They are being BEAM-ed down

I really make myself laugh with some of these titles. Anyway, BEAM (More lasers i’m sorry) is a set of vocabulary that allows close interpretation of sources as an alternate to Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary sources. BEAM is more aligned with organizing sources by how they are being used rather than how they are written intrinsically. This is not an idea that I had heard of before I read the article about it, but it does present a better model for categorizing sources, and I have never been a big fan of Primary/Secondary/Tertiary source cataloging anyway.

A lot of my assignments in high school had to have a certain number of primary and secondary sources, which was always very irritating, as it was sometimes hard to find enough sources of the proper types to create a cohesive argument. However, if I was to apply the BEAM vocabulary, and if I had one or two sources for each letter in BEAM, then

Get it? it’s a beam!

you would be able to create an argument that has all of the pieces necessary to be convincing. This is at least another interesting way to consider the sources I use when I do research, and should be able to allow me to gather a greater number of useful sources, without trying to worry about having primary sources and secondary sources. As long as you have some Background, a few Exhibit pieces, a source or two to help your Argument be strong, and framing the whole thing with Method pieces is the basis for a strong argumentative essay, as well as something I am going to strive to do for future research assignments.

In Michael Klein’s article “What is it we do when we write articles like this one — and how can we get students to join us”, he discusses research as a hunter/gatherer dichotomy. This is great way to divide the concept of research into two distinct schools. A hunter searches, he knows what he desires, and tries his best to capture it, and then use it in an essay or article. A gatherer discovers, just as a crop is not ready until much after it is planted, gathering research may not give you immediately what you are searching for, but can ultimately give you insights you would not have had before. There are benefits and drawbacks to both of these stratagems. If you are hunting, there is a chance you will miss valuable information in the text, things you overlook not because they are not important, but because they are not what you are searching for at that moment. A gathering strategy is much slower, consuming much more time, and may not always yield results that are as effective, especially if the source you are trying to gather from is not very topical. The optimal option, as discussed by Klein, is a combination of both “strategic hunting and heuristic gathering”.

I am guilty of not taking the time to gather properly the majority of the time I do research. The difference between me and the people that Klein discusses in his article is that they are all doing research about something that interests them. They have no problem spending hours doing gathering style research on whatever topic they are interested in, as whatever they find will be truly enlightening for them. I find it very difficult to properly gather information when I am researching a topic that I have little interest in. This is a major part of why I have less problem doing research for CTW, as we get to choose our own topics, and write about things that interest us. I still need to strive to be more patient as I do my research, but with topics becoming more interesting to me, my style of information collection has definitely improved.

The artifact that I ended up choosing is the constitution of the Block SC Society of Santa Clara University. While I was scouring the internet for any reference of them, as well as trying to glean more information about spirit groups at SCU, I found an application for the Job of Manager of Athletic Game Day Promotions. I found this to be an interesting find, not only because I was not aware that such a position existed, nor that there is a fairly extensive list of requirements for the job, but because I wonder if this position would have been fulfilled by SC Block back when they existed. It makes me wonder why there is a recent application for a position that I would have hoped would already be filled. However, the overwhelming lack of support for the athletics department from the student body points to the idea that we really do need someone or something to come in and make a change.

This ties nicely into an article I found on The Santa Clara, The undergraduate newspaper’s, website titled Santa Clara Has No School Spirit. This article discusses the lack of people who attend sports games, blaming largely the student body for our sports team’s mediocrity. I would like to Imagine that there was a time when this was not the case, and our sports teams had fans. I personally can attest that it is a lot more fun playing in front of a home court crowd than anywhere else. Maybe the SC Block of antiquity carried the duties of school spirit, allowing the athletics to excel. It requires more research for sure, but brings up a fascinating idea about the advantages of a crowd at a sports game.

I am excited to look more into this idea, especially as if I was able to make a solid claim, and even more farfetched if I can make some noise, then more people will come to our sports games, which are very fun to go to.