Tag Archives: research

Roadmap to Archives

Posted on May 18, 2017 | 1 comment

Source: Giphy

Alright, so I’ve been talking about the archives, about research, about research skills, and undergraduates for a while now. I’m sure for anyone reading this, you’ve might have gotten bored with the whole “Wow, archives! Wow, undergrads! Wow, no information!” song and dance. But, please stick it out a little (actually, probably a lot) longer, for me? Thanks in advance.

Okay, so, we were asked by our professor (the whole class, that’s the ‘we’), to explain the “territory” (the subject) of our research and the gaps (literally, the gaps in knowledge) that we had observed when reading various sources for research purposes. Recap: I have been reading long articles, and trying very hard to finish homework up for this class, a bit unsuccessfully because I’m one or two annotated citations behind. But I digress.

Original Image: Barnes&Noble
Edited Image: K. Harada

The “territory” that I’ve been exploring is the realm of dusty books, the archives! Big surprise right? More specifically, I’ve explored the field of archival research and the available methods/methodology written accounts created by researchers. Furthermore though, I’ve also broadened this territory to include the modern day research methods which students are more exposed to, or the methods which are directed at students. The latter is more to illustrate the extent of the ‘undergrad desert’ that I have observed in archival research literature.

And it is this ‘undergrad desert’ that acts as my “gaps in knowledge”. The gaps that I’m seeing are the same that I saw before, which come as no great surprise. There is a lack of archival research literature, it appears that no researchers had really thought about writing down their processes. But furthermore, it seems like researchers never gave the thought of student research the time of day. Archival research literature almost entirely neglects to include undergraduates, focusing more on academics and graduate students. And even when research skill literature does focus on undergrads, often these skills are not explicitly related to the archives/they don’t provide the instruction needed for archival research.

So, I’m therefore planning on further staking it out in the ‘undergrad desert’, and expanding on how this desert might be crossed.

 

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Breaking News: Surveys In

Posted on May 7, 2017 | Leave a comment

Source: Giphy

So the results are in, and overall: there were thirty-two responses across the class years, there were a lot of first years who responded, and I have a lot of basic math to do. But so far I don’t have any clear answers (or winners for that matter) on any accurate measures of undergraduate archival knowledge. However, there appear to be some trends among my data that may support the perspective that I addressed in my archival research paper.

One such trend, would be the large number of first years whose CTW (critical thinking and writing – a first year writing-related class at my uni) coursework has lead them to delve into the archives. Meanwhile, another would be the fact that it seems that many students are under the impression that undergrads cannot use the archives. All in all, it’s looking like my survey reflects the patterns that I’ve already observed during our interactions with the archives, so that’s good! That means I might just be able to use this data (though its skewed/biased) for our argumentative essay that’s coming up.

But for now I’ll organize my findings into why they are significant, linking them to the points I’ve made about undergrads and the archives – mainly that undergrads lack adequate education/resources regarding the archives – and also the points I’ve made about universities and research skills – that universities began to push undergrad students into more complex research skills, archival included, as these institutions evolve over time. After that, I’ll probably use my data to demonstrate what exactly undergrads are lacking in the knowledge department – which can then be used as an example for where universities can began this ‘research education’.

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The Survey Games

Posted on May 4, 2017 | Leave a comment

Source: Michael Hyatt

So for our latest assignment, my class is collecting survey data from students at our university, with our focus being the same or related to our archival research. (Funnily enough, I just took a ton of surveys as part of of my psychology class.) As said before my focus revolves around undergraduate knowledge of archives and archival knowledge, thus my main goal going forward is gauging the extent of this knowledge among undergrads at my school. I plan to generally distribute my survey online to a variety of people across class years, and I’ll try to avoid distributing to my own class to prevent bias. Since, you know, we just learned about the archives.

There will probably be questions on their ability to locate the archives, if they even know the archives exist, and if they participate in the stereotype that archives are only available for research/grad student/professional use. If all things go well, I’ll end up with data which reflects my own experiences concerning archival research. That is, hardly any undergrads know anything concerning the archives. However, because I’m not using random assignment and random selection, the data I receive will have some bias, as bias hasn’t been eliminated (shoutout to Psychology 1 for that lesson on conducting experiments).

