This quarter has been focused on the lengthy process of different research methods culminating in a paper and multimodal project to succinctly sum it all up. I started out with an interest in Greek life at SCU and it flourished into a grand research project involving digging in the archives, surveying current students, and sifting through online databases. All of this would not have been possible without some key concepts we learned this quarter.
First off, BEAM. What does this mean exactly? This is what BEAM stands for:
- Background: kinds of sources you use as facts
- Exhibits: an example, concrete instance to illustrate a claim
- Argument: peer reviewed, academic, purposefully put out there to be engaged on a certain platform
- Method: help us to think about genre expectations, formal expectations; helps us to understand what you’re doing in your paper (ex: looking at something through the lens of a theology, blogs teaching us how to blog, BEAM for me when I’m writing —> helps us think with it)
BEAM vocabulary helped me determine how I would use different types of sources. It taught me that it doesn’t matter how you label sources, it matters how you use them, and the BEAM vocabulary provided the initial map for my research.
map to researching
Next, Tirabassi helped me particularly in the archives, but also throughout the research process. Here are her principles:
- Closure: knowing when to stop researching, when you have enough
- Cross-referencing: using background sources to confirm research
- Selectivity: knowing what to leave out of your research
- Categorization: there are inherent gaps in archival records, and there can be mislabeling errors and regional differences
In addition to these strategies, I also learned some writing strategies like metacommentary and the old/new contract. Metacommentary is providing clarification for something that you just wrote (find some examples here). It makes things more clear for your reader. In addition to using metacommentary, it is important to utilize the old/new contract. The old/new contract is a strategy in which you continue your next sentence with a thought or idea from the previous sentence to maintain a good flow in your writing.
BEAM, Tirabassi, metacommentary, and the old/new contract are tools that I believe have helped me grow as a writer. They helped me figure out what I want to write about and how I want to get the message across.