This document outlines an assignment for students to complete an incident analysis project. It provides instructions for two parts: 1) describing a writing-related incident and 2) creating a project plan based on that incident. For part 1, students are asked to describe an experience with writing that interests or troubles them in 750-1000 words. For part 2, they must identify a topic, potential research questions, and significance of studying the topic. The document provides guidance on drafting each part and establishing a timeline for rough and final drafts. It emphasizes using details to describe the incident and connecting the incident clearly to the proposed research topic.

1. Incident Analysis
Introduced:
Rough Draft DUE:
Final DUE:
Prompt: For this project you will describe a personal experience you have had with writing that
somehow piques your interest, something that is troubling and deserves an explanation but does
not yet have a satisfactory one. In writing, you will explore the complexities of the experience
and work to turn that experience into a focused topic that you can investigate further in later
course projects.
There are two parts to this project:
1. The description of the incident - an experience related to writing that significantly
stands out, for good or bad reasons. Your projects throughout the rest of the semester will
build on the ideas that spring forth from this event.
2. A plan for your project - identify a focused topic from your incident, potential
questions/problems that need answered, why your research on this topic is significant,
Planning and Drafting
• Description of Incident: This incident may be positive or negative, but it must be
related to writing in or out of school. Indeed, a positive experience can often prompt an
interesting research topic.
o Do not be afraid of picking an incident that does not seem connected to an early-
stages research topic. As long as you can articulate clearly why the incident
connects to the research topic, fine with me.
o Use detail! Think about the Ws to guide your storytelling: who, what, when,
where, why. Place your reader in the middle of the action.
• Plan for project
o Broad topic → focused topic
▪ How does this topic appear or formulate from your incident?
o Potential question that needs answered
▪ Include more than one if you have not decided yet
o Potential significance to question(s)
▪ Is it a conceptual significance? Or practical? Or both?
o Do you see a practical application?
If you need help planning or drafting, reach out to friends and family to talk out your ideas.
Sometimes that is the spark we need as writers. Also, please reach out to me! I would love to talk
about your ideas in a one-on-one office meeting.
Requirements
• 750 to 1,000 words, 12-point Times New Roman, double spaced with 1” margins
• Either APA or MLA formatting

2. 1
Annotated Bibliography & Proposal Assignment
This assignment is broken down into two parts: an annotated bibliography and a
proposal.
Part I: Annotated Bibliography
In order to complete the major project for this course, you will need to conduct research.
One of the more useful tools in conducting research is the annotated bibliography. An
annotated bibliography combines the citations found in the References list at the end of
documents in APA or MLA format with annotations about each of the sources.
Purpose: An annotated bibliography is an organizing tool that is helpful when working
on a research project. An effective annotated bibliography is used to compile research
sources in one location and provide the researcher with quick access to the information
contained in each source.
Audience: This assignment should be directed at yourself as a research as well as
scholarly peers.
Content/Subject: Your annotated bibliography will consist of the sources that you have
deemed relevant to your topic and/or question(s) of inquiry. While you may encounter
sources that are not relevant or do not fit the scope of your project while researching, for
the purposes of this assignment, you will only include the ones that you find useful and
relevant.
1. Cite the source in proper a citation format of your choice (MLA, APA, etc.). The
citations should be organized in alphabetical order by author.
2. Follow each citation with a brief one-paragraph annotation (approx. 100 words)
that does the following:
a. Summarizes the source in your own words.
b. Contains a sentence or two on the source’s relevance and importance to
your issue and how you intend to use the source.
Constraints: The annotated bibliography is a fairly rigid genre. Your citations must
consistently adhere to a citation format and must not exceed 100 words per annotation.
Specific guidelines to follow when completing this assignment are:
• Citations and Annotations for 7 academic sources of various types (scholarly
articles)
• Sources focused around a narrowed issue or question of inquiry.
• Adherence to a consistent citation format for all citations.
• Sources in alphabetical order according to author.
• Thoughtful and complete annotations of approximately 100 words.
• Correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1” margins

3. 2
Part II: Proposal
After reading, citing, and annotating at least 7 sources, you should be a lot more familiar
with the nuances of your topic and what has and has not been done. This leads to the
proposal component of the assignment, where you achieve the following:
• Introduce the topic
• Communicate the significance of the topic
• Synthesize the academic literature on the topic
• Identify the gap in the literature
• Pose a research question based on the gap
• Propose research methods to address the question and help fill the gap
Purpose: The proposal is equal parts informative writing and persuasive writing. You
need to not only inform the audience about the topic, but you need to persuade the
audience to approve your proposal.
Audience: Think of the audience as a committee of people who are tasked with
approving research at an institution. Think about how time, money, energy, and other
resources as well as reputation might be at stake when it comes to approving a
proposed research topic in the real world. Thus, you need to persuade the audience
that your topic is worth approving and expending all those resources to achieve.
Constraints: I expect you to accomplish these goals in your proposal in approximately
750-1,000 words.
Specific guidelines to follow when completing this assignment are:
• Incorporate all 7 sources into your proposal.
• Adherence to a consistent citation format for all citations.
• Correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1” margins
TIMELINE:
[DATE] – Citation and annotation of one source due
[DATE] – All 7 annotations due (Final Annotated Bibliography)
[DATE] – Proposal rough draft due.
[DATE] – Proposal final draft due.

4. Autoethnography
The autoethnography project asks you to document your research and writing process. Thus, you
will collect data for this project while you are working on your researched project. You will use
the data—likely video documentation of your process—to compose a digital representation of
your academic writing process for this project.
In the project you will discuss your expectations for the researched project, the question you
addressed, your research design for addressing that question, and your results and conclusions.
Importantly, however, your focus for this project will be on the process of conducting the
research, arriving at the results, and composing the project rather than on the content of the
project. You might think of the autoethnography project as showing an audience of
inexperienced researchers how you addressed a researched project so as to provide helpful tips
and tricks for their research.
The autoethnography project serves three important functions. First, the project will be the
culminating writing assignment in the course. Second, the project will be used as the written
assessment component of Bowling Green Perspective (BGP). Third, the project will also serve as
the reflective introduction to the ePortfolio, described in further detail in the section below.
As you prepare to write your autoethnography, consider the following questions:
• What questions, processes, methods, and strategies do you want to carry with you as
move through your undergraduate experience?
• In what ways does the ePortfolio present a snapshot of who you are/were as a writer this
semester (and before)? What changes, transitions, and growths in your writing have you
witnessed?
• What does the writing you produced this class leave you thinking about the meaning of
“writing”? Yourself as a writer? Your goals and questions about writing for various
academic audiences?
• What do you see as the affordances of having a resource such as your ePortfolio? What
might be the advantages of looking back on your work from this class?
Format & Requirements
- Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, 1” margins
- 1,500-2,000 words
- Polished final draft free from unintentional writing errors
Due dates
- Rough draft: May 4
- Final Draft: May 8