The Process of Research

Posted on by lcosgrove

Just last quarter, I was assigned the daunting task of writing an eight-page research paper for my Art History class. The approach that I took to this assignment was essentially the usual research process I undergo:

The first step was to decide on a topic of choice. This involved going back over previous material I had learned, and deciding on something that interested me the most. After all, if I was going to have to write eight pages on the subject, I wanted to make sure it was something I would be interested in. From there I had to develop a clear thesis that made a claim about the particular topic, along with specific points that I would address throughout the research paper. I usually do this whether I’m writing a research paper or not because I like to map out and know exactly what I’m looking for before I begin the actual research.

Once I decided on a topic and narrowed it down even further with a thesis, I had to then begin the hardest part, actually researching. Much like Liw Ekdab, subject of “The Great Research Disaster”, I immediately began my background research at none other than the infamous Wikipedia.Yes, I am aware of the fact that any user can change the information of any page, but this also means that the website is an accumulation of global knowledge. Besides, I never rely on Wikipedia for specific dates, numbers, or time periods, but rather to gain adequate background knowledge about a certain event/person. Using Wikipedia, I was able to jot down key events or people that I could further research using more reliable resources.

Unlike Liw, I used the college’s library database as a way to find books, simply because I thought it would be the fastest way to find a reliable resource that was available for checkout, as opposed to “googling” books, which would have simply given me an endless list of books that although may have pertained to my subject, might not have actually been available in the library.

I did however use Google Scholar, as I usually do. As a college student, I find that it’s an extremely convenient source of information as most of the articles published are reliable and packed with information, and it requires no checking out as many of the articles are available online for free. Many times, especially if I encounter an article that’s longer than ten pages, I’ll do exactly what Liw did, and simply read the abstract to see if it gives me the answers I want. If not, I can always read further into the source.

Though I may employ similar researching methods to those of Liw, I would never go as far as making up a quote or guessing the source. The way I justify making “shortcuts” is by asking myself whether the information stays valid, whether the sources I use are given enough credit (which I give in the bibliography), and whether the information I’ve attained is adequate enough to write a solid paper.

Overall, research is a long and daunting process, but when done with the right strategies and approaches, you can save a lot of time and pain while still producing a paper to be proud of, just like I did.

Images Cited:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef017ee55622e6970d-800wi

http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/darlagrant/Images/conceptmap.gif

A Very Rough Guide to Blogging

Posted on by lcosgrove

PRE-REVISION

I’ll be honest, when I was told that our last English assignment was to convert a synthesis essay that we had previously written into a blog post I thought, this is going to be easy. I mean, I had already done the hard work by writing the actual paper. Now all I had to do was paraphrase it in a voice that mimicked the way I usually spoke.

But this was easier said than done.

CHANGES

Going into this assignment, I knew I wanted my writing to have a balance between my personal voice and my academic one; I wanted to appeal to people, but also earn their respect as a capable writer. But when it got down to actually making the revisions, everything that I ended up rewriting sounded just as academic as the original paper. I realized that I had grown so accustomed to writing for school assignments, that I had in some ways forgotten how to write something more personal.

It took me a few tries, but I slowly managed to weave more and more of my voice into my writing. I used a first person point of view, employing words such as “me” and “our”, which definitely helped me connect what I was writing to myself as well as to my readers. I also included more of my own commentary/opinion into the writing. Blogs, after all, give authors the freedom to be very opinion-based, so I didn’t hold back in including my own thoughts.

Bolding and s p a c i n g were also notable features I added in. I used bolding to highlight key words that I thought emphasized important ideas or points that I was making, and used spacing to divide my essay into shorter paragraphs that would make it easier for readers to follow. These extra spaces also gave me more opportunities to use visual elements to enhance my writing, which brings me to my next point.

Visuals/media usage was probably the most enjoyable part of this assignment. They completely changed the mood of the piece by adding a more playful and interactive aspect to the writing. I used GIFs, pictures, and even a video at the end to give readers an opportunity to take a break from all the words on the screen. Most importantly, however, I used hyperlinks, which allowed me to create a conversation between my writing and other sources on the web. I was able to link readers to specific word definitions, to other online articles, and to institutions and people mentioned in my writing, all of which helped establish the credibility of my arguments.

One of the most difficult changes that I had to make, however, was cutting down the length of the article. My original essay was almost 3X as long as it needed to be, so I had to focus on key elements that I knew I wanted to include and get rid of the rest. What I essentially ended up doing was keeping what I felt were my strongest sources/quotes and arguments, and getting rid of the other more “secondary” backup paragraphs. I found that this allowed me to make my argument more concise and focused, which is probably the writing style most blog-readers are accustomed to reading.

Though I made all of these changes, it was important to me that my academic voice was still prevalent. This blog is, after all, a kind of writing portfolio for my CTW essays, so I wanted to make sure I still included its more “scholarly” elements. For example, I chose to keep a lot of my metacommentary, simply because I found that it always added clarification to the points I was making. I also employed the use of a lot of typical essay transitions because I liked the sound and flow it gave to my writing.

