ENC 1102 Assignment Sheet

Researched Write-Up

This is it! This is what we’ve been working

toward all semester.

By now, you’ve chosen a research site that interests you,

conducted primary and secondary research, crafted refined
research questions, and even practiced careful, in-depth scholarly
analysis. Now it’s time to put it all together to provide insight into
your research questions through the genre of an academic research
paper. You’re encouraged to reference your research journal at this
point and review all that you’ve done to get here.

The Task Important Dates

Informed by your primary and secondary research, you will craft a
10-12-page document (2500-3000 words) that accomplishes the
following: November 12th –
Researched Write-Up
Outline
 Introduces a scholarly audience to the writing- or rhetoric-
related questions or issues that you have identified.
Nov. 12th – Nov. 16th –
 Develops and supports a focused thesis that contributes to One-on-One Conferences
scholarly conversations about the question or issue.
November 19th –
 Provides effective and detailed analysis of your writing- or Rough Draft & Peer
rhetoric-related question or issue and support for your Review
thesis through synthesis and analysis of your secondary
sources and primary research data.
November 23rd –
Peer Review Debrief
 Proposes some ways to move the conversation about the
question or issue forward.
Final Exam Date –
(See Final Exam
Schedule)
Revised Researched
Write-Up
ENC 1102 Assignment Sheet

Planning & Drafting

You’ve already done a lot of the work for this paper. A significant part of what you’ll be doing
now is piecing together your previous work with new writing in such a way that the individual
parts form a seamless academic argument. That argument should have the following parts:

 An engaging introduction that employs the CARS Model. The introduction should
establish a territory by providing pertinent contextualizing information on the research
site you have selected as well as a review of the existing literature that introduces the
conversation you plan to enter (follow the moves of the CARS model). The conversation
you identify should allow you to establish a niche by showing gaps in our current
knowledge of your topic. The introduction should culminate in a focused thesis or claim
that addresses the workings of writing and/or rhetoric within your selected research site,
effectively occupying the niche.

 Description and justification of your methodology. What did you do? Why did you do it?
Why did you choose one method of primary research over another? Would a different
method have also provided useful data? What are your reasons for not choosing that
method? (We’ll work on this in class, too.)

 Effective use of information from existing scholarship you have identified through your
library research. By now, you should have somewhere around 7-8 total secondary
sources. You should be concerned if you have significantly fewer sources than this as it
may mean that you do not have enough information to craft a persuasive argument. Your
list of sources can include articles we have read in our textbooks plus the relevant sources
you located through library research.

 Presentation of key pieces of primary data collected throughout the situated inquiry
project.

 Detailed analysis of key pieces of data that develops and supports the central thesis. This
analysis should be data-driven, not just a narrative description of your sources. You
should evaluate and analyze the results of your research, looking closely at what the
results mean, what we can learn from them, and/or what they don’t show us. Here you
can build on your analytical process work.

 You should present your final conclusions and identify opportunities for possible future
research (to be done by you or some other scholar interested in your topic).
ENC 1102 Assignment Sheet

Guiding Questions Specifications

These are questions to get you thinking. You do not have to answer
these specifically in your paper, although a good paper will most 10-12 typed, double-
likely touch on some of these. spaced pages, with no
 What information that I’ve found and used in my previous extra spacing between
assignments will help me here? paragraphs

 What is the existing conversation on my topic?

 2500-3000 words, not
 Where does my work fit into this conversation? included Works
 What new knowledge do I have to offer? Cited/References page or
appendices
 What kinds of insight have I gained into my research
question?
12-point Times New
 What pieces of data help me answer my research question? Roman font
 How does this data match or contradict what I’ve found in
my secondary research?  1-inch margins on all
sides
 What is interesting or unique about how writing and
rhetoric works in my research site?
Include an original title
 Who would care about my research, and why? that hints at main ideas,
 How should I frame my argument to reach that audience? themes, or images in your
work – in other words,
 Where does the conversation of my topic go from here?
your title should not be
“Researched Write-Up” or
“Final Paper”
Audience 
Our reader always influences how we write. Therefore, it’s Proper MLA or APA
important to think about who your audience is. Think of your format and citations
writing as joining the existing conversation around your research 
topic. These scholars include but are not limited to the authors of Include primary data
your secondary sources as well as the many scholars we’ve read discussed in the paper as
over the course of this semester. appendices

In addition to these scholars, your potential audience include the Submit a digital copy on
readers of Stylus, UCF’s academic journal of undergraduate Webcourses in .doc or
scholarship in writing and rhetoric. We’re not just imagining it .docx format before final
here. Your work could really be published in Stylus! With this real exam period begins
audience in mind, you’ll need to make sure that you explain your
ideas clearly, define specialized terms, and quote from your
primary and secondary research to help illuminate specific points
you wish to make.
ENC 1102 Assignment Sheet

Evaluation
What makes it good?

 The most successful versions of the Researched Write-Up will demonstrate a

considerable depth of knowledge about the chosen research topic and the role of
writing and rhetoric related to this question or issue. They will answer one or two key
research questions through a clear, debatable thesis and a convincing scholarly
argument.

 The analysis and discussion of key pieces of data should support that thesis. Your
argument should not rely heavily on description and summary. This is the idea of
show, don’t tell – show your reader how your claims are supported with specific
examples of data from your primary research.

 Successful writers will position their written results in relation to the existing
scholarship on their topic by identifying and entering an ongoing academic
conversation. In the process, they will have constructed new knowledge that will
interest an academic community and demonstrated college-level critical thinking.

 Remember that you are not just filling space – the 10-12-page range/2500-3000-
word count exists as a guideline to let you know that this is the expected length of
content for a fully developed research paper. If you’re not there but you feel like you
have nothing else to say, you might be missing important specific details, evidence,
or analysis, so come see me and we’ll look at it together.

 As always, the best papers will be clear, organized, interesting, and well edited. For
more detail on the specifications and evaluation of this assignment, please see the
rubric.