Research Questions and Academic Disciplines (15-20 min)
There are different kinds of intellectual work that gets done at a university. And there are definitely a few different ways of categorizing them, but here is one way we are going to test out:
- Humanities: using methods of criticism or interpretive analysis as well as historical research that thinks about questions of human activity and culture. The humanities make room for questions that are deeply reliant on contextual circumstances that are difficult to observe on a grand scale. E.g., English, History, Philosophy, Cultural Studies.
- Natural Sciences: using observation and experimentation in quantitative and qualitative ways to measure and attempt to understand things that happen naturally like the ways bees pollinate vegetation or how matter changes state. E.g., Biology, Chemistry, Physics (can be some cross-over here with social sciences related to study of physical aspects of humans or with humanities like physics and philosophy).
- Social Sciences: using quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g., experimental, observational) that resemble methods in natural sciences to study human activity and culture. E.g., Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology (can be some cross-over, here, between Humanities and Social Sciences).
- Technology and Formal Sciences: Disciplines that focus on abstract systems or heavily technical stuff (admittedly, this is kind of a mish-mash of stuff). Logic, mathematics, computer science, etc. all focus on high abstraction for systems to think with. E.g., Engineering, Computer Science, Logic, Mathematics.
- Arts: Art makes knowledge! Writing a play, using graffiti, making a film, etc. Any arts can also be a way of thinking in the university. E.g., Graphic Design, Photography, Fiction or Nonfiction Writing, Filmmaking)
I’m curious about the spread of research questions that we have for class. On this Google doc, post your research question in the category of academic disciplines that you think best fits your research question.
You can draw from multiple areas! Interdisciplinarity is good! But it is also nice to think about where your “home” is for a given research question you have. Will help ground what secondary sources you uncover or even any primary sources you analyze (and how you analyze them).
Research Plan and Developing Argument (20-25 min)
We have been working on developing a research question, finding sources for that question, evaluating types of sources, and so on for your research project for about two weeks. At this point, you probably have some semblance of an argument that you will be making for your first draft due on November 22.
Take 5 minutes and review the following: your Research Plan document, my feedback on that plan, your research question, the academic disciplines related to that question, the sources you have found that you will use, your in-progress analysis of your primary source (i.e., interview and/or observation), and any writing for your draft that you’ve completed so far.
Be ready to discuss with a partner the following:
- what stasis your research question is in (review Blankenship reading that we did for November 15)
- Based on that stasis, a “draft” of what you think your argument is (so far, ready to be revised) after having done some reading and writing for your in-progress draft.
- Where you are stuck (e.g., finding sources, analyzing primary source, making an argument that is connected together rather than separate paragraphs that relate to sources).
- How your argument might change after you do more writing and reading.
Finally, give each other some feedback. Come to an agreement on what your next step is for getting a draft done. I’m going to come around and check in with each pair/group.
Some places to go to for help for models of academic argument genres that other Baruch students have written: in Join the Conversation, “The Russians Are (Still?) Coming” on page 247 and “Avoiding Misconceptions: Immigrants are Beneficial to Society” on page 252 are helpful models for organizing an argument in a fuller draft.
Documentation Styles (45-60 min)
Different kinds of academic disciplines have different kinds of values and priorities. And we see this even with how information is cited! That’s why there are several different kinds of documentation styles.
In this activity, we are going to figure out what those values might be based on the requirements in certain documentation styles.
In groups, you will be assigned one of four possible documentation styles (there are more, but here are 4 of the big ones–IEEE is another big one, for instance):
- APA (American Psychological Association)
- Chicago
- CSE (Council of Science Educators)
- MLA (Modern Language Association)
For your group, note the following on this webpage from the UW-Madison Writing Center page on the right menu bar:
- Tense of verbs introducing source information for in-text citation: past or present? (e.g., “Foucault argues that…” or “Haraway theorized that…”)
- What information is prioritized in in-text citation? (e.g., year, page number, paraphrase of information, summary, direct quote)
- What is the method for in-text citation (when the source is mentioned when writing)? (e.g., parentheses when source is mentioned in sentence, parentheses at end of sentence, footnote, endnote)
- What information is prioritized in reference list? Think about what comes in the first three to four positions in most reference list entries (e.g., name of author or authors, year, title of work, journal, pages, publisher)
- Think about how the information is formatted in the reference list (e.g., first name included or just initials for author in reference list? how is the reference ordered–alphabetical, order in which source appears in text, chronological, etc.?)
- Is there any flexibility involved in how you can cite things, format the reference list, etc.? If so, what?
- What other formatting is required? (e.g., title page structure and information included, where and how page numbers appear, headings, tables, figures)
- Note any “tips” that stood out to you from the handout you clicked on for in-text citations or for the reference list (or for anything else).
As you hunt for this information as a group, make sure a group member is writing down what you notice about your documentation style and what you think about it in this Google Doc! Take about 15-20 minutes to work this out.
Okay, let’s look at what each group wrote up. After comparing your documentation style to the notes the other three groups took on their documentation style on the Google Doc, take about 3 minutes to do some individual writing to respond to the following questions:
- Why does your documentation style have this verb tense, or this information prioritized, or this method of expressing a citation? What advantages or disadvantages are there to this?
- Which disciplines (e.g., humanities, physical sciences, social sciences, history, English, engineering) do you think would benefit from your documentation style? Why?
Then, as a group, finalize what you want to present on to the rest of the class (make sure you decide on the presenter). You should also update your fourth cell of your table to reflect group consensus in response to these two questions above. This should take about 10 minutes.
After you had some time to work on this about this, we will take 10-15 minutes to discuss your thoughts.
Think more about your research question, the kinds of scholars you are going to engage, and the right documentation style that would work best for you and your research.
Next Time (2-5 min)
- Update Labor Log by tonight
- Some places to go to for help: in Join the Conversation, “The Russians Are (Still?) Coming” on page 247 and “Avoiding Misconceptions: Immigrants are Beneficial to Society” on page 252 are helpful models for organizing an argument in a fuller draft.
- Draft of Research Project due November 22 by 11:59pm; we will do peer review on November 22 in class, so bring copies of your draft (at least 2) so people can read them and offer feedback.