Critical Thinking and Writing

In addition to the aside about kind words of the post it notes in the girls bathroom, I have found some other little pieces of non- academic writing and rhetoric in my dorm building again. 

San Filippo second floor door knob

These notes left behind weren’t as pleasant then the ones featured in my the post that this is a continuation of, but nevertheless, they are words that are to be read by students at SCU. Tied on the doorknob with twine was three small strips of paper that have facts and statistics about inequality.

The one in the photo reads, “The median net worth of white households in 2009 was $133,149, over 20 times the median net worth for African American households ($5,677) and 18 times that of Hispanic households ($6,325).”

Inequality

Another factoid offered wrote:

“The one percent has 35.6 percent of all private wealth, more than the bottom 95 percent combined.”

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Although these notes are scattered around they certainly have a vey different message than the kind words of encouragement that were places– and still are on– then mirror in the ladies room. These examples of rhetoric are used as food for thought and to possibly start a conversation about inequality. While it is notable to mention that these notes are a good way to read an unpleasant fact, I don’t think that social inequality will be solved from notes on a doorknob.

But what this does, it allows for students to enter the “conversation” of inequality with the use of these shocking facts that are offered to the residents of San Filippo.

This example in contrast with the sticky notes on the mirror demonstrate another aspect of what is important to some of the students at SCU. Lessons of inequality were seen as important to share and those lessons were distributed in an informal yet impactful way that gets people thinking outside of the classroom.

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Until next time…

I’ve been assigned with a research project but before I can actually research anything, I need to find a question. 

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Unfortunately, I got stuck up on asking “what should my question be?!”

I needed a question to ask to “enter the conversation”. But then, that got me asking “what conversation am I trying to join?!”

Throughout my CTW course, we’ve discussed many different approaches to join a conversation and we’ve learned rhetorical techniques to contribute in an interesting way. Essentially, I was equipped with the tools to direct my research to join “a” conversation but first a question had to be formulated to inject myself into a certain conversation.

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I had already done archival research and learned about advertisements. I sent out surveys and got some information about advertisements. Both of these can aspects of research can be used as exhibit sources in a potential research paper. An exhibit source can be used as something for me to interpret my findings to add something to an already existing conversation.

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So, then I had more questions to reach my research questions. I decided to use some of my existing questions that I got answers to… (during the archival search and the surveys) to plan to make a question directed towards the use of my exhibit sources.

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So in looking at the other questions that I had already asked during my research, I was on track towards finding a research question. After a discussion with my professor to give me some guidance, we both decided that an interesting conversation derived from the of the use of technology could be something like “how has the increased use of technology effect something in the academic world?”

That “something in the academic world” part of my questions has not yet been decided, but it will be incorporated to ensure that my main topic is not too broad. So, after lots of question asking and few answers, a research question is coming along! 

Where my last post I established why it is important to have a survey free of errors, this post will discuss the content that each well crafted question is able to get; but no conclusions.

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I begin again with the question making process of a survey. My survey had to do with advertisements like in my previous post “My Archival Finds“. I didn’t know exactly what kind of qualitative data I was seeking, but with well formulated questions I know that I could get good data to apply… to something… somehow….

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Since I had to keep my surveyee’s somewhat interested, I figured that it was best to have a short survey. I used the Likert scale in addition to two fill in the blank for more insightful information. Since this was my first survey, before I sent it out into the world I thought that it was in pretty good shape. I thought that sharing it to my friends on Facebook was also a good way to send it on a quest for data.

A Tribe Called QUEST

The data I found is different than I had expected– but I guess that’s not a bad thing? In my mind, I figured since most of my friends in real life are in college, that the 18-21 age group would be the primary age group to fill up my survey responses. I was shocked to see that I got 37 responses in four days and 12 of those responses were from 16 year olds. Most of them were girls (I discovered this because I can look at each post individually and observe what gender corresponded to each age).

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The information that 32% of data that I got about surveys was from Sophomores and Juniors in high school. Although I think that the data is still useable, I think this information will allow me to make sense of this data in a different way than expected.

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I had expected to find information that held some answers as to what types of advertisements that college students were most commonly exposed to. Almost unanimously, the people that I surveyed claimed that they viewed advertisements most regularly on “the internet”, “online”, or on “social media”. No matter the age group, teenagers to middle-aged people, my survey questions brought me to the conclusion that most people viewed advertisements online.

Although, I think that some data was skewed when I asked a question near the end for only people currently in college to answer and there were more answers that strayed far from the college age group. Based off the majority of my friends on Facebook, not many people outside of the college age (18-22 ish) were currently still in college. So, now I am aware in the future that a question must not have been well written causing it to be misconstrued by many.

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Although my answers gave me a learning experience in terms of writing questions, I also know now that the platform that I use to distribute my survey is very important to consider. I can’t say that it is a bad thing that my data was primarily from a younger age group, but I can say that it will change how I am able to interpret the data.

Until next time…. the research expedition continues!

Me after seeing survey answers

As a part of an upcoming research paper for my english class, I sent out my first survey and found some interesting data.

