NOTICE: A basic language should be used. Acedemic language is not necessary.
Journal Analysis (3 double-spaced pages)
This componentwill require a close analysis of a scholarly academic journal in the student’s discipline. The following general questions will guide students’ organization for this part of the assignment. Theanalysis should address the following questions. At the end of the paper, students should answer the following question: What does this academic journal suggest about the writing conventions and expectations of my field?
- What is the history of the publication?
- What overall purpose does the journal serve?
- What types of writing/genres does it publish?
- What type of writer is generally published in this journal?
- How is each issue generally organized?
- Does this journal publish special issues? Why? What topics do these special issues cover?
Journal Analysis (2~3 double-spaced pages)
Assignment
To learn more about your discipline, identify a scholarly journal from your field. Using the journal’s website and other information, analyze the following topics:
1) history of the publication and overall purpose the journal serves
2) types of writing (research papers, book reviews, summaries?)
3) types of writers published (experts, scholars, educators?)
4) audience (i.e., who reads it?)
5) structure of each publication (Hint: table of contents)
6) special issues during the year
7) other interesting features (languages, impact factor, etc)
Write a paper summarizing and explaining these findings. Don’t just report what you read on the journal website. Explain what this information suggests about writing/research conventions in your field.
Grading Criteria
An excellent paper will meet the following criteria, showing that you can:
- Gather information about research/writing conventions in your field
- Identify a scholarly journal in your discipline
- Summarize your findings
- Effectively synthesize information in a logical and ordered way
- Offer reasonable explanations for features of the publication
- Edit your paper for errors in grammar and word usage
Grading
A Paper
This paper will meet all grading criteria and be clear and well written. It need not be perfect but it will be well structured and demonstrate varied information about the chosen academic journal. The paper will adequately describe the overall purpose the journal serves, the types of writing, the audience, the structure of the publication, and more, and reasonably explain what these features suggest about writing in the discipline. There are few errors in grammar or sentence structure.
Self-Editing Checklist
Content
- Does your paper clearly identify the scholarly journal, the history, and its overall aims or purpose?
- Does the paper indicate the types of writing published in this journal?
- Does the paper indicate the audience and potential contributors?
- Does the paper state how each journal issue is typically organized? (e.g., does each issue contain a letter from the editor, research articles, etc…?
- Does the paper comment on any other interesting features (does it publish in other languages? What’s the journal’s impact factor?)
- Does your paper attempt to analyze/explain what these features suggest about writing in your discipline?
- Did you copy anything directly from the journal website or another source? If so, make sure you paraphrase or put in direct quotes)
- Does the paper give bibliographic information for outside sources using appropriate citation conventions?
- Do you see any wordy parts that could be reduced?
- Do you see errors in sentence structure or punctuation?
- Do you see any informal or casual word choices that could be more academic?
