Assignment 1 – Observe and Report
Short Summary
In this assignment you will first observe what a scholar has to say about research ethics (by
reading an article) and report what they say. You will do this report in two different ways, first
conversationally (mostly for practice) and then a little more formally. Often, we call this
practice of observing/reporting scholarly summary, a skill you will build and demonstrate here
and then use throughout this course.
This assignment is our first step in joining a ‘scholarly conversation’. At this stage, we are not
joining the conversation but observing and reporting. This is authentic work. Professionals do
this work. By doing this work you are preparing for the next stage, where we will make more
observations from scholars to 1) observe in more detail this conversation and 2) begin to take a
more active role in it.
Background
One of the most important outcomes of this course is for you to join a ‘scholarly conversation’.
This idea of ‘conversation’ is both a literal and metaphorical one. People who generate
knowledge through research (scholars) generate this knowledge by speaking with one another
in a very literal way. Scholars converse at conferences where research is shared and debated,
by way of correspondence (e.g. email), through publishing research, and in many other places:
these conversations take place in every medium imaginable, including now social media.
The above may not seem relevant to you. These literal conversations are conducted by
professional researchers – people like me and your other instructors – and there is no
expectation that you will join these exact conversations and therefore participate in this
professional work (e.g. by attending conferences or publishing papers). However, there is also a
metaphorical interpretation of ‘scholarly conversation’, in which you can absolutely participate,
and this conversation is just as authentic and professional as the literal interpretation. It is
authentic and professional, and allows entry at any level of ability.
Metaphorically, scholars engage in conversation by integrating the words, ideas, and
perspectives of other scholars. We do not do this passively. We actively and ostensively1
remark
upon others’ words, ideas, and perspectives. For example, to contribute ideas to a body of
knowledge we must first observe what others have said. This allows us to see if our
contribution is worthwhile, to determine the kind of language we must use to get our point
across effectively, and many other uses. To enter this conversation, we then must report these
observations of the ongoing conversation, as Kenneth Burke (1960) famously wrote (pp. 110-
111)2
This is why citation is so frequent in academic writing. Citation is not only a matter of ethics (of
“preventing plagiarism”) but the method by which we join scholarly conversations. It is a formal
convention that developed from social activities.
This course will assist you in joining scholarly conversations, largely in the metaphorical sense.
We will proceed step by step. This assignment is our first step.
Scenario
When we write, we always write to someone. When scholars write scholarly work, this work is
written for other scholars: they engage in scholarly conversation. Therefore, to recognize that
language is always addressed to someone, and to engage as authentically as possible in
scholarly work (like being a student), you need someone to write to, an audience or a
conversant.
On the one hand, you have me: I am your audience. And while this is true, for our purposes
sometimes you will need to imagine the audience you are writing to: so although I will grade
your work, you must at times imagine that the person who reads it is different from me. Some
amount of imagining an audience is part of authentic work for the reason that whenever we
speak or write, no matter how well we know the person or people we are communicating to,
we can never completely understand others’ minds and therefore some imagination is always
required. So let’s imagine:
Let’s imagine that you are speaking with someone close to you (your friend, your child, your
parent, etc.). This is someone who likes to learn about what interests you. You have just
1 The word ostensive means something like deliberative or intentional, or sometimes ‘demonstratively’ (by demonstrating or pointing to something). finished your first week at NorQuest and you are telling this person about what you read in English class. You thought the article we read, Smith (2006), was really interesting. You explain it to this person. They truly want to understand what you are describing, so they will ask you questions about what Smith (2006) says.
You have this conversation, and it goes well. You explain the most important parts from Smith (2006) and your friend or family member gets the gist of the article. Then, fortuitously, your instructor for English asks you to write a 200 to 250 word summary of Smith (2006). This is fortuitous because you basically just did this, and therefore have already refined your explanation of the article! Your audience for this summary / report is a little different from before: rather than someone close to you your audience is now someone like your instructor, but one who hasn’t read the article (and therefore you must explain it to them). But this doesn’t actually change much about how you will report what Smith (2006) says: ideally, you can even take the majority of what you explained to your friend/relative, format according to
APA and just a few other conventions, and submit this.
The above scenario describes what you will do for the two components of this assignment. Your
audience for part 1 of the assignment is this imagined person, this friend/relative. For part 1,
you will literally have a conversation with this audience. To have this conversation you will use
an AI, who will emulate this imagined person. Your goal is to teach this ‘person’ (the AI) about
the article. Your grade for part 1 is based on how comprehensively and effectively you do this
(how much of the article and in what detail).
To do this, you will access the AI in Moodle by clicking the link titled, “Access the AI for
assignment 1 here”. You may write anything appropriate to start the conversation. For
example, you can start the conversation by typing: “I read something interesting in English”.
You must explain the most relevant parts of the article in the most logical manner. You must
break down your explanations. This must be a conversation, so each response should be
appropriate in length—no more than a few, short sentences. (There is no hard and fast rule.