My first order of business was creating “good” survey questions. This means that questions had to fit a certain set of criteria to be considered good to get the exact kind of data that you’re looking for in the research process— after I sent out my survey, I found that some questions were not well formulated giving me answers that I do not know how to interpret.

So I began my survey with questions of age and gender to get a sense of who was filling it out since I put it on Facebook rather than distributing the survey out to college aged people on campus.

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I chose to distribute my survey on Facebook to find data for my research paper simply because..

1. I didn’t want to go up to people in person and ask them to fill out my survey.
2. My friends in real life love me so they would fill out a survey on FB for me.

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It was as simple as that… or so I thought.

Then, there was a major mistake that turned into a “catastrophe” as one of my FB friends jokingly pointed out

The said catastrophe was a misplaced apostrophe on the word “you’re”. Instead of the correct way, I wrote “your’e”.

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An honest mistake turned into heartless backlash from my so-called “friends” that I trusted to fill out the survey…. little did I know, such a seemingly small typing mistake would mean so much.

I think that because my chosen audience was my Facebook friends, they were able to criticize a minor error because it was a my friends poking fun at me. It didn’t actually bother me because who really cares about a typo?? 

but… this does show the importance of how one creates a survey and it shows that little errors are important. Furthermore, my friends know who I am and would allow a mistake like this to pass, but if this was a more professional survey sent out by a stranger I would expect them to put enough care into designing it so that questions don’t have typos.

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So, the playful wrath of my friends gave me a lot information about them survey itself, not just what the data I got from the survey. My friends and distant relatives would take the survey because they like me despite an error but I think a stranger would feel much less inclined to do such a favor.

Up next, more on the survey!

San Filippo second floor women’s restroom

In a place that is maybe not so glamorous to talk about there has been traces of writing and rhetoric passing on kind messages to young women who frequent that restroom.

Not my Facebook wall

The notes left stuck to the mirror are a perfect example of rhetoric. I thought that whoever left a pad of sticky notes and a pen to pass along opportunities for the women in the dorm to share encouraging words is a wonderful example of how theoretic can be used in ways other than in the classroom. This is only one of the many example of writing and rhetoric riddled around the campus that embodies what it is to be a Santa Clara student.

This example shows how something like one note and sticky pad can encourage more writing in ways that aren’t online– like much of today’s leisurely writing is done. Most writing for pleasure is done over text or social media to share our voice, but I think it’s nice to see the change of reading a note.

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Notes like these bring back the feeling of hand written notes were special for a reason and I’m glad that they are back, at least on the mirror in the women’s restroom.

My archival research began by looking at newspaper articles from 1960. I found that there was a surprising amount of advertisements for cigarettes and I thought that was very interesting.

As I was looking at this I considered the outrage that would come from an advertisement today for cancer sticks. I thought that it was ironic that advertisements for cigarettes populated the school newspaper so frequently but today such ads would never been seen in newspapers let alone the school newspaper.

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I found it interesting that something like cigarettes were much socially accepted at the time because they were not seen as a dangerous and cancer causing device. The presence of the ads in the newspaper compared to the smoking ban on campus displays a huge shift in the values of the people on campus who enforce the rules against smoking and the people who follow those rules.

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Not only does the evolution of ads display the values that advertisers target by using appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, but it shows the changes that come with time.

Although my time in the archives provided we with some interesting finds, I found it very frustrating while I was attempting to decipher what the finds meant. I had no clue how to draw any conclusions about looking at old newspapers until I sat down for some office hours. I needed clarity and after talking it over with my professor, I learned that I needed to research in other places to find out more about the artifacts that I was examining.

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In my critical thinking and writing class, we are working towards producing a research paper at the end of the term. To add on to my last post about what I thought the archives were compared to what I learned them to be, I will share my thoughts about my preliminary archival experience before I visit the archives in class.

In class we have spent a great deal of time discussing research methods about archival research and expectations and tomorrow we will be able to apply those to actual artifacts.

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I don’t really have any specific research questions lined up for my time in the archives, but I do hope to find something that can generate more interesting questions through examination. I hope to find a good exhibit source in the archives.

Since I don’t have a specific topic in mind…. I will go into the archives with an open mind and try to formulate questions that will uncover more questions to further the research process. This approach may be not be viewed as ideal because of my lack of planning, but I think that it is actually perfectly acceptable since there is re no “rules” to this type of research.

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Archival research has different proposed research methods and processes, but since a “correct” approach to historical research is a grey area (as I’ve read and discussed in class) there isn’t a clear-cut order of operations when tasked with archival research.

In spite of the haze surrounding the steps of archival research, I think that Gaillet offers readers a good way approach such research. Myself being in the early stages of research, I am going to focus on step one.

This screenshot from a reading by Gaillet provides prospective researchers with a good guide to approach archival research. I will focus on step number one. Specifically, I will be attempting to find intriguing documents that will spark interesting questions. Those questions may lead to dead ends or they could create an interesting and dynamic project… I will soon see where my findings take me or rather, where the archives take me.

For now, I think that it is best for me to prepare for the archives with an open mind and sense of adventure for something like this that I’ve never done before.

