Seth Graves’ introduction to “Researching and Making Claims” portrays research as a very broad concept. Just about any paper has capacity to be a piece of research, mostly because we are able to learn more about ourselves and our surrounding through writing papers. Graves emphasizes that a good research paper is one that’s credible, and without it, there could be no reason hold one’s findings as true. This is the main concept of ethos.
A sentence that really caught my attention is in the fourth paragraph on page 49: “[Research] provides us with a check and balance system for claims.” I took this as a summary of the prior two paragraphs: researching a topic offers us more information with a topic, as well as different perspectives on said topic (which could potentially change our perspective) . This will make us more adept at said topic, and therefore, able to argue our perspective if needed to.
“The Research Process” by Graves, Corcoran, and Belmihoub delves into the topic of research as a broad term. Like Rhetoric, research is used in the vast majority of people’s lives on a daily basis, whether one realizes it or not. Whenever one conducts some sort of inquiry, we participate in a form of research.
A sentence that sparked my interest in this article is the last one in the first paragraph on page 52: “A problem from everyday life can produce a line of inquiry that leads you toward all sorts of other questions, in this case perhaps regarding government, infrastructure, and politics.” We might not be necessarily thinking about it when we do it, but usually the questions that get us thinking usually spans back to the bigger picture. For example, in order to fix a local bridge, you would probably have to a government representative (perhaps local or state), the same person you would go to in order to ask for some money for set up a huge fundraiser perhaps.