Syllabus template and resources for my longstanding UC Berkeley course EDUC 209: Academic Writing Support Group. Some colleagues have found these useful, so here they are rendered from simple Markdown files: a human-readable filetype that you can import into Google Docs, convert into HTML files, or otherwise edit and use across various platforms.
Shared by Prof. Jessica Watkins @ Vanderbilt. Based on Clark, Guba, & Smith, 1977; modified from Rowe, 2014.
Problem Statement
Principal Proposition (generally accepted in community):
Interacting Proposition (conflict/contradiction with principal):
Speculative Proposition (relates principal & interacting proposition to articulate problem):
Significance of Problem (sets the context & importance):
Theoretical Framework
Macro-structure (theoretical perspective):
Micro-structures (key constructs, relationships):
Study design
| Research questions | Data sources & operationalized constructs | Analytic methods | Conclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. |
Evaluating Claims
What are the warrants for the claims?
How does the study support the trustworthiness of the claims?
What are strengths/weaknesses of study design?
Coherence
How does the problem statement relate to the theoretical framework?
Do the research questions address the problem? Do they reflect the theoretical framework?
Are the constructs operationalized clearly and appropriately?
Do the analyses & conclusions address the problem statement?