
ƒ Choice of texts (they must be recent,
credible and relevant) (1%)
ƒ Content of introduction and
summaries & reactions (key points
must be addressed) (3%)
ƒ Quality of response to 3rd text (notes
must be complete OR,
in the case of a creative response,
there must be evidence of originality
and effort) (2%)
ƒ Choice of vocabulary items for
vocabulary list and accuracy of
definitions (1%)
ƒ Use of English throughout (accurate
grammar, spelling, vocabulary and
sentence structure & paragraphing)
(3%)
b. Oral Presentation (5%)
(Each criterion counts 1% for a total of 5%)
ƒ Content (the information is
complete, logical and accurate)
ƒ Structure & organization (the
information is presented coherently)
ƒ Grammar (accurate use of verbs,
pronouns & question formation)
ƒ Vocabulary (accurate word use)
ƒ Pronunciation & fluency (speech is
clear, pace is even)
Page 3
TQ1 Field of Study Research Project
Schedule for the Field of Study Research Project
Introduction to the project.................................................................................... Week 5
Submission of the text of your introduction to the teacher for correction ........... Week 6
Submission of the summary and reaction for two texts
to the teacher for correction ................................................................................. Week 8
Complete portfolio due and oral presentation...................................................... Week 9
(Workshops and in-class activities on various aspects of the project will take place
during the 4 week period. Students must be prepared to spend considerable amounts of
time outside of class on the components of this project).
(Forbath and Spatz 2005)
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