                                                     “It’s about balance”

REFLECTION AND FUTURE GOALS

In sum then, the assignment was both a challenging and enjoyable experience. While I’ll continue to work on improving in my academic essay-writing abilities, I’d also like to practice writing in a more personal style. Hopefully publishing my work on this blog will help me reach that point.

Side note: for those of you who are interested, here’s a helpful article that talks about how to jumpstart your own blog on WordPress.

Thanks for reading!

Media Credits

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-05/12/23/enhanced/webdr03/anigif_enhanced-buzz-2246-1431487866-6.gif

http://thewritelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/photodune-7044162-balance-xs-300×300.jpg

 

 

 

 

Is College Still Necessary?

Posted on by lcosgrove

For many teenagers like myself, college has always been a part of the plan. Society, after all, tends to make us feel like it’s the only way in which we can adequately prepare ourselves for the adult world.

But the more I think about it, the more I begin to seriously question whether a college education is as necessary as it’s made out to be. Surely there must be other alternatives to confining students to lecture halls as a means of learning.

TECHNOLOGY

Take technology, for example, as one such alternative to going to college. With the arrival of the Internet came freedom from the classroom. No longer were people forced to sit in math class to learn about the Pythagorean theorem. All it took was a quick lookup on any online academic site, such as Khan Academy, and the answers would appear almost immediately free of charge.

More importantly however, came the availability of certified online schools. Yes, the way in which people learn information online differs significantly from their college-going counterparts, but the content and lessons taught are essentially the same. Not only that, but online schooling also means freedom from the costs of dormitories, facilities, and academic resources that are usually associated with college.

But looking at this idea on an even broader scale, we can see that technology in general has completely reshaped the way in which we think and learn. Gone are the days of rummaging through library stacks to find the five-hundred-paged encyclopedia that contains the one piece of information needed. Now we are able to simply “Google” almost any subject and have plenty of resources at our fingertips. What this essentially means is less time is wasted searching and more time is spent learning and interpreting.

As journalist Clive Thompson phrased it in his article “Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better”, “at their best, today’s digital tools help us see more, retain more, communicate more” (347). What he essentially claims here is that technology has dramatically expanded our cognitive capabilities by simply performing our brain’s normal functions, but to a much larger scale.

There are of course those who think otherwise. To these naysayers, technology has brought more harm than good to the way in which we think and learn. The luxuries of convenience that search engines and other online tools provide, they say, make people lazier when it comes to doing any long-term reading or analysis. For example, writer Nicholas Carr argues, “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (315). What Carr is saying here is that his use of the Internet has resulted in him no longer being able to read lengthy, complex passages or do any in-depth form of thinking because he is so used to skimming for information online.

But what Carr fails to acknowledge is that with the use of every powerful tool comes balance. Just as people should regulate the amount of time they spend on their cellphone, they should also monitor the extent to which they use the Internet. When used appropriately, the computer can boost rather than hurt our learning processes.

GET A JOB

It is, of course, true that not everyone is as fortunate enough to be able to afford technology as advanced as a computer, let alone a college education. For these people, not all hope is lost. Working a simple, blue-collar job teaches workers the same foundational skills that students would learn in college, such as the ability to communicate, perform math applications, memorize, read and follow instructions. If anything, working a modest job in some aspects is even more enriching than attending college, simply because of the fact that it places workers in real-life situations, as opposed to in a sheltered classroom environment.

Take, for example, the job of a motor factory worker. In such an occupation, important skills such as planning to ensure a fluid and on-time schedule, communication for optimal cooperation and understanding, measuring and calculating to guarantee proper dimension requirements are met, and reading to know how to put a machine together, are all required. As I mentioned before, unlike in a classroom, where knowledge is tested through tests and quizzes, in a working environment, knowledge is tested through immediate real-world application, where its employees are driven by the need to learn and adapt quickly if they want to succeed in their job.

To get a better idea of this perspective, check out Mike Rowe’s interview on the perks of working “dirty-jobs” as opposed to attending college to pursue “unrealistic” passions.

My point, dear readers, is not that college is an elite institution that isn’t worth the time or financial investment, but that it isn’t as essential as it once was. What was once the only option for high school graduates to learn and develop the skills needed to survive in the working world has now become one of many potential paths students can take in a highly technological and economically thriving world. So for those of you who are either amidst or are yet to experience the dreaded college application season, I urge you to approach this next stage of your life by not asking yourself first which college is for you, but rather what kind of a learner are you?

To gain further insight into this topic, check out this article about the pros and cons of attending college vs. getting work experience.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” They Say/I Say. Eds. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015. 313-29. Print.

Thompson, Clive. “Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing          Our Minds for the Better” They Say/I Say. Eds. Gerald Graff, Cathy   Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015. 340-60.      Print

Image/Video Credits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKzu86Agg0

http://icsjobportal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Blue-collar-mechanic.jpg

http://genomicenterprise.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Russia-Builds-Mind-Controlled-Computer-Credits-to-Elanso.jpg

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5699be6d05caa74dde6f0667/56a95d2aa128e6cf16355dc7/56a98c0ebe7b96cd1e2733fe/1453952015247/635786237343622376-1066461216_debtcartoon.jpg?format=750w

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/06/ADULT.gif