Faculty: Bonnie Bartel (bartel@rice.edu; x5602), Mike Stern (stern@rice.edu; x5351). Please use email to request an appointment whenever you would like individual feedback from faculty.
Course Summary: In this course, each student will prepare a research proposal that will be presented both in writing, in a format similar to a post-doctoral fellowship application, and orally, as a seminar presentation to the class. In addition, students will perform "peer review" of another student's proposal. The skills learned in this course are directly relevant to those required for successful completion of the admission to candidacy exam, which students will complete on the topic of the thesis research in approximately one year. This course is intended to develop the following skills:
Planning a research project
Critically analyzing a research plan
Describing your plans and analyses, both in writing and orally
Revising and improving written and oral presentations
Peer review of research plans
Specific aims draft 5%
Initial proposal presentation 5%
First draft
10%
Second draft
10%
Peer review 5%
Third
draft 15%
Final oral
presentation 20%
Final
draft 25%
Class
participation
5%
Late assignments: 10% per day deduction (on assignment) without documentation of illness or emergency.
Missed class meetings: 5% per session missed (on total available course points) without documentation of illness or emergency.
It is forbidden to copy any text from a paper or the web into your report. Presenting someone else's ideas as your own is plagiarism, and will interfere with one of the purposes of having you write reports, which is to synthesize what you have read and explain it in your own words.
You are strongly encouraged to read a paper or paper section, then set the publication aside and write notes in your own words without looking at the paper. This exercise will both help keep you from copying and ensure that you understand and remember the main points of the paper.
The Cain project has "Template for Taking Notes on Research Articles" that you can download to assist in gathering information from papers without inadvertently plagiarizing them.
See Honor Council information on plagiarism.
Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with Dr. Bartel or Dr. Stern during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain confidential. Students with disabilities also will need to contact Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center.