submitting assignment proposals

Assignment proposals | Raymond Sheehan | October 1st, 2002

Remember Mike's question about correspondence with tutors? I have a few follow-up questions about assignment proposals, specifically.

1. Do all CPs submit a proposal before submitting an assignment? Have you, dear CP, ever submitted an assignment without having proposed a focus, etc.? Have you, tutor, been more pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised by unproposed completed assignments out of the blue?

2. In the FND module, you are invited to submit a proposal for one of the tasks? Does everybody avail of this? Which task did you think it was most essential to get feedback on before submitting the Portfolio? Would a bar graph on this reveal anything about the nature and difficulty of tasks in the FND module?

3. Some Modules have delightfully detailed advice on how to construct a proposal (the CSD one stood out as particularly helpful, including even pointers as to wordcount in different segments of the assignment.) Other modules seem to say "Contact me with an idea for an assignment." The question is: should there be a format for proposals? Should submitting a proposal be a required part of the assignment-writing process (since it certainly is a required part of the dissertation process...and so here we have a safe negotiable training ground). If it were to be required/preferred, should it not be with inbuilt flexibility (unlike the dissertation) where the CP goes on to discover and reformulate new things since s/he made the proposal?

• How have you modified your assignment/s in the light of proposal feedack? Any precise example/s? Drastic rethink? Gosh, I'm completely on the wrong track? Let's fine-tune here, and I'll be OK. S/He thinks I haven't read the module but I have...

Raymond
UAE

PS: Assignment Proposals are on my mind right now because I wrote one for a certain module several months ago, got good clear feedback which said, but in a very precise way, what my tutors always say ("fine, generally, but narrow it down, focus more, sharpen it up, fine tune it...For me, that's the real training in this course). Now that I've got it so tinily narrow, I feel that, I'm dealing (albeit with the same data) with a radically different assignment altogether...but one that feels right. Despite the tutor's kind invitation to discuss further, and bearing in mind the responses to Mike's correspondence, my instinct is to adopt a high risk strategy, forge boldly ahead with a focus that gets my juices flowing and say "That's the best I can do at the moment, come what may." Present a 'fait accompli.'

I guess that's what CPs do in exams anyway.

Re: Assignment proposals | Maria Leeham | October 2nd, 2002

Hi all,

I didn't ask for comments on anything in advance of FND submission- intended to, but the deadline was looming so I just went for it. The LEX unit would've been my chosen one as I wasn't sure I was on the right lines. But all turned out well....

I sent my tutor 2 x A4 pages by email for MET and had an impressively speedy response with lots of helpful pointers and refs to online articles. I cut down and narrowed the title focus as a result of the feedback. For each section I thought, "how does this answer my title query?" I'm about to submit this assignment with no further correspondence.

Maria

Assignment feedback | Steve Mann | October 4th, 2002

Thanks to Raymond and Maria for questions and responses to the issue of assignments and the relationship with proposals. I'll pass on the positive comment about CSD to Jane. She's coming back soon.

It is impossible to be absolutely sure whether there is a correlation between sending a proposal and a successful assignment. It is true that there have been plenty of good assignments where the participant has not needed the proposal stage. However, there are a good number of Methodology assignments in the pile I have in my cupboard where the weaknesses were entirely avoidable. Bottom line, we as tutors read hundreds of these assignments, you get to write one. Therefore, it seems odd, all things being equal, that a participant wouldn't get the tutors input. Often its a tweak here and a re-order there. It's a 'read this article' or 'watch out for X'. Nothing major, but then perhaps the confidence that you are 'on the right lines' is important and shines through in the writing. I feel this is the case.

Perhaps for an early assignment, its particularly important to send in a proposal. Later on, when you are confident you are on the Aston wavelength, perhaps less so. Do send in an FND task. It keeps Julian happy and occupied.

I am one of the tutors who regularly says 'narrow the focus'. I still don't think I've ever read an assignment and thought 'oh dear, I wish I'd let them stay broad, wide and handsome'.

All the best

Steve

Re: assignment proposals | Jenny de Sonneville | October 6th, 2002

Dear All,

I guess I am reacting a bit late to the proposal discussion, but maybe that is to do with my learning style. I don't seem to operate very well when I have to give spontaneous answers. I prefer to mull over things.

And yet, proposals are something I have been considering. I haven't been very good at getting a proposal for a structured research question and then following that through to an assignment.

For example, with CSD I designed a writing course based on a process genre approach. My original idea was to use the design as the focus of the assignment. But after I had given the course, I became much more interested in a side issue which was concerned with student evaluation. Having written half an assignment, I suddenly went off on a completely different track and completely rewrote the assignment. What was really beneficial for me was being able to visit Aston and talk to Sue Garton about it. She was very supportive.

For the same course, I designed some materials for a MAP assignment, which I had decided would be the focus of my assignment, but again it was not the materials themselves which I found so interesting but the reaction of the student to the materials.

As far as I can see it, (but I realise this is my own limited perspective) the traditional research structure is find your research question, create your procedures to investigate it and come up with your conclusions.

However, we (as Aston CPs) are encouraged to do Action Research, which according to Julian in FND, "is unlikely to produce a simple solution. It does aim to produce more satisfactory responses, deeper understanding, and more interesting questions." This implies for me an open outcome.

For me, it is often the aspects that I have not foreseen which have the most significance and which I can learn most from, but which are often side issues. I want to deal with issues from which I have genuinely learned in my assignment. These are based on real classroom experience.

Steve* said at a study weekend that there is a difference between researching the data and how we represent that data when we present it to our reader. I agree. The assignment needs to have a clear focus, a clear line of argument, but I seem to find that line often when I have completed my action research cycle and not before at the stage at which I should be writing my proposal.

I really would appreciate your views, as I had been thinking of doing some research into this for the DL module (Distance Learning). I have now opted to do LT (Language Testing) as I am directly involved in testing in my work. But I would be interested in hearing from others if there are any resonances here. It can be that I simply have not yet mastered the skill of writing proposals!

Best,

Jenny de Sonneville

*former tutor Steve Mann

Re: assignment proposals | Raymond Sheehan | October 6th, 2002

Interesting that Steve points out that some fine assignments come through that haven't gone through a proposal/consultation process. The caveat that most assignments would probably benefit at the proposal stage from a narrowing of focus, fine-tuning, & bibliography recommendations is also of course easy to accept.

A lot of what Jenny had to say about her experience did resonate with me and I thought this paragraph from Jenny was particularly interesting:

'As far as I can see it- but I realise this is my own limited perspective- the traditional research structure is find your research question, create your procedures to investigate it and come up with your conclusions.'

I'm not sure what 'traditional' means here, but the process certainly does sound very familiar. The 'evaluation' component, however, means that the 'research question' may often generate further questions: questions about the strengths and limitations of our 'research procedure' and questions about our 'conclusions'-pointing to areas for further research. I suppose one of the main things about a research question is that it must demonstrably be well worth asking and that we have no clear preconceptions about the 'conclusions'- that is, we don't seek to prove something, necessarily, but to find out something, or even to determine if it's "find-outable" by means of our described procedures. In which case, any one of the micro-questions generated by the large research question can, as Jenny, I think, believes, become the main object of research while the 'research question' becomes just the initial prompt towards enquiry.