J7A Essay Process (Fall 2012)
Step 02: Sources Report
Step 02 Overview
Your J7A essay assignment is practice in writing a credible and interesting essay.
The essays that score the best will show a good understanding of concept and object of analysis, both, and will carry out an analysis that gives the reader an interesting, richer or more nuanced way of thinking about your object of analysis through your approach, observations and conclusions.
I consider this to be a real challenge and we as mentors are looking for honest effort towards this goal, understanding that it might be difficult to write a successful essay.
Added Nov 15 (hastily written but better than nothing I suppose): About "real challenge" ... I have created topics that it is unlikely any scholar has written about. The basic idea is to create space for new analysis by bringing together a concept and an object that are usually not paired. This has these ramifications:
1) If, for example, your topic is "yugen in cha no yu" you should NOT go looking for articles about "yugen and cha no yu". Instead, you should get a good grasp of yugen, set that aside, then, independently, get a good grasp of cha no yu, THEN ask the question "How can I bring these together?"
2) You analysis might feel somewhat weak or odd to you, or even to us. That's OK. If it is credible and interesting, that's good enough. There are reasons why yugen and cha no yu are not usually paired but I DO believe you can exercise your mind in exploring what yugen is, and exploring something of the depths of cha no yu by attempting to bring them together. It might not be the greatest of essays but we are looking at your ability to find credible sources and create credible, interesting observations. It is an exercise in a) sort of a mini-paper on yugen (or whatever) then b) sort of a mini-paper on cha no yu (or whatever) —neithr of which are actually written or submitted (but you have learned enough to write such papers if necessary), then c) a display of your ability to think about a topic using a particular framework (your concept) while trying to negotiate the ever-present problem (in academics) of exploring something that is interesting to you BUT ALSO interesting to others. That's what we are doing; it is not a standard essay.
3) Since you are required to be well-informed about your concept, many of you are having difficulty finding material on it. The start point should not be (in most cases) "a good article on yugen (or whatever)" or "a good book on yugen". These don't exist for most of your concepts. Rather you need to locate discussions using more indirect searches: yugen is associated with Zeami (the playwright) and noh drama. You'll learn this in your initial explorations. You should probably look for excellent works on Zeami or noh drama and explore inside those works for extended discussions of yugen. Or, if not that, consider books or articles on "Japanese aesthetics" or, if not that, books or articles on "middle period art". In other words, look for a wider topic and hope that within that you'll find a discussion. This is usually hard to do via Google searches, although if you get a hit in a preview book you might be able to go to the library for the book. The library is a great resource; the index of a book is a great resource. Get some distance from the ever-so-convenient keyword search that Google insists on. That should help.
4) I think the GSIs and I are on the same page on this but there might be some confusion as to exactly what the boundaries are in terms of "credible" when an unlikely pairing of concept and object are the issue. We don't want silly or superficial or pushy rhetorical arguments to force an issue. On the other hand, we are tolerant of somewhat odd lines of analysis as long as we are convinced that you know your concept and object pretty well. However, each of us might draw that line differently. That is between you and the mentor; we all will be generous in allowing various approaches but that does not mean everything and anything goes. Your mentor is in control about where to draw the line. Please note that it might not be the same for each individual (in case you are sharing notes with your friends). This is not a template sort of thing and each pair (student-mentor) is unique with unique issues.
However, you DO have control over how much you understand your concept and your object of analysis. So please find excellent sources, sources that we will consider are very credible (Sidebar tab "Acceptable sources" is required reading for this step) and which help you think in sophisticated ways about your concept and object of analysis.
Step 02 is designed to get you very far along in the research process, so that you can do more, better targeted research, or work though some of the idea-kinks in your essay. This is not an initial report, it is a report based on well-developed research work (including reading what you have found, not just finding it) and represents about 1/3 of the total grade of the essay.
Please do not ask us to recommend sources. Part of the assignment is your ability to do this on your own. You CAN ask very targeted questions that we, as savvy in the field, might be able to answer, such as "Do you consider Donald Keene's way of talking about Izumi Shikibu Diary to be out of date or can I use his ideas as still well regarded by others?"
