1St Draft and Peer Review

Research paper

For this assignment, you will conduct research in order to examine issues you have described in your proposals. You must use scholarly sources for this project—books, journal articles, conference papers. For most topics about Caribbean life in New York City, there are numerous sources—on transnationalism, political economy, identity, culture. But for some, scholarly sources might be limited with respect to the issues you want to explore, or you might find discussions of issues that interest you that focus on Caribbean people in different city in the U.S. or elsewhere or on a different migrant group in NYC. These can be useful to developing a comparative analysis or discussion.

That said, everyone should try to include a variety of sources—primary, media, etc. If you have proposed to look at an issue that is not well-explored in scholarly literature, you should collect data on your own, through field site visits (the field site would be anywhere in NYC where West Indians and Haitians work, live, socialize, etc., including Caribbean/Haitian student organization events on campus), interviews, attending events and discussions, and from online media—websites, video, social media pages. You can document data in video, audio, images, and in written notes. These and any consent forms from interviews can be included in an appendix with your paper. Because this is a short-term project, you will have limited opportunity for fieldwork and gathering primary sources. Thus, analysis and conclusions from these will be very general and preliminary. This is to be expected.

1st Draft and Peer Review

You are required to submit at least one draft of your paper. A draft does not need to be a complete version of the paper (which will be 8 to 10 pages), but neither should it be too short. 3 to 6 pages will be acceptable and can be from any section of the paper. You can also include with those pages an outline and/or a list of notes and questions. Drafts can include images, video (accessible to reviewers), audio, and interview questions.

Drafts (along with proposals, so your reviewer knows what your research is aiming for) are due by 5pm on April 19th by email to your class discussion partner. You will have until April 24, to read, write feedback, and return the draft to your partner. Read the draft through once without responding in writing. After, you can write notes in the margins, as comments. Don’t get mired down writing in response to everything. There is no need to correct grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Provide feedback on the most important issues.

You should provide each other with a paragraph or two that notes:

·  what the writer does well

·  where the writer could clarify points or be more specific

·  questions you have about the argument, analysis, perspective

·  suggestions for direction of the paper or ideas for sources

·  the organization of the paper, whether ideas flow well and the paper is focused

These can be handed in to your partner during class time on April 24. I would like a copy of these, as well, along with a summary of any major points you raise in the margins. You will find that either Word or Google Docs will allow for easy feedback. If you have questions, please contact me.