No need to post your proposal draft online -- just the final draft.
As I was not able to access your proposal, though, through the link, here is the idea I had for you in class. I could not tell you right away as I needed to find a good example of the approach I want to suggest so that you have a model that can give you a better idea of what I am talking about.
So you are interested in the bad choices students make, and there is definitely something to that. I think you could make a paper following that approach, but you would have to consider some sort of framework (whether sociological, economic, or psychological) to explain bad choices. I suggested the research on how "Poverty Impedes Mental Function" (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976.abstract) might be one way of going, and there have been a number of studies on that topic and likely a lively controversy also that you could engage. That may actually be the easiest way to go -- beginning with the idea that college students are equivalent to poor people in general. BTW: an interesting example of a student making rational choices faced with poverty while in school is offered by Ken Ilgunas's Walden on Whieels, which you can find excerpted in our Sakai -- Resources-- Supplemental Readings folder.
An alternate readily available source of research, though, is the many advice manuals out there offering students ideas for how to succeed. This is sort of the other side of the coin. However, I don't think it would lead to an academic paper to just sum up the advice these manuals give. But a very interesting academic paper would analyze that advice to find some commonalities or issues worth analyzing.
Again, I am suggesting this book only as a model for the project you might do, though it might also serve as an interesting academic source. Meanwhile, I suggest you approach contemporary "college success" manuals as primary sources to analyze using Hilkey's approach: close reading these manuals to find commonalities and issues raised by them.
By "college success manuals," I mean the ubiquitous books you can find in any college bookstore telling students -- or those off to college -- what they need to do to succeed or "win" at college. I have several on my shelf in my office I will bring next time and can loan you. But you might just take a visit to the Barnes and Noble at the end of College Ave and sit for a while with a notebook looking through the ones they likely have. Here are a few I found on Amazon:
I am most intrigued by the Cal Newport book, which I have not seen, but the title sounds perfect: depicting college as a winner take all game. I have not looked at these manuals closely, but I imagine they presume a middle-class or even upper-middle-class student reader and so their advice might mirror some of the things a smart student might be able to figure out from studying the better off students described by Armstrong and Hamilton. What do the smart students do to "win" the college game?
See what you think. It may also be possible to combine the two projects. But I think it would be interesting. You would need to identify three manuals that seem to speak to each other and then analyze them. I'm not certain what you would find, but I would be very interested in this project.
The problem posed by the second approach is that you first have to read the success manuals themselves to see what they reveal and THEN look for a framing text to help you interpret them, because you want to choose a framing text that is most appropriate to the issues they raise.
No need to post your proposal draft online -- just the final draft.
ReplyDeleteAs I was not able to access your proposal, though, through the link, here is the idea I had for you in class. I could not tell you right away as I needed to find a good example of the approach I want to suggest so that you have a model that can give you a better idea of what I am talking about.
So you are interested in the bad choices students make, and there is definitely something to that. I think you could make a paper following that approach, but you would have to consider some sort of framework (whether sociological, economic, or psychological) to explain bad choices. I suggested the research on how "Poverty Impedes Mental Function" (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976.abstract) might be one way of going, and there have been a number of studies on that topic and likely a lively controversy also that you could engage. That may actually be the easiest way to go -- beginning with the idea that college students are equivalent to poor people in general. BTW: an interesting example of a student making rational choices faced with poverty while in school is offered by Ken Ilgunas's Walden on Whieels, which you can find excerpted in our Sakai -- Resources-- Supplemental Readings folder.
An alternate readily available source of research, though, is the many advice manuals out there offering students ideas for how to succeed. This is sort of the other side of the coin. However, I don't think it would lead to an academic paper to just sum up the advice these manuals give. But a very interesting academic paper would analyze that advice to find some commonalities or issues worth analyzing.
ReplyDeleteOne model for what I am suggesting is Character is capital : success manuals and manhood in Gilded Age America by Judy Hilkey. It is available at Alex library:
https://catalog-libraries-rutgers-edu.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/vufind/Record/1284707
And more information is here:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-229.html
Again, I am suggesting this book only as a model for the project you might do, though it might also serve as an interesting academic source. Meanwhile, I suggest you approach contemporary "college success" manuals as primary sources to analyze using Hilkey's approach: close reading these manuals to find commonalities and issues raised by them.
By "college success manuals," I mean the ubiquitous books you can find in any college bookstore telling students -- or those off to college -- what they need to do to succeed or "win" at college. I have several on my shelf in my office I will bring next time and can loan you. But you might just take a visit to the Barnes and Noble at the end of College Ave and sit for a while with a notebook looking through the ones they likely have. Here are a few I found on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-College-Surprising-Countrys/dp/0767917871/
http://www.amazon.com/College-Success-Guaranteed-Rules-Happen/dp/1610480422/
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-College-Success-Lynn-Jacobs/dp/1118575121/
http://www.amazon.com/Say-This-That-Your-Professor/dp/1935254685/
I am most intrigued by the Cal Newport book, which I have not seen, but the title sounds perfect: depicting college as a winner take all game. I have not looked at these manuals closely, but I imagine they presume a middle-class or even upper-middle-class student reader and so their advice might mirror some of the things a smart student might be able to figure out from studying the better off students described by Armstrong and Hamilton. What do the smart students do to "win" the college game?
See what you think. It may also be possible to combine the two projects. But I think it would be interesting. You would need to identify three manuals that seem to speak to each other and then analyze them. I'm not certain what you would find, but I would be very interested in this project.
The problem posed by the second approach is that you first have to read the success manuals themselves to see what they reveal and THEN look for a framing text to help you interpret them, because you want to choose a framing text that is most appropriate to the issues they raise.
ReplyDelete