As I walked up the stairs to the third floor of the library, I had no idea what I was I getting myself into. I knew our CTW class was meeting in the back corner of the library, in some room called  “the archives”.  An archive is a “a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people”. We had learned about archival research and all the amazing artifacts we might be able to find in the archives in the weeks leading up to our journey into the unknown . As I rounded the last flight of stairs to the third floor, I was full of anticipation. I could not wait to see what an actual archive was like.

As I entered the archive, I instantly noticed the large amount of books and magazines and objects scattered about the room. There seemed to be an abundance of resources filling the entire room. There were books shelves covering every wall filled with books of all ages.  The archive was truly unlike anywhere else I had ever been.

Not only was the archive filled with artifacts, but the artifacts it contained were extremely interesting. The archive curator laid out all sorts of artifacts pertaining to Santa Clara University and its interesting history. For example, I found this great article about the addition of female students to the university:

This artifact, an article from The Santa Clara dating back to the 1960’s, was extremely interesting to me and became the main focus of my archival research paper. I found the old student newspaper articles to be fascinating because they were first hand accounts of campus life from this time period. No other source could truly captivate the feeling and atmosphere of the campus the same way a student written piece from the time period could. The archive was an interesting and engaging way to do research that ended up yielding some intriguing and significant sources.

As CTW class has gone on this quarter, I have been immersing myself in the research process. I have spent the past two class periods in the archives doing actual archival research. After examining many sources and finding some solid evidence, I have finally figured out what I want my research question to be.

How did the addition of females change the culture at Santa Clara University?

When our class first went to the archives on the third floor of the library, I had no idea what to expect. I did not really know what topic I wanted to write about, I did not know what type of materials we would be looking at, and I had no clue what an archive was going to be like. The first day of class in the archives was interesting. The professor who looked over the research explained in detail what the materials were that were sprawled all over the desks in this library room. The bookcases lining the walls were stuffed with books and there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of research in just one place. Apparently, that is only part of the research the archive has collected. I did in-depth examination of each tables’ materials. The materials I found most interesting were the older articles, in particular the ones pertaining to the culture of Santa Clara University. One of the tables had multiple books all flipped to articles and documents about the addition of women into Santa Clara University and how that affected the University. These resources caught my attention. I was interested to see how changing from an all male school to a coed institution affect the students, teachers, and the school itself. For example, the Graham dormitory was at one time a residence hall for only girls. This topic interests me because I have a personal connection to this topic. I went to an all guys high school. In my mind, it would be crazy to imagine girls being added to my old high school. The changes my high school would undergo would be immense. It is interesting for me to see the changes Santa Clara underwent after the addition of females to the University.

The research I found pertaining to Santa Clara University and its addition of female students was varied in opinion. On one hand, many articles wrote about the joy and excitement there was over the addition of girls to the university. On the other hand, some articles argued adding females was breaking tradition and changing the true meaning of Santa Clara. Through my researching I hope to gain a better insight on the general opinion of students about the transition to a coed university. I am excited about the research I gathered from the archives. I have a different variation of types of sources and I have sources from different arguments of the topic. My research is all relative to my topic and highlights insightful points about the time period, the culture, and the changes that were all happening at Santa Clara University.

This week we have begun to dive into the topic of the research process. Thinking of the research process brings back memories of reading through books for quotes and staring at my computer screen for hours reading online sources. The research process, one of the most crucial aspects of writing an intellectual piece of writing, is also one of the most tedious. This is where an author chooses what they are going to base their arguments off of. The research process determines how strong of an argument one can build because it is the proof behind what the author is saying. If a piece of writing is published making a claim with nothing backing up the argument, than no one will believe that claim because the writing has no credibility behind it. In my experiences with researching, I have found that there it is extremely important to use research in my writing only if the quality of the source is high. The quality of one’s source is important because having a high quality source can build up the credibility of the author.

When I am researching I often follow a few strategies. I look for information that is focused and descriptive. There is no reason to quote something if it is a summary of a bunch of different information. I could easily look up facts and synthesize them into a large paragraph. It is important to use quotes to better your writing, by adding detail or description that is better provided by someone else’s words. Adding quotes just to add bulk to an essay often distracts the reader from the point the author is trying to argue. While researching, I often use the internet to find sources. Although this is often looked down upon as not “traditional” researching, I find the internet to be extremely helpful. There is an extremely immense amount of content on the internet. No matter what topic you have to research, there is something on the internet about it. And in addition, the internet makes it super easy to verify and check sources. If an article sources something online, you can look up that source as well and verify the information. The internet, if used right, is an extremely useful tool for conducting research. For example, Google Scholar is a extremely efficient way to conduct online research. It searches online for only scholarly articles on whatever topic you search. It is a great way to make sure you are using research that is from a verified source but is also about your topic.