But you are rewarded marks for appropriately-length responses.) For example, if you are
engaging in conversation you must converse in reasonably-length, relevant responses. The
response must not be too long nor too short, as Paul Grice writes3 about conversation and the
nature of language in his work. So simply communicate well, emulating how you would in a real
interaction.
3 Kind of (he does not write these as prescriptive maxims). From “Logic and Conversation” (1975).
ENGL 2550: Introduction to Composition
This first component is meant to help you practice. In fact, you can have this simulated
conversation with the AI as many times as you want and select the one you would like to
submit for grading. To do this, simply delete all of the conversations you do not want to submit,
leaving only the one you will submit, and then click the ‘Download Conversations’ button. A
transcript will download to your computer, and you will submit this file as the first part of this
assignment.
The above prepares you for the second component, summary in a slightly more formal sense.
Ideally, you will re-use or lightly edit parts of your explanation from the first part in this one—
again, the first part is meant to be practice. Summary does not have to be fancy—simply
communicative. So, again, in the ideal case you could copy/paste from your well-tuned
explanation to the AI into this part, adding some formal components:
- You must specify what it is that the article does. You will do this with a verb or verbs in
the first sentence: e.g., “Susan Smith (1996) in her essay ‘Neither Victim nor Villain
overturns long-held beliefs about the agency of nurse Eunice Rivers, opening up new
understanding of and inquiry into the legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study”. Here, I use
‘overturns’ and ‘opening up’ to specify what this article does. - You will identify the author and the work, like the above: e.g. “In Brandt’s (1978) essay,
‘Racism and Research’, he […]”. Typically this is the first sentence (but language has no
rules). - You will include paraphrase and quotation, citing these in APA format. The document
will also be prepared in APA format with a title page, page numbers, double-spaced text,
and a Reference page.
However, keep in mind that there are many more similarities than differences between
explaining this article in the first and second stages. You are still doing the same thing.
Required Components
Component 1
The concept of conversation extends throughout the course, and seeps deeply into every bit of
learning and assessment. In this component of the assignment you will have a (simulated)
conversation with an AI in which you will explain (report) what it says. Do this by describing the
argument clearly and concisely: what work is being done by the argument? What is the main
argument being put forward, and how is the argument developed? Maintain a balance between
providing key details and context.
ENGL 2550: Introduction to Composition
Component 2 (200-250 words)
The first component (conversation with an AI) is mostly practice for this second component.
After you have refined your ability to explain the article, you will write up this explanation a
little more formally, in one or two paragraphs.
Your summary should be 200 to 250 words in one or two paragraphs. Be careful with the word
limit; going over or under will result in a 5% deduction for every 10 words from your
assignment total (e.g. an assignment 280 words long exceeds the limit by 30 words, and
therefore will receive a 15% deduction).
Your explanation must: - State clearly what the article is doing: is it convincing the audience of something,
motivating them to take action, presenting facts, or dispelling myths? - Incorporate at least one direct quotation from the article. Assignments lacking relevant
direct quotation will not pass. - Highlight the essential features of the article that facilitate its primary “action” (i.e.,
convincing, motivating, etc.).
Remember, the goal is to concisely convey the purpose and main points of the article. This
component does not differ very much from the first component in terms of content.
Instructions - Review the assignment instructions. Before drafting your assignment, read these
instructions in detail, and ensure you contact the instructor with any questions not
answered in the course materials. - (Re)Read the article. During your first readthrough, identify the main argument the author
is making—if you had to describe the reading in one sentence, what would you say it is
about? On your subsequent readthroughs, highlight or annotate the article, focusing your
attention on information you perceive as significant to the overall message or point of the
article. Also take note of any salient terministic screens, which you might use for the second
part of the assignment. - Explain the article to the AI. Through Moodle, access the AI and explain the article to it.
Your explanation should allow this AI (who has never ‘read’ the original article) to use your
summary to understand the basic details of the argument. Have this conversation as many
ENGL 2550: Introduction to Composition
times as you like, deleting the ones you do not want to submit for grading. Download a
transcript of the one you do. - Draft your report. Take the explanation you provided to the AI and assemble this into one
or two paragraphs. Be sure to include 1) what the article is doing, 2) the article title and
author, 3) relevant paraphrase and quotation, and 4) APA citations. Observe the word
limits. - Proofread and edit your work. Proofread your work, and correct any spelling, grammar,
and/or punctuation errors you notice. Pay attention to sentence structure and syntax, and
reread your essay to ensure the writing is clear. - Format your document. Follow the applicable APA guidelines for page and document
formatting, ensure in-text citations and Reference citations are formatted correctly, etc.
Consult the NorQuest Library APA resources for specific formatting guidelines. - Submit your documents. You will submit two documents: the first document will be your
transcript with the AI. The second document will be a DOCX file (Word file) containing your
summary.
Additional Details
- Do not consult outside sources for this assignment; rely only on the content of the
article you have chosen, your own ideas about the article, and relevant information
from class discussions. - Please follow all applicable APA formatting rules. See the NorQuest Library’s APA
formatting guidelines for details. - You may not use AI to generate anything for this assignment. We will use AI, of course,
but in a conversational way.
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