Hi guys!
Please review the slides from today’s class here.
As I touched on today in our Zoom class, this week I’d like you to proceed into research in a low-stakes way, and with curiosity. I know some of you feel solid in what topic you’d like to research, and some of you feel totally overwhelmed. Either of these options is normal at this point.
First, a bit about your research:
This paper is more than just a series of quotations from several sources on a subject. Although you will quote and synthesize information about a topic, the real goal is your synthesis of information: the bringing together of information from various sources to establish a new perspective and create a new understanding of that material. Through all this, you will come up with a central claim: a thesis that acknowledges the “dominant conversation” about your topic, and shows how you will expand it. But for now, we’ll put this claim/ thesis on hold.
Here’s what you need to do this week:
-
- Write out your narrowed topic and preliminary research question in a blog post. Feel free to explain your thought process, and talk through any doubts. Post this by Wednesday 10/28, noon (category “Blog 10/28”). Scroll down further on this page for help with this.
- Write comments on 5 peer blog posts (more than the usual 2). Any feedback is helpful at this point, but you might respond directly to what the poster says, whether they can do something to narrow/ broaden their scope, or if you’re just really interested in their topic.
- Begin a “Research Notebook” by Sunday, 11/1. Instructions:
-
-
- In our Google Drive → Research Paper, make a folder with your name. Then, open a Google Doc in your folder and title it “Research Notebook.”
- Consult Wikipedia, Google Scholar, textbooks, general reference works (try the Baruch library databases), and popular news, and start taking “survey” notes about your topic into your document.
- Try writing down everything you already know, “pre-research”
- Brainstorm the basics: what is the “dominant conversation,” who is talking about it, and what is often left out of the conversation
- Compile questions for further study, quotes, images, or statistics that stand out to you
- Cite sources that are helpful (I recommend compiling links)
- Organize this document in any way that is helpful for you
-
4. Read sections I, II, and III of “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. No writing assignment, but be ready to discuss in our Zoom class next week.
Narrowing your Topic and Developing a Research Question:
In class today we looked at the question “How is Social Media Affecting Us” Here is the link to a workshop I did with a highschool class last semester. They broke apart the parts of the original question into three categories, and brainstormed how to get more specific for each. Below the table is a list of narrowed questions they came up with. Keep in mind that they are highschool students, so your thinking might be a bit stronger than theirs 😉 You might try a similar table with your research question.
Here’s a helpful chart for Focusing Research Topics, from the Baruch Writing Center. You might also try “concept mapping,” starting with your topic in the center, and drawing “bubble subtopics” coming out from it.
Also from the Baruch Writing Center, here’s a very useful map to Identifying a Research Question with Significance. Putting your question through this chart will help you articulate the motivation or significance to your research.
Last, work through this table as you research this week and next.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ll be opening office hours from now on every Wednesday morning, this week from 10-11AM. You can come into the Zoom if you want to casually talk through your topic or anything else.
Hope everyone is doing ok 🙂