What kind of research might we use in this class?
The type of research we are doing in this class may be different from what you've done in the past. The kind of research that we are primarily concerned with is called academic research, sometimes viewed as inquiry-driven research. With inquiry-driven research, the writer develops the research & the writing through questions (inquiry) about the topic, rather than making it the goal to only report on or prove a particular point or position (although, "positions" could be arrived at as a result of inquiry). The following table lists some of the differences between information-driven research (which may be the kind of research you've done in the past) & inquiry-driven research (what we'll be studying in this class and developing for the final research writing project). Keep in mind, the chart is not comprehensive, thus we can question/critique these ideas (and probably will) throughout the semester.
Information-driven research | Inquiry-driven research |
Writer starts with a topic (assigned/randomly chosen) | Writer starts out with a critical question (something to investigate) |
Topic does not change as information is gathered; writer is simply a collector of data about topic | Topic shifts/changes as one reads/writes about it because the writer is truly seeking / inquiring / investigating |
Process (usually found in a handbook) is the same, regardless of topic (outlines, note cards, etc.) | Process depends on writer's topic and research strategy and is usually not "linear" and "neat" (this can be challenging) |
Written part of the project is the final product that is studied; there's no need to study the process | Written part of the project is just part of the process; the research (both a thing/nounand an activity/verb) is as important as the final project…it produces the final project |
Sources are the authority (instead of writer); writer uses them for all information and credibility, never questions them or considers competing points of view | Sources are used for ideas and are in "conversation" with each other, not just reporting "facts" and "statistics"; writer is in control of how source ideas are coming into the paper |
Writer's voice is authoritative, conclusive and leaves little room for the reader to engage their ideas and participate in or think about the project; writer is unlikely to include "dissenting" perspectives / info | Writer's voice is thoughtful, inquiring, and investigating multiple ideas at once; writer may come to conclusions but the process of thinking about the complexities of the writers' focus is what ultimately develops the research project |
Writer's own thoughts are largely absent from the text because the reader never sees his/her personal perspective situated in the project; writer is tied to reporting on what the sources say | Writer is active in the text because the reader wants to see what the writer is doing with all the sources and information and inquiry; the writer is the primary research agent because she is doing the thinking and investigation in the project |
Inquiry-driven research is developed by the writer's interpretative use of academic/scholarly texts. Sources are not just used for data, quotes and information. Instead, the academic writer will engage with facts, data, quotes and other information from a variety of sources (using them and citing them appropriately, of course). Sources, and in particular, academic/scholarly sources, are full of ideas and "expert" points of view that will shape the way academic readers and writers think about an idea. As an academic writer, you will develop your understanding of various scholarly ideas/perspectives by studying them, writing about them, and bringing them together (perhaps, for the first time) in an academic "conversation." You will examine how research engages with and shapes your research question(s). The process of writing about your sources will help you understand them. Even still, you – the writer – are the primary initiator of critical thought in this semester's writing project. As an academic writer, you are responsible for critically examining and making connections that engage both your question(s) and the academic reader. The sources work for you and your question(s). They do not do the thinking and writing for you.
As we begin discussions of the texts that we are reading as a class (and later, when you read texts for your own project), make note of how academic research writers engage with source materials (i.e. other academic and research sources). Give careful attention to the way in which they make use of the materials cited in their writings (scholarly texts, quotes, studies, statistics, data, "expert" perspectives, etc.). Finally, our use of the assigned class readings is for the purpose of studying what academic research writers may do (not simply what they say). Their ideas will provide us with an initiation (albeit, not exhaustive) into the process of academic inquiry and inquiry-based research.
Close Reading & Academic Texts
Students entering the university are challenged by the complexity of the reading texts that they are assigned, particularly in a course like English 102. These students say things like, "I know I need to 'read between the lines' but I've read this essay 2 times and I am still not getting it." This frustration raises the need to use a different approach to reading texts than what students are used to employing with readings. Previous reading assignments may have required students to read literary texts or information-based texts where they were asked to simplify the reading to glean a plot summary or a series of terms or concepts. For example, a student may have read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for a high school literature class. While the language of Shakespeare might prove to be a challenge for the reader, the assigned task might have been to figure out a plot summary and plot themes and then reproduce them for a test, quiz or book report. Certainly this kind of reading is important, yet it is unlikely that students at the university will be asked to demonstrate this skill with their research writing. More often university students are asked to "critically engage/examine/analyze" a text and develop critical connections.
We are not using fiction texts for this English course. Instead, we are largely working with academic/scholarly texts that study and research a complex concept for the purpose of contributing to a larger discussion of the course focus (in this case, the focus is fear). Thus, your approach to these kinds of texts may need to differ from the kinds of reading skills that you used in other contexts where plot summaries, themes, and characters were central to your reading. While it is important to know what a text says (a "plot summary"), this course will ask you to move beyond summary and begin to develop critical connections which will allow you to position your own thinking. One way to examine what it means to critically engage is to study our ways of reading. We will differentiate between various kinds of reading to understand what we already do with texts that we read and what we may need to do with them to engage our academic audience.
The first kind of reading and the one that we favor in this course might be called "active reading" because it suggests that a reader is thinking through, perhaps resisting and questioning, and making critical connections throughout the reading. Active reading is a highly involved approach to reading a text. Perhaps this is what many students mean when they attempt to "read between the lines." On the other hand, "passive reading" is when a reader takes in what a text says never questioning, interrupting or otherwise engaging the ideas of the writer. Since "passive reading" doesn't prod an inquiring reader to actively think through, question, and engage ideas presented, one can see where this kind of reading could lead to confusion for the student reading two different texts that s/he doesn't see as related. This reader, probably employing the kind of plot summary approach described above, has difficulty making complicated connections because the "plots" of the two texts are not related. Students taking a passive, plot summary approach might say things like "I don't see the connections between these readings" as if the connections must be made by the authors of the texts instead of the readers of the texts. At the university, you will see assignments that present the following critical activity: "Read text A, text B, and text C. Write an essay response about what these texts mean?" Students reading passively will see this assignment as a process of reducing the readings to a summary and developing a theme that connects all three (which may or may not be present). Thus, they might write a strong response about what they think about a subject without really engaging the ideas of the texts. In reality, writing at the university invites readers to study, question, connect, analyze, resist, and/or advance concepts developed in their readings. This suggests that an academic audience is interested in seeing what a writer is doing with an idea, how s/he develops ideas, or how s/he is advances a concept beyond the texts. The academic reader has, perhaps, read the texts under discussion. Now s/he wants to see how another academic (in this case, YOU) interprets, expands, and/or critiques key ideas, terms or concepts from other texts.
As you work with your first course readings pay attention to how you read and the specific things you are doing as you read. Academic texts are challenging because they invite complicated thinking. Remember that you are being invited to participate with each writer whose text you read; in your writing, contribute your thinking to their ideas. It may help to think of what you are doing as a kind of conversation on consumerism. Don't be discouraged by confusing terms, examples, and research. It is normal to feel like an "outsider" when you first join a conversation. It may take longer to read a text actively, but the results will be worth it when you begin to write.
--Adam (your instructor)
Note: The above material was borrowed and adapted from a handout by Marci Bigler, a fellow 102 instructor here at UWM.