Me when I found out what an archive is

Prior to my CTW class, I had never really thought about what an archive actually is. I simply imagined that an archive was a room like a basement that stored old dusty books that some people used occasionally– I was wrong.

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After my professor assigned a research paper that I am to use Santa Clara University’s archives for, I was still under the assumption that it was probably just a dusty dimly lit version of a library with books that are a bit older.

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Once I was assigned to read, “Journeying Into the Archives” by Katherine E. Tirabassi, I realized that my assumption that an archive was basically a library in a storage unit was very far from true. Still, after I read of Tirabassi’s account and explanation of an archive, but I still didn’t quite understand what it physically “is”.

As I clicked on the first link after googling “what is an archive”, I found a good explanation

An archive is a place where people go to find information. But rather than gathering information from books as you would in a library, people who do research in archives often gather first hand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, audio and video recordings, and other primary sources.

http://files.archivists.org/advocacy/AAM/WhatIsAnArchives.pdf

So I an archive is a place that one would go to analyze primary documents– concluding that an archive is not a library.

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That revelation aside, I now had a reason to be interested in the purpose and use of archives because I am to use one soon. To use one well, I think that it is valuable to look at the a proposed organized approach to archives as Tirabassi explained in the reading:

 

Principle of Selectivity: to understand how artifacts are selected of rejected for a particular archives

 

Principle of Cross-Referencing: “searing across documents” for contextual traces to clarify an archival document’s rhetorical situation or to confirm, collaborate, clarify, or contradict a fact or point cited in a given document.

 

Principle of Categorization: the development of key words and findings aids that help researchers access information in an archives

 

Principle of Closure: Understanding that there are inherent gaps in archival records and that the researcher should know when to stop researching.

 

(Tirabassi)

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The reading and a bit of further research into archives prepared me for actually using an archive to conduct my own research later on in the term. Because I have more clarity on what an archives “is”, my approach to an upcoming research paper will be very different than relying on my limited prior knowledge of the purpose of an archives.

Until next time…. go visit an archive

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Spring term is filled with laying by the pool, spending time outside, and getting some fresh air after California’s uncharacteristically wet winter. I was more than eager to switch my winter wardrobe with my shorts and sandals. Don’t get me wrong— nothing is better than getting cozy next to a fireplace while sipping on hot cocoa, but that degree of comfort isn’t found in a dorm.

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Pleasant weather makes dorm life more enjoyable and in return, it makes school more enjoyable. The lingering dampness of winter is no longer a commonplace in spring term which makes being in college so much better!!!

Instead of being stuck in a library of students escaping the cold and dreary outside, students are free to engage in their students outside!!

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Homework outside like creating a blog, reading a website, or writing a paper can be enhanced because of the benefits of enjoying fresh air that is not a reasonable option throughout the year.

Doing homework outside makes school so much more enjoyable because the new and different scenery as well. No longer are students stuck in their dorm room or library. In pleasant weather, homework no longer feels like “work”. It becomes a treat to be outside to be able to enjoy everything that springtime has to offer while still being productive. Not quite a vacation, but the name “Claradise” has caught on for a reason.

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In my perfect world, the weather of spring would be year round and classes would be held outside. In reality our short springtime will suffice and homework outside will be the closest thing to perfect.

Until next time…

Or rather– “A Research Process in the Works”

Like many students, I struggle with organization. Not only in my disheveled dorm room but also in writing.

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Prior to reading, “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing”, I wasn’t exposed to the large array many different research methods. I suppose I just considered research to be a loosely organized “thing” that gave students enough information and citations to craft into a paper.

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I didn’t know that BEAM was one of many different approaches to creating a research paper.

BEAM is a vocabulary to think about sources through another set of terms. For example, beam disposes the use of primary and secondary sources by employing a different lens at which writers are to approach the gathering of information for a research paper. The acronym BEAM stands for Background, Exhibit, Argument, and Method. 

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A distinct difference between BEAM and a more traditional research method that relies on primary and secondary sources is that BEAM allows the writer to interpret what each source can offer a paper opposed to the what a source is considered “to be” (in terms of primary and secondary).

BEAM focuses on how the source is used, which in turn, demands students to become more engaged in their research to create better papers.

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To further explain BEAM I will describe what each letter means.

Background

• Sources used as facts
• Not always cited
• Considered to be common knowledge

Exhibit

• Sources for explanation
• Analysis or interpretation
• Used to demonstrate a claim or assertion. 

Argument 

• Related to secondary sources
• Peer reviewed
• Scholarly
• Academic writing

Method

• Genre expectation
• Formal expectation
• Framework for how you plan to approach a topic

Proposing a method like this can lend a new and arguably better way to approach writing a research paper by using sources in ways that are positioned in the best way to  make “join the conversation” in an interesting and insightful way.

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BEAM is a method that I will employ in my next research paper because I think that it offers valuable advantages over the traditional research method that lead me to be very disorganized. In addition to helping with organization, BEAM will force me to better understand the material so I will learn more in order to make my point in the most efficient way possible.

Until next time…

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