Reference no: EM133538318

Homework: Field Trend Analysis

Purpose:

Before you can jump into a conversation and make an educated, knowledgeable argument about a topic or subject (the goal of the homework/essay for this course), you need to know what knowledge and information is currently "out there" about the topic. This homework begins the brainstorming and research process that will create a foundation upon which you can build your argumentative research essay for this course.

Since the main objective for this course is to teach you the advanced research skills that will make you the professional you are becoming, this first homework will help you take the first step into your chosen discipline (or other area of interest) so that you can see what it looks like "for real."

You will be using and practicing what you learn in the advanced research library sessions to find outwhat professionals in your field write and also how they write. Part of your higher education experience is preparing you to enter seamlessly into the professional world and teach you how to be aware of what that world looks like and how it works. This project will give you a big boost in entering that world and will give you an advantage when you do step into it. Not only that, but it will allow you to apply the advanced research skills you learn in this class toward that goal.

For the first homework for this class, you are going to compose what is known as a Field Trend Analysis. This is just a fancy way of saying "What's Up?" in your field or a specific discipline OR an area of interest. What are the hot topics? What are the experts in that field currently exploring? What are the questions and topics they are researching? What are they arguing about? What are those arguments? If you know the answers to these questions, you'll be ahead of the game when you step into your profession AND you'll knock the socks off your future colleagues (and employers!) because you'll be on their level of knowledge and conversation. Not only that, but for those of you in research fields, you'll know what projects to pursue that will earn you grant, research funds, or the contract from that big client. (Trend Research = $$)

Specifically, a trend analysis is simply collecting information to identify a discussion or research pattern. Adding "field" means applying this to your professional field or discipline.Now, how to actually do it ...?

Transferable Skills (College and Career):

Independent research; source comprehension and analysis; summarizing and reporting; formatting and source documentation conventions; time management; project planning; instruction comprehension and adherence; keeping knowledge of discipline/profession relevant.

Task:

Write a report (informative) in essay form which identifies a trend within a certain discipline (field) or topic and analyzes three sources which led you to identify the trend.

Using academic sources (peer-reviewed publications from the collage database and/or Google Scholar) OR highly reliable media sources if you can't find your topic in academic publications, search for peer-reviewed journals and articles published in your field/topic for the past two to three years. Note topics and subjects that appear more often than others. There may be more than one that appears a lot. If this is the case, select one that is of most interest to you.

Once you have discovered which topic appears the most (or the one you select from more than one), select three articles that have been published on that subject for use in your report that indicate the trend you have identified. For each article, you will have a body paragraph of your report which identifies and discusses each of the following elements about EACH article:

A. Clearly identifies the source (article or book) by the author's(s') full name(s) and the full title of the article or book. Do so in the first sentence or two so that it's clear the article is the topic of your paragraph.

B. Identify the author's (or authors') thesis,

C. Summarize the article and its main points, and

D. Be able to state how it contributes to the trend you have identified.

Each body paragraph should be about a paragraph in length, each of 5+ sentences. (A word count for the whole essay is given below).

Once you have compiled your three paragraphs as described above, compose an essay which reports on the trend you have found using your three summaries as each of the body paragraphs. Your thesis will be an informative thesis which will state what the trend is in your field (as opposed to an argument thesis - a handout will be available to clarify this).

A sample thesis might be: Recent publications show a trend of increasing discussion of incorporating more green technology in architecture and city planning.

Make sure the word "trend" shows up in your intro and through the essay!

Structure: You will have five paragraphs total.

I. Paragraph I: Introduction
II. Paragraphs II through IV: Article analyses - one paragraph for each article
III. Paragraph V: Conclusion

This is something that you may not have come across before, soexample essays will be posted with this prompt for you to see how it looks and sounds. This project will take some time to get started, so allow yourself plenty of time to work on it.