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[Insert Arthur episode on visiting the library]

Posted on April 27, 2017 | 1 comment

 

Source: A. Raymond

Just a quick post about the prevalence of research across disciplines, and how schools focus on cultivating researching skills in students, but more importantly, about visiting the library for help on researching. Above is e-flier that students at my university – that includes me – recently received. The email itself describes how student at the university’s business school can contact one of our university’s librarians for help with business research.

Now, this past Tuesday, my class took a trip to the library for that exact reason. We met with this very cute grandma-esque librarian who had us play a series of research-based games. Through these games we learned how to use the databases available to us, how to efficiently search (using phrases and asterisks and the works), and how to write quick descriptions of articles that we might come across in our research process.

I don’t know if the business students are going to be playing any games, or if they are even going to be searching through databases. (Spoiler alert: I’m not a business student, I’m apparently not that interested in the stability of my financial future enough.) But, they are using the resources available to them – librarians – in order to cultivate their researching skills, just like we did this week.

Source: Giphy

 

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Globalization, Media and the Four Stages of the (ess)A(y)pocalypse

Posted on April 27, 2017 | Leave a comment

Alternatively known as how I wrote an essay in two days (long story, no time to tell) on the themes of economic globalization (EG), the role of media in EG, and two “Made in the USA” companies – and how I’m relating that to this post.

[Let’s backtrack.] 

Source: Giphy

(Disclaimer: You’ll be seeing a lot of air quotes, ignore them, the reason that the air quotes are there is another area of study entirely, here in this post we’re trying to focus on writing and research related stuff.)

Why was I writing this essay? To explore how media, specifically ads, play a role in economic globalization,  and to explore the effects that economic globalization has on less dominant, non-western countries, which in Communication studies, are referred to as the “global south”.

What is economic globalization? Well it’s basically the spread of western private enterprises (and the accompanying western cultural values/ideas) into foreign markets/countries, which are typically less powerful (economically and militarily) than the ‘industrialized’ west.

How do/es media/the two “Made in the USA” companies contribute to EG? Well, that’s what I set out to explain, starting at around 2pm this past Sunday. And kudos to Michael Kleine, I was on the four stages of his research project like a novice ice skater on ice for their first performance. (Meaning trying my best and hoping desperately that I wouldn’t fall through the ice before my allotted time was up.)

[End backtracking.]

Source: totalprosports

(Also, spoiler alert, we’re going to be focusing on those four stages in this post.)

The Four Stages of the (ess)A(y)pocalypse

1. Collecting Data
I collected data like it was the newest release of every books series that I have ever loved ever. Both of my Communication textbooks were open and highlighted to Antartica and back. I had tabs open on: labor statistics, the store locations of the two companies mentioned above, the products these companies made, where they made those products, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I basically binged on data.

2. Sifting for Relevance
Keeping in mind Tirabassi’s principles of closure and cross reference though, I made sure that everything I collected was at least relevant to my topic – and that I limited the amount that I collected to what I could realistically analyze. The statistics? Related to the effects globalization had on foreign labor workers. The store locations, the products? Related to where the companies had foreign outreach. And so on.

3. Seeking Patterns
I tried my best to become a pattern seeking mastermind. I probably didn’t succeed, but I did notice some patterns when going through my data. Like how, despite economies in which the average person cannot realistically afford products that are $100 US Dollars and above, western companies continue to advertise these goods in the countries with said economics. Another pattern? How advertisements sell not only products, but imagined lifestyles. (Again, this is a discussion dedicated to another subject entirely, so I won’t go into too much detail.)

4. Translating into Writing
AKA, the majority of my Sunday and Monday evenings. I took the data I’d collected, sifted, and analyzed for patterns – and put it through the translator, me. Old ideas were framed, challenges to those old ideas introduced, and then my thoughts on how two companies (in this case, Apple and Bose Corporation) demonstrated the effects of EG on the global south were sewn into the essay quilt. Major translation, from corporate America to college student 101.

Okay! So that was a brief summary of the amazing race that I ran through, and an analysis of my efforts and how they reflect the four stages of Kleine’s described ‘hunting and gathering’ process for research! For anyone, I hope this at least somewhat demonstrates how, intentionally or not, many of us embody Kleine’s four stages whenever we write a research paper.

