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EAP 506 Project 2

Project 2 is worth 50% of your total course grade.

Project Description:

Project 2 introduces students to the expectations of graduate-level academic writing in the U.S.
through a close analysis of the conventions of scholarly writing in the disciplines.

In preparation for Project 2 and for academic and professional writing career success, this
assignment requires that students become familiar with discipline-specific writing as it is
presented in professional style manuals, understood by established department at Mason,
prescribed in guidelines for publication in field-specific journals, and put forward by current
graduate student writers in different fields.

Students will write two drafts of each assignment. The final drafts will be complied and
presented as an online handbook for international graduate student writers in the disciplines,
displayed in the final digital portfolio.

Welcome Statement (1 double spaced page)


This component will be written at the end of the project as a way of reflecting on the
experience compiling the components for the Graduate Student Writer Handbook and on the
purpose of this type of handbook; the introductory statement will be directed towards
international graduate students in the disciplines, describing the features and functions of the
online handbook.

Research a GMU professor (1.5 double-spaced pages)


To get more familiar with your academic discipline, you will research a GMU professor in your
department. Go to your GMU department webpage and identify a professor you can research
for this paper. Discuss your findings to the following questions:
1) Who is the professor and what are his or her academic qualifications?
2) In what journals has this professor published academic research?
3) What are these academic articles about?
4) What are his or her research interests?
5) In what other ways does this professor participate in academic communities (e.g.,
serving on editorial boards, members of organizations, etc)

Write a paper summarizing and explaining these findings. Dont just report answers to these
questions. Explain what this information suggests about being a scholar in your field.
Journal Analysis (2 double-spaced pages)
This component will require a close analysis of a scholarly academic journal in the students
discipline. Students will include a visual aid to show findings or their analysis and write a data
commentary on the basic features of their chosen journal as well as other information that is
interesting, relevant, or significant to the students discipline. At the end of the paper, students
should answer the following question: What does this academic journal suggest about the
writing conventions and expectations of my field? Some of the important data collected may be:

1) What is the history of the publication?


2) What overall purpose does the journal serve?
3) What types of writing/genres does it value or publish?
4) What type of writer is generally published in this journal?
5) How is each issue generally structured or organized?
6) Does this journal publish special issues? Why? What topics do these special issues
cover?

Article Analysis (3 double-spaced pages)


This component will require a close analysis of a scholarly article in the students discipline. The
following general questions will guide students inquiry and organization for this part of the
assignment. The analysis should address the following questions. At the end of the paper,
students should answer the following question: What do the structural and rhetorical features
of the article suggest about writing academic papers in my field?
1) How is the article organized? Does it follow the IMRD format or something different?
Why?
2) How is the article introduction organized? Do you see Move 1,2, and 3? Give some
specific examples of how the introduction works to engage the reader and establish a
need for the study.
3) Do you see graphs or figures? What kind of information do you find in them?
4) How is other research included in this article? Are other studies cited within the paper?
Do you see direct quotations or paraphrases of other works?
5)What citation style is used in your field? Why?

Language Analysis (2 double-spaced pages)


This component will require a close analysis of the language of scholarly article in the students
discipline. The following general questions will guide students inquiry and organization for this
part of the assignment. The analysis should address the following questions. At the end of the
paper, students should answer: What do the linguistic features of the article suggest about
writing in my discipline? Some possible topics include:

1) How are key words and key terms carried throughout the text?
2) How formal/informal is the language in the scholarly article? Please include three to
four sentence-level analyses to support your claim.
3) What specialized vocabulary is used? Please include three or four word-level analyses to
support your claim.
4) What do you notice about verb tense and verb forms?
5) What other language features do you notice?

Online Website Handbook


This component will require students to compile final drafts of the analysis assignments as an
online handbook. Students will be asked to present and explain their online handbooks to their
peers during the last week of classes.

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