Select one of the following topics:
Variable: Tone of Voice (Measured by Energy or Enthusiasm)
Definition: You could measure this by noting how energetic or enthusiastic the speaker sounds throughout the video.
Aspect Influencing Variation: The genre of the content might
influence tone. For example, lifestyle vloggers or entertainment
YouTubers might have a more enthusiastic tone to engage their audience,
while news reporters or documentarians may maintain a neutral tone.
Variable: Use of Formal vs. Informal Language
Definition: You could measure how often formal or informal words/phrases are used in videos.
Aspect Influencing Variation: The target audience might influence
this. For example, YouTubers who create educational content for students
may use more formal language, whereas lifestyle vloggers targeting a
younger, casual audience might use more informal language or slang.
For this assignment, you write a short paper (1200-1750 words), in
which you report on an analysis that contrasts two ‘communicative units’
within online videos. To do so, you will compile a corpus using YouTube
as a data source. Today, YouTube is not simply seen as a place for
watching and sharing videos, but also as a suitable platform and source
of naturalistic data for investigating different aspects of daily
(human) communication (e.g., human interaction, linguistic behavior,
non-verbal communication, corporate communication, political
communication, health communication, e-learning). There is of course
extensive variation within the videos posted on YouTube (both content
and form) and the people who post the videos (i.e., characteristics of
the account holders).
With a contrastive analysis, you can
answer research questions of the type: “Are there differences in/on
[measured variable X] between [comparison variable Y, category 1] and
[comparison variable Y, category 2]?” (Lecture example: Are there
differences in the number of beat gestures produced by native and
non-native speakers of English?). This question can be addressed by
collecting and analyzing the content of online videos posted on YouTube.
You could also study the relationship between certain communicative
units within online videos and different types of account holders who
posted/created the videos.
IMPORTANT: You will acquire many
research and reporting skills when you actively participate in the group
project and the other premaster courses. You should transfer these
skills to your individual project and you should learn from the feedback
you receive from your teachers on both the individual and weekly group
assignments.
After receiving feedback from your supervisor, you
will continue your individual work by compiling your corpus (80 videos
in total, so 40 of each type or category; Note that these numbers may
change (in agreement with your supervisor) depending in your research
question and amount of work for annotating the data). Make sure that you
set up a good search strategy and list of inclusion/exclusion criteria
when selecting the videos (and do not forget to control for confounding
factors!).
The final two group meetings (weeks 48 and 49) are
reserved for questions on the individual project, since by then you will
be finalizing your individual paper. You will reflect on your results
in the discussion section, in which you will connect your findings to
academic research findings (and/or theory), discuss scientific and
societal implications of your findings and your study limitations, and
provide suggestions for future work. On November 21, the group work will
end and you will have about three weeks to finalize your individual
report. In those weeks, your teacher is available twice to answer
questions during the scheduled group meetings. The deadline for the full
individual paper is Monday December 9, 9:00h (see below for paper
requirements, assessment, and submission guidelines).
You write
a paper of 1200 words minimum in English. The maximum is 1750 words.
Title pages, technology statements, reflections, abstracts, reference
lists, appendices, and tables/figures do not count toward the word
count. All other sections of the text do count toward the word count.
Please include the word count on your title page. This is a requirement
for both courses. Please note that texts that exceed the word limit are
not accepted or graded.
Below, you will find the assessment
criteria for the individual assignment (i.e., Rubric). Before you hand
in your paper, please check if your paper meets these criteria. Your
teacher will assess if the criteria are met in terms of their presence
in the paper, but also in terms of their quality. Please adhere to the
detailed formatting and submission guidelines provided by Academic
English. You must submit the final paper on the Canvas page of both
Academic English and Research Seminar in PDF. The content of the
assignment should be identical for both courses (including the
information on the title page, the reflection, and the technology
statement).
The paper will be graded for Research Seminar and
for Academic English. One teacher will assess the paper, but gives two
grades: one grade for the quality of your Academic English (which
determines the assignment grade for Academic English) and one grade for
the quality of your analysis (which determines the grade for Research
Seminar). For Research Seminar, this assignment makes up 30% of your
final course grade. The grade for this assignment must be a pass (i.e.,
at least 5.5) to pass the course. The final version of your paper will
go through a plagiarism scan. If you have copied (parts of) your text
from other sources, this will be noticed. As you will learn in your
Academic English course, plagiarism is a serious offense; write your own
text and include APA-conform references throughout (APA 7th edition).