Specific Step 02 Instructions
You cannot change your topic.
All questions related to Step 02 should be directed to your mentor.
Start early!
1. You need to read the content of the sidebar tabs "Acceptable sources" and "Style requirements - About the bibliography". You should do this before you start since the requirements are very specific. Knowing those guidelines ahead of time will guide your research and note-taking.
2. Research and read and develop some possible essay ideas. You must identify one source that is about your concept that it a thoughtful exploration of it and helps to deepen your understanding and you will write an extended report for that source. You must also identify one source that is about your object of analysis that helps you understand something about its nature, in depth, not just its factual components. Again, you will write an extended report for that source. We are practicing analysis (reading it and generating it). Reading interpretations of your concept and object of analysis not only deepens your understanding of those two, it provides an example of academic analysis. Find good sources that help with this.
3. Download and complete the form, submitting it according to the below instructions.
About the extended description:
- The extended report must be based on a source that the mentor has access to either online or provided as a scan. If it is a scan, submit with the form at the same time and label it J7A_S02_LASTNAME_classname conceptextended or J7A_S02_LASTNAME_classname objectextended, whichever is appropriate.
- The "extended report" follows the same format as the other entries on the bibliography list. However,
- Under "How I used this source" your comments should be expansive and thorough, sharing your reaction to the theses, observations, and conclusions of the source and how these are shaping your own ideas. The should be around 200-400 words in length. Since you have not yet written an essay and probably do not yet have even a thesis, "How I used this source" will naturally have different content now than when you later submit the essay. Nevertheless, you should be far enough along in your thinking on the essay to be more specific than "this helped me understand the concept", etc. And,
- Under "Description of source and the portion relevant to your essay:" your comments should include what you perceive to be the important theses (that's thesis, plural) of the source overall (that might me the full article, or the chapter of the book and, if relevant, the working premise or overall these of the book itself) and more extensive comments on the specific twists and turns of analysis relevant to your work, in about 400-600 words. While there might be some overlap with "How I used this source" focus in this section on giving us a good sense of the source itself, not how you used it. You might need to rewrite the two sections after your first draft, to get comments into the right one of these two questions. If you have not read it in full, your description here will look more like your description in "How I used this source" and will score lower, since here we are checking to see if you understand, in a broad way, the nature of your source, not just the nature of the narrow area of your source that interests you. If there is only a narrow area, you need to find a different source. At this stage, the idea is to become more sophisticated in your understanding of your topic and broadly knowledgable about the basics of your object, beyond just Wiki-type facts.
How to submit Step 02
This is a REQUIRED submission for all students.
To whom do you submit?
Me, and your mentor. The two of us only. Please try to make sure we are both on the "To" line of the email. (Technical reasons at my end for this request.)
What subject line should you use?
J7A_S02_LASTNAME_classname sourcesreport
Form to be used
Late penalties
Beginning exactly 30 minutes past deadline with no additional grace period, each of the several letter grades will be reduced as follows where a "point" means, for example, an "A" (12) becomes an "A-minus" (11).
- 30 minutes to 24 hours past deadline: 2 points deducted from each grade given
- for each 12 hour period after the first 24 hours has passed, the late penalty is one additional one point from each letter grade given
- the grade cannot be less than zero
How Step 02 is graded
Step 02 receives five grades, all given by the student's mentor.
The mentor will be make an initial check of proper MLA form. The grade weight is rather small and makes it something of an advisory grade (the mentor identifies errors in the style, and informs you NOT of correct style but that you need to learn correct style, since you will be graded again on this point).
The mentor will ask if you have identified good sources for your essay. She or he will consider sources relevant to your concept and, as a separate grading process, sources relevant to your object of analysis. I am interested that you are well informed on both your concept and the object of analysis.
The mentor will check the two sources you have identified for closer inspection for your understanding of the ideas within the source. Please read those articles or relevant passages carefully. These need to be extended areas of text, not just a few paragraphs from something.
The mentor records the grades directly on the form and adds comments if she or he thinks it necessary and has time to do so.