English 105 assignment @ SDC questions

[clep4gainut]

Hello all. 

I am trying to complete some gen ed classes before starting at WGU. I took English Comp I at Straighterline, and started their English Comp 2, but after completing 2 papers, I just didn't have it in me to write the remaining 6. I really struggle with writing papers. Fortunately my BS requires more test taking than writing, so I think I'll be OK once I get past the generals.

I recently signed up at SDC, and quickly completed the English 105 course. Besides the quizzes (which I've completed) there are also 3 writing assignments and a final in order to receive college credit. I'm completely stuck at starting the first writing assignment, which is a research proposal.

Their entire first chapter is dedicated to writing a research proposal, and at the end of the chapter there is an example. The example is not in MLA format (which is required), and has titled paragraphs that are not covered at all in the lessons. For example, one of the paragraphs is titled 'literature review', and another is 'methods'. 

The second chapter is all about writing a research paper, which are the second and third assignments. It talks about the 5-paragraph-essay with the basic essay structure I'm familiar with. It then ends the chapter with another example that also doesn't match the lessons. This time it has a paragraph titled 'discussion'. 

I submitted a question to their tutors and received a response that it was out of their scope to answer my question. In other words, no help from them. 

I am way overthinking this and wonder if I should be figuring out how to write it the way they exampled (with a literature review that I don't know how to write) or what. I can't write a basic 5-paragraph-essay for the research proposal, because the actual research paper is going to be on the same topic and I was already planning on writing the essay on that. 

Did anyone else do this course? How did you go about writing the research proposal and research paper?

[LevelUP]

Hello all. 

I am trying to complete some gen ed classes before starting at WGU. I took English Comp I at Straighterline, and started their English Comp 2, but after completing 2 papers, I just didn't have it in me to write the remaining 6. I really struggle with writing papers. Fortunately my BS requires more test taking than writing, so I think I'll be OK once I get past the generals.

I recently signed up at SDC, and quickly completed the English 105 course. Besides the quizzes (which I've completed) there are also 3 writing assignments and a final in order to receive college credit. I'm completely stuck at starting the first writing assignment, which is a research proposal.

Their entire first chapter is dedicated to writing a research proposal, and at the end of the chapter there is an example. The example is not in MLA format (which is required), and has titled paragraphs that are not covered at all in the lessons. For example, one of the paragraphs is titled 'literature review', and another is 'methods'. 

The second chapter is all about writing a research paper, which are the second and third assignments. It talks about the 5-paragraph-essay with the basic essay structure I'm familiar with. It then ends the chapter with another example that also doesn't match the lessons. This time it has a paragraph titled 'discussion'. 

I submitted a question to their tutors and received a response that it was out of their scope to answer my question. In other words, no help from them. 

I am way overthinking this and wonder if I should be figuring out how to write it the way they exampled (with a literature review that I don't know how to write) or what. I can't write a basic 5-paragraph-essay for the research proposal, because the actual research paper is going to be on the same topic and I was already planning on writing the essay on that. 

Did anyone else do this course? How did you go about writing the research proposal and research paper?

Answer the questions in the assignment, pay close attention to the Rubric.

Use Grammarly for spell check/grammar and Citation Machine for citation format.

[bjcheung77]

Did you check the transfer guide to see if WGU takes the courses from Study.com? I didn't check, but you may want to as these seem to be newer courses that were recently created and/or updated. I recall for TESU, the previous English 104/105 no longer transfers, so, it's a good idea to check with your school (WGU in this case).

[clep4gainut]

Hello all. 

I am trying to complete some gen ed classes before starting at WGU. I took English Comp I at Straighterline, and started their English Comp 2, but after completing 2 papers, I just didn't have it in me to write the remaining 6. I really struggle with writing papers. Fortunately my BS requires more test taking than writing, so I think I'll be OK once I get past the generals.

I recently signed up at SDC, and quickly completed the English 105 course. Besides the quizzes (which I've completed) there are also 3 writing assignments and a final in order to receive college credit. I'm completely stuck at starting the first writing assignment, which is a research proposal.