Definition: You could measure this by noting how energetic or enthusiastic the speaker sounds throughout the video.
Aspect Influencing Variation: The genre of the content might
influence tone. For example, lifestyle vloggers or entertainment
YouTubers might have a more enthusiastic tone to engage their audience,
while news reporters or documentarians may maintain a neutral tone.
Variable: Use of Formal vs. Informal Language
Definition: You could measure how often formal or informal words/phrases are used in videos.
Aspect Influencing Variation: The target audience might influence
this. For example, YouTubers who create educational content for students
may use more formal language, whereas lifestyle vloggers targeting a
younger, casual audience might use more informal language or slang.
For this assignment, you write a short paper (1200-1750 words), in
which you report on an analysis that contrasts two ‘communicative units’
within online videos. To do so, you will compile a corpus using YouTube
as a data source. Today, YouTube is not simply seen as a place for
watching and sharing videos, but also as a suitable platform and source
of naturalistic data for investigating different aspects of daily
(human) communication (e.g., human interaction, linguistic behavior,
non-verbal communication, corporate communication, political
communication, health communication, e-learning). There is of course
extensive variation within the videos posted on YouTube (both content
and form) and the people who post the videos (i.e., characteristics of
the account holders).
With a contrastive analysis, you can
answer research questions of the type: “Are there differences in/on
[measured variable X] between [comparison variable Y, category 1] and
[comparison variable Y, category 2]?” (Lecture example: Are there
differences in the number of beat gestures produced by native and
non-native speakers of English?). This question can be addressed by
collecting and analyzing the content of online videos posted on YouTube.
You could also study the relationship between certain communicative
units within online videos and different types of account holders who
posted/created the videos.
IMPORTANT: You will acquire many
research and reporting skills when you actively participate in the group
project and the other premaster courses. You should transfer these
skills to your individual project and you should learn from the feedback
you receive from your teachers on both the individual and weekly group
assignments.
After receiving feedback from your supervisor, you
will continue your individual work by compiling your corpus (80 videos
in total, so 40 of each type or category; Note that these numbers may
change (in agreement with your supervisor) depending in your research
question and amount of work for annotating the data). Make sure that you
set up a good search strategy and list of inclusion/exclusion criteria
when selecting the videos (and do not forget to control for confounding
factors!).
The final two group meetings (weeks 48 and 49) are
reserved for questions on the individual project, since by then you will
be finalizing your individual paper. You will reflect on your results
in the discussion section, in which you will connect your findings to
academic research findings (and/or theory), discuss scientific and
societal implications of your findings and your study limitations, and
provide suggestions for future work. On November 21, the group work will
end and you will have about three weeks to finalize your individual
report. In those weeks, your teacher is available twice to answer
questions during the scheduled group meetings. The deadline for the full
individual paper is Monday December 9, 9:00h (see below for paper
requirements, assessment, and submission guidelines).
You write
a paper of 1200 words minimum in English. The maximum is 1750 words.
Title pages, technology statements, reflections, abstracts, reference
lists, appendices, and tables/figures do not count toward the word
count. All other sections of the text do count toward the word count.
Please include the word count on your title page. This is a requirement
for both courses. Please note that texts that exceed the word limit are
not accepted or graded.
Below, you will find the assessment
criteria for the individual assignment (i.e., Rubric). Before you hand
in your paper, please check if your paper meets these criteria. Your
teacher will assess if the criteria are met in terms of their presence
in the paper, but also in terms of their quality. Please adhere to the
detailed formatting and submission guidelines provided by Academic
English. You must submit the final paper on the Canvas page of both
Academic English and Research Seminar in PDF. The content of the
assignment should be identical for both courses (including the
information on the title page, the reflection, and the technology
statement).
The paper will be graded for Research Seminar and
for Academic English. One teacher will assess the paper, but gives two
grades: one grade for the quality of your Academic English (which
determines the assignment grade for Academic English) and one grade for
the quality of your analysis (which determines the grade for Research
Seminar). For Research Seminar, this assignment makes up 30% of your
final course grade. The grade for this assignment must be a pass (i.e.,
at least 5.5) to pass the course. The final version of your paper will
go through a plagiarism scan. If you have copied (parts of) your text
from other sources, this will be noticed. As you will learn in your
Academic English course, plagiarism is a serious offense; write your own
text and include APA-conform references throughout (APA 7th edition).