English 1102: Extended Inquiry Project Instructor: Lucy Steele

Curiosity as restless questioning, as movement toward the revelation of something hidden, as a question verbalized or not, as search for clarity, as a moment of attention, suggestion, and vigilance, constitutes an integral part of the phenomenon of being alive -Paulo Freire
For this project, you will develop your own topic of inquiry as a "spin-off" of your group's inquiry project. You may spin in a direction you have already been thinking about this semester or spin in a new direction. You might find inspiration among the articles and videos you have been studying with your inquiry group. Your inquiry should be narrow and specific. The Inquiry Proposal The first step of the project will be completing a proposal for your inquiry. This proposal may take many forms. You may write an informal essay or letter, create a video blog, or any other genre that works for you. Your goal is to communicate your plans to me. The proposal should include the following elements: Primary inquiry question and sub-questions Background about your interest in this question (how did you get here? why are you interested in this question?) Discussion of the importance of the inquiry and possible stakeholders Possible primary and secondary research avenues Possible audiences and genres for each of the three categories (see below), with reflection about the goals for each piece Continuing the Research and Source Mapping Begin organizing your research and readings. Use your Prezi to do this. In addition to compiling articles and sources you have already found (or your group has already

found), you will probably want to add some new sources as well. Document all of this work and thinking on your Prezi. Considering Audiences and Drafting Final Pieces You are expected to complete pieces for three different audiences/purposes. Those three pieces will include: I. Social. You may work in a genre with which you are already familiar or you may work in a new genre. Consider what aspects of your inquiry would be interesting and appropriate for your audience and develop a piece for a particular social genre. Social genres might be private, like emails, letters, or texts, but for our purposes public genres might make more sense. In terms of digital media, you might consider blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posts, Pininterest, etc. You might also consider forms like posters, bumper stickers, maps, etc. You might also consider actually doing something active on campus or in another community you know. In many of these cases, the responses you accrue will also form an interesting part of the project. II. Academic. For this part of the project, I will provide you with some specific guidance. You will be framing your inquiry for a scholarly audience. You will be creating a Works Cited page as a part of this piece. III. Professional/Creative. For this piece, you may explore fictional options if you are interested in writing your own monster-themed stories or creating films. If you'd prefer, you could take a more professional route and imagine a piece that reflects a professional context; we might talk about a genre that is related to your major, if it seems appropriate. Children's books, lesson plans, short fiction, short films, lab reports, news stories (either video or print), etc. could all fall into this category. Inquiry Presentations Finally, you will present your inquiry project during the last days of the course. You will choose what aspects of your inquiry project you wish to present. Visual components are encouraged, but bulleted lists on PowerPoint are strongly discouraged. Due to the short length of the presentation, be cautious about showing videos, unless they are videos you created as a part of your project.

You may do your presentation individually or you may coordinate with your inquiry group to present together. Individual presentations will be about five minutes in length, followed by a five minute question and answer period. Group presentations will have more time depending on the number of group members (two group members= 10 minute presentation and 10 minute Q&A; three group members= 15 minute presentation and 15 minute Q&A; etc.)