Their entire first chapter is dedicated to writing a research proposal, and at the end of the chapter there is an example. The example is not in MLA format (which is required), and has titled paragraphs that are not covered at all in the lessons. For example, one of the paragraphs is titled 'literature review', and another is 'methods'. 

The second chapter is all about writing a research paper, which are the second and third assignments. It talks about the 5-paragraph-essay with the basic essay structure I'm familiar with. It then ends the chapter with another example that also doesn't match the lessons. This time it has a paragraph titled 'discussion'. 

I submitted a question to their tutors and received a response that it was out of their scope to answer my question. In other words, no help from them. 

I am way overthinking this and wonder if I should be figuring out how to write it the way they exampled (with a literature review that I don't know how to write) or what. I can't write a basic 5-paragraph-essay for the research proposal, because the actual research paper is going to be on the same topic and I was already planning on writing the essay on that. 

Did anyone else do this course? How did you go about writing the research proposal and research paper?

Answer the questions in the assignment, pay close attention to the Rubric.

Use Grammarly for spell check/grammar and Citation Machine for citation format.

I intend to use grammarly & the citation machine. Thank you for those recommendations. The rubric is identical for all of the assignments, however the research proposal does have specific bulleted items I am supposed to include. One of those items is a literature review, which was never discussed in my lessons. I guess I'll just have to wing it.

---

Did you check the transfer guide to see if WGU takes the courses from Study.com?  I didn't check, but you may want to as these seem to be newer courses that were recently created and/or updated.  I recall for TESU, the previous English 104/105 no longer transfers, so, it's a good idea to check with your school (WGU in this case).

I am following the WGU pathways document for my intended degree. Thank you for the suggestion. I've already found that some of the classes I've taken won't count. I haven't received my transcript evaluation yet, so I'm not sure what classes my brick and mortar credits will take care of, but I know for sure that I haven't taken the required math and English, so it just makes sense to me to try to take care of those at a lower cost before I begin a term at WGU.

I just found out today that one of the certifications they'll allow for admission to my program will also count as credit for one of the transferrable classes that is offered via Straighterline and SDC. I'm already half-way through the course on SDC, so I'm glad I found out about it before I spent the money on having the test proctored. It's not an expensive certification either. It's actually cheaper to take the course than it is to pay for a proctor at SDC. I'm learning something new about this process every day.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

I'm unsure what specific format they might want, but for a lit review, you can try something like this procedure. It's a bit rushed to type out here and I have no clue about their rubric, but I do use this overall approach when I help students produce research projects and publications:

1. Search through sources that are generally focused on an overall topic of interest. Check on Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, JSTOR, etc. Read abstracts first to determine relevance, and if you can't access the full source for free, search by the DOI number on Sci-hub.se and/or check Researchgate.net to reach out directly to the author(s). [For example, let's say I was initially just curious about "factors affecting child development," and typed in exactly those keywords.]

2. Hone in on a more specific research topic. You can do this by simply reflecting on what has stood out to you from all your reading. [For example, I noticed discussions about children's health crises, then focused a bit more on different approaches to battling childhood obesity among preschoolers after reading several papers.]

3. Examine how different authors have explored this same topic. What similarities pop up between their thoughts/findings? What differences exist? How could you categorize these to create some organized headings in your lit review that summarizes all these connections? You might categorize them based on the methods they used, the time period when they were conducted, or maybe the themes/interpretations they ended up with. Start keeping notes about each source and the format of its study, the sample population (if scientific) or material (if literary), important findings or viewpoints, etc. [For example, I decided to focus on those different intervention models and how they've been studied with different sample populations in different regions of the USA.]

4. Importantly, can you think of some aspect of your research topic that hasn't really come up in your readings? This missing piece is a gap in the literature, and your research proposal should make the case for why it's important for us to peer at your topic through the lens of your highly focused research question. [For example, I honed in on the complete lack of studies on the impoverished, rural, minority preschool children that are heavily overrepresented in my home state of MS after laying out all the previous intervention models and their findings in my lit review section. Then, the following research proposal section stated why it was important to fill in this gap, how we could do this with a mixed-methods study, and laid out potential pitfalls and how to avoid them = give me grant money pls.]

The lit review itself can start with an introduction section about your topic, then diverge into your organized categories, then highlight the gap in the literature. This will lead into your research proposal.