Micro-Analyses (MA) Handout

EDUC 1100 See Syllabus for due dates.

I. Purpose:
Key Terms: Deep Read, Reflection, Citation, APA, Paraphrasing, Quoting
and Plagiarism.

In university, showing up and showing up on time and prepared is key to your success.
But it is not just enough to show up. To be a good student and really make the most of
your university experience you must be willing to engage with the subject matter and in
scholarly discourse with your peers.

This assignment is designed to ensure that you: a) read the material presented; b) think
critically about the subject matter; c) share your ideas; d) develop scholarly writing
practices including APA style, sentence and paragraph structure; and most importantly
that you reflect on your own ideas, practices values and beliefs.

II. Requirements

For all MAs, you will complete the reading using a “Deep Read” process for the reading.
A Deep Read is a process where you read the material several times making notes and
questions. We use this process in university as the readings we do tend to be more
complicated and intricate and so this process allows us to really understand what the
author/researcher is communicating. Skim and surface reading techniques do not work
with this assignment (or any of the work you will do in this class). As you do a deep read
of the reading, you will need to extract ONE IDEA that stood out for you in the reading.
You will paraphrase this idea (putting the idea in your own words).You will cite (give
credit to the author(s) of the work that you have read using the information from the
article. You will use APA to cite the article (both an intext citation as well as a reference
page) so that the paraphrased idea (one sentence) has been credited and then you will
use the remaining 5-6 sentences to provide a SELF REFLECTION using first-person (I,
ME or MY) to discuss why that idea stood out for you. Self-Reflection represents the
analysis of the reading. What this means is you find an idea in the reading and then
reflect on it using personal memories and beliefs to explore why this idea is interesting
for you. It is not just description but gets to deeper questions like why? For the 1 st MA,
you will also need to complete the check list on the second page of this outline and will
use it to proof read your paper. You will submit it at the bottom of your MA. The
remaining MAs (2-5)will not require the checklist. Responses should be well written and
push deeply into the material. The analysis should be:
• be typed using Word, with a completed spell check and grammar check.
• Cover Page which includes, name, course and section number, date and the title that
includes the Microanalysis number and the title of the reading.
• 12 pt Times New Roman Font
• 1” borders
• Follow APA format https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ (Make sure
that you cite the article from class in a page marked References. This will help get

1
 started with using APA. You cannot QUOTE in this assignment (quoting means
using a work word-for-word); you must paraphrase (put the idea in your own
words but give credit to the author for the idea.. You MUST include an internal
citation as well as a reference page (you will receive 0 if you do not include an internal
citation and a reference page). Without both an intext/internal citation and a reference
page, you will be committing plagiarism as you will be using another person’s work
without giving credit. It is important to note that in academic writing, you must build on
other people’s work. Where sometimes we might think of this practice as “cheating” in
university we rely on other people’s scholarly work to inform our own ideas and
understandings-we build off of previous work.
• You may focus on anything in the article that resonates with you (i.e., something you
agree with or disagree with). You may also want to include questions that the piece
raises for you (often questions that are not fully formed are the best - i.e., things you
are questioning or struggling with). THIS IS NOT A SUMMARY! Do not summarize the
article. Avoid sweeping generalizations such as “Everyone knows” or “Everybody
thinks”

III. Evaluation
Each reading reflection is out of 4 (20% total) and will be marked according to the
following criteria:
APA formatting: 1 (Title page; formatting page numbers, font and borders; Formatting
reference page; using in text citations in APA; and using a reference page with the
correct information.
Clarity: 1.5
How clear are your ideas expressed through your writing? Do the ideas flow from one
sentence to another in an easy to understand way? Does the reader have to fill in any
gaps that you have not included? Did you avoid broad generalizations? Did you move
past description to analysis-asking questions of your reflection-why?
Depth: 1.5
Are you focusing on a main idea from the reading that you found interesting or
challenging? Do you explain your thinking? Do you offer examples and/or support of
your thinking? Do you consider the different ways in which your ideas can be
understood? Does your self-reflection move past description to provide deeper insight
into how you understand the idea you pulled from the reading? Does your paraphrased
idea accurately represent the author’s work?

2
o Do I have a title page, body of paper, Reference page?
o Do these pages strictly follow APA and the formatting requirements set out in this
assignment?
o Did I include page numbers?
o Did I indent 5 spaces for the first line of the paragraph?
o Did I identify the part of the article that stood out for me?
o Did I use the remaining 5-7 sentences to develop my idea to provide depth?
o Is my writing clear?
o Did I use first person? (I, me, my)
o Does my self-reflection go deeper than simply description?
o Did I use spell check?
o Did I avoid using contractions? (can’t, won’t etc).
o Did I avoid using slang, clichés, metaphors and other literary devices?
o Did I use internal in text citation of the article? (Last name of author, year).
o I did not use the title of the article in the paper.
o I did not use the author’s first name.
o I did not use: you, they, them, us, we. I did not discuss what other people think.
o Did I include a reference page which follows APA formatting for the article I read
for this assignment.