Sidenote: This post was meant to go up on the Tuesday that I turned in my economic globalization essay, but the internet was having a “Treat Yo Self” day and decided to not connect to my laptop.

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Into the Wild: Modern Hunter-Gatherers

Posted on April 27, 2017 | 1 comment

This is Michael Caine, not Michael Kleine. Source: CBAMB

Alright, so Professor Michael Kleine, not the actor with the similar name, has written an article titled “What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One?”, which goes on to describe those writing and researching as individuals who alternate between being “hunters” and “gatherers” (Kleine 25). The idea is that research can be roughly composed into four stages and two parts.

Source: K. Harada

But today I’m going to leave behind the words shown in the gif above (mostly because I think that other posts like this or this have covered the whole research pattern dealio well enough) and instead I’m going focus on the two parts: hunting and gathering. Or, more like how Kleine’s hunting and gathering relates to me.

For the most part I feel like my research process is a lot like the one that Kleine describes – I can usually find myself alternating between ‘hunting’ with a purpose and gathering broad data only to discover information that can change the purpose you were searching with. Whether in a database or through a google search, I take care to word my searches specifically with a purpose in mind. So as a young millennial (or Generation Z as some people are calling my age group today), I’m hunting down certain information on the world wide web. However, within that purpose-driven search, whether I want it or not, I also gather related information that is broader in focus than my initial search, which  can then lead to revision of either my ideas or my research.

Now, as for how Kleine’s process doesn’t reflect my own experiences, time is probably the biggest difference. Mostly because Kleine, while he does talk about students the what I’m going to call “the essay system” (aka, how students often find themselves turned into essay writing machines), he doesn’t take into context the time frames research typically needs to be condensed into. I mean, yeah, my research isn’t going to be of the highest quality of if I have week to both do my research and write my paper, while doing a similar amount of work for approximately three other classes within the same time frame. But, that’s my only real beef with what Professor Kleine has to say.

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Research: A Process

Posted on April 6, 2017 | 2 comments

Usually, my research process is dominated by a web browser filled with countless tabs, each housing different online articles, or PDFs of scanned books, or maybe even a JSTOR-like database if I can access it. A handwritten outline can, and typically will, be found somewhere nearby, a timeline of “background/ introduction” that is followed by juxtaposed paragraphs of arguments (counter and non-counter) and examples for each. This outline has been oh-so lovingly created by a response to the prompt or question at hand – either answering the question via my own lovely opinion, or creating my own question based upon the prompt that somehow always ends up as an argumentative statement in the end. And it is this very outline which guides my research process.

Source: Giphy

Step 1: Learn more about the issue itself, find the background knowledge, and understand the information. Skim over Wikipedia if you have to, but if there are more reliable or creditable sources – like say, National Geographic or a website ending in .gov – then head over to those. Step 2: Expand the outline. What initial arguments or ideas need to be either expanded on or dropped? What is relevant to the topic? Also, is the breath of the paper too large? If so, get those heads rolling. Step 3: Look at that revised outline, now, what background information can be made into examples? What supports or opposes what you have to say? Play around with the structure of your arguments then, make sure that each is related to the other, that each flows into the other. Step 4: Start writing. Maybe cry, or get a snack. Frantically open another tab to search up Purdue Owl and how to cite this or that, or, for the love of the academic gods, you even structure a footnote. Meanwhile, make sure you get those citations in, and if you discover that a source is not as relevant as you thought it would be, then drop it. If needed repeat steps 2 and 3. Step 5: Review it, revise it, cite it, then somehow come up with both a conclusion that connects to the larger idea (or world or ‘conversation’) and a works cited page that reflects all your in-text citations.

Source: Emolument

Moving on from that 5 step process, let’s talk about BEAM, or Joseph Bizup of Columbia University’s reading and writing model:

Background, Exhibit, Argument, and Method.

The BEAM model, which sorts sources into the aforementioned categories, somewhat reflects my own process of research I would like to think. Sources are meant to be diverse, both in content but also in purpose. Now, I have never given ‘methods’ a single thought, as for ‘background’, ‘exhibit’, and ‘argument’ though, I am very familiar with those. Separating articles, journals, and etc., into nice little categories is a process that has become a necessity for my own organization, as it strengthens the structure of a paper and my own thoughts/arguments.

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