In addition to the articles our class read preparing us for our visit to the archives, we were also given a paper titled “The 6 C’s” as an additional resource for our analysis of the research we conducted. Not to be dramatic but to be dramatic, this is probably the most useful writing guide I’ve ever been given.
The 6 C’s are as follows:
- Content: What is the main idea? For documents, list important, points/phrases/words/sentences. For images, describe what you see.
- Citation: Who created this and when? What type of source is it?
- Communication: What is the author’s bias or point of view? Who is the intended audience? Why was the source created? What is the tone of the document or image?
- Context: What is going on in the world, country, region or locality when this was created? What other sources might help provide answers to this question? What else do we need to know to better understand the evidence in this source?
- Connections: How does this connect to what you already know? To what other academic or popular conversations does it connect?
- Conclusions: What contributions does this make to our understanding of research, student life at SCU, or a topic of relevance to your fellow students? How does this text (and/or your experience locating it, reading it, and making sense of it) relate to our class readings? How did you come to these conclusion?
This outline allows me as a writer to organize all of my research and thoughts in a manner that flows and portrays my level of understanding when discussing the findings of my research. In keeping the 6 C’s in mind and applying each one to my writing, I can ensure that I will include all of my information and properly analyze it to the greatest extent. Happy writing!
-FH