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Up until reading Klein’s article, I had never really thought about research in terms of hunting and gathering. To be honest, until this year I had never thought about research as anything more than writing down the information that I read. I definitely could have been included in the group of students Klein describes in his library nightmare. I saw research as simply stating someone else’s thoughts or facts in my own words. But, as Klein says, research-based writing must be “strategic” and “heuristic” while developing some sort of rhetorical purpose. This is where “hunting and gathering” comes in to play. Hunting refers to strategic research with direction while gathering consists of searching broadly for information that may be useful.

Giphy

I find this hunting and gathering method to be helpful with my research process, especially during this past archival research essay. I found myself researching in both ways before I even knew what they meant. For hunting, I developed research questions and knew which table of information (athletics) I would be headed to when I went to the SCU archives. However, once I got there I was a bit lost and had to resort to gathering so that I wouldn’t spend the whole day in the archives. I took an interest in football, read an article or two on the ending of the program, then searched for all information on this topic that would help me write my essay. I felt my rhetorical purpose became not only to restate what happened with the football program, but to give my opinion as well and use the data I’ve acquired to determine how I think the football program could have been kept alive.

Cecil Buffington

In follow up to my last blog post, I decided to specify my research to the history of the Santa Clara football team. My main research question would be: Why was the Santa Clara football team eliminated? What could have been done to keep the program alive and why were these efforts not made? As an athlete at Santa Clara, I do have some bias on this topic and think it would be awesome if we still had a football team however, I do understand logistics and that some things just have to happen.

But did the ending of the football program really have to happen? The picture above is an advertisement for the 1938 Sugar Bowl between nationally ranked #9 Santa Clara University and #8 LSU. For those who aren’t familiar with football, this is one of the major college bowl games that occur every year. SCU won this game 6-0, the Sugar Bowl the previous year 21-14, and the 1950 Orange Bowl 21-13. This leaves me wondering how Santa Clara went from a nationally ranked, successful football team to a program that struggled to compete against Division II schools. From my research, funding was discovered to be the main issue but if the school didn’t want to put more money into the football program then maybe this shows why they weren’t successful. The school did not view them as a priority and while they had the money to keep the program in existence, they chose to redistribute it elsewhere.

After thinking for quite a while (honestly not that long) I decided that I would take the typical athlete route for this project and ask a question revolved around sports.

Pinterest

My Question

What were Santa Clara athletics like for the athletes as well as the fans? What kind of experience was it and how did school spirit evolve over the years? What sports were added and what were lost and why?

What I Might Find

While this question may be fairly broad and the basic “softball question” an athlete might ask, I am curious to see what the archives can present. I’m hoping to find ticket stubs, programs, team pictures, fan pictures, news articles, and maybe even biographies that revolve around Santa Clara Athletics. I’m very interested in the story of the football program and learning how it went from winning an Orange Bowl to ceasing to exist. The story of the baseball program also interests me (yes I play baseball, sorry to bring it up again) given that the team transformed from a 1962 College World Series Runner-Up, to an alleged “fraternity that played baseball,” to what it is today.

Clipart Kid

Readings

I did enjoy the Tirabassi and Gaillet readings as much as one can possibly enjoy reading about archives. I had no idea what archives were before these readings. They taught me the basics of archive research and how I should handle my research when doing this project. They were very informative and I will definitely be referencing them quite a bit if I find myself lost at the archives.

Leslie’s blog
Alaina’s blog
Brandon’s blog
Celine’s blog
Jason’s blog
Konnor’s blog
Faith’s blog
Natalie’s blog
Maria’s blog
Jake’s blog
Lindsey’s blog
Diego’s blog
Dom’s blog
Ariana’s blog
Shelby’s blog
Bryson’s blog

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about language, how it’s developed, and why English is typically the universal medium of communication. A history class about California got me thinking about these concepts given that many primary sources from our readings talk about the language barrier between the Spaniards and the Native Americans. As the Spanish people began to settle in California they assimilated the Indians into Spanish culture and attempted to convert them to Catholicism.

Source: Clipart Kid

What boggles my mind is thinking about how the forceful, militant Spanish explained God, Catholic practice, and Catholic belief without a shared language, then expected the Native Americans to become devoted Catholics. Breaking this language barrier must’ve been one of the hardest tasks of settling in the America’s. To intrude on an entire people’s land while only relying on motions and signals as communication must’ve led to a great deal of frustration. Teaching the younger generations Spanish couldn’t have been too difficult but teaching the older, hostile generation of Native Americans was most definitely a task that required patience.

Spanish became the predominant language in California until America acquired the land and English became the norm. That means the Natives had to learn another new language to please people living on their land. And not just any language, but a language considered one of the most confusing languages in existence. For this reason alone, I wonder why English is the most common spoken language in the world and why Americans expect everyone to know it. The history of language intrigues me and I empathize dearly with second class citizens who have to adapt to the environment they are in.

I had a very deep appreciation for words yesterday while sitting in one of my classes, and given that this class is titled “Critical Thinking and Writing,” I figured words are of some importance. I was in my “Intro to Listening” class (yes I know, it sounds weird but I’m only taking it because it fulfills my art requirement) and the professor asked us if music needs words to be music. The class agreed that the answer was “no” given how many wonderful orchestras and instrumentals there are that lack lyrics. However, the question got me thinking about the effect words have on music.

There are many songs with a peaceful tune but dark, depressing lyrics just as there are many songs with intimidating, powerful tunes that have inspirational lyrics. A song’s sound creates a mood while the words evoke emotion. They go hand in hand and wouldn’t be the same without one another. A song without a tune would be a poem whereas a song without words would be a melody. Thus to combine these art forms creates a beauty like no other. People’s personality can be reflected through how a tune may make them feel but almost all can come to an agreement on how certain song’s lyrics make them feel. This gives power to words and demonstrates how artists can create change through music. I’ve always loved music for this reason, and although I am not one bit musically talented, I have a great deal of respect for those who are.

I’ve never really enjoyed the research part of research papers or any other papers that require a certain amount of outside evidence. I feel as if there are so many rules that I must follow and an abundance of information that may or may not be credible. Then finding a way to use the information, quote it, and cite it stresses me out. Once I get writing it’s fairly easy, but I’m not a big fan of the research that must go into it.

Although I don’t like researching, I have gotten significantly better at it. I took a communications class last quarter in which I learned the “Funnel Search Strategy.” This strategy applies to research, filtering information, and determining credibility. Essentially it says that when researching, one should start out broad and get narrower and narrower with information. For example, if I were doing a research project on the “Black Lives Matter Movement” I would google it and work my way through the first page of sources to find out what it is and it’s background. I would then narrow my research to recent news sources explaining what has gone on with the movement lately. Continuing, I’d look through pictures and videos of the movement and so on and so forth. This strategy has been very helpful for me and keeps me from being overwhelmed by the amount of information on the topic I am researching.

I really enjoyed the article “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary” and the categories for sources that the author proposes. I do agree with the article that sometimes I find myself trying to find a wide range of sources to meet the requirement rather than focusing on the content of the information itself. I also like how the author explains that the research paper is not a genre of writing and there should be no one right way to attack it. We are all different as writers and therefore must take our own individualized approach to research to produce our best literary work possible.