11/8 Gabrielle Nolan reading response

1. What is one process of inquiry you’ve pursued entirely for pleasure? 4 sentences.

One process of inquiry I’ve pursued entirely for pleasure is researching places to eat for dinner. When my friends and I want to go out to eat ,we spend a good amount of time reading reviews for restaurants or using social media to give us an idea of what is good right now. We take the opinions of other people and read menus to find what may taste good. This is doing research for our own benefit, not for an academic reason. 

2. Between their examples of subway delays and the closing of retail stores, Graves, Corcoran, and Belmihoub write, “The goal of research in the humanities in many ways is to make the everyday strange” (149). What are three experiences, questions, or moments from your everyday life that have stuck with you lately: things you’re curious, passionate, or upset about and which you could imagine researching? 6 sentences.

Three experiences, questions, or moments from my everyday life that have stuck with me are: how my diet affects my skin, how I can start training to become a better runner, and seeing a young homeless girl on the street by herself. I can research foods that may be causing my skin to break out. Next,  I can start watching youtube videos on exercises that may improve my speed and endurance. Finally, seeing such a young girl homeless made me wonder how this happened to her. On my commute to school, I see her at the corner of my block. She can’t be older than 15 and it truly saddens me to the point where I want to find ways to help her. 

3. What is something about research—a practice or form of research, a distinction between categories—that you learned for the first time in Lunsford and Ruskiewicz, and why is it important or interesting? 6 sentences.

Something about research that I learned for the first time is that research isn’t always something boring that we have to do for school. Also, what defines “research” is something I find myself doing everyday. In my own routine, I find myself constantly researching things that I’m curious about everyday. For example, I see someone’s manicure looks nice and then I will research “best nail salons near me”. Or, I will see someone eating a snack that I like and then find myself searching for the closest store that sells it. I didn’t realize that research comes in all forms and stems from our own routines.