I have been thinking a lot about what question I would like to research for my research project. Last quarter in my CTW class I wrote a synthesis paper on the effects low income rates have on students who come from that background. When brainstorming about my research paper, I kept going back to that topic. How does low income affect students in college? This questions and topic are very intriguing to me and I would like to research some more about them. So… drum roll please…
Source: The Office
My initial question for this research project is
“Who receives the majority of financial aid and has it changed over the years?”
I am very curious to research this question and learn more about this. Financial aid seems like it has become much more common in recent years or at least talked about more so I am curious to see how it has evolved over the last 50 years.
Today as my class goes into the archives of Santa Clara University, I am hoping to find old documents or papers that talk about financial aid or even the incomes of specific groups of people and whether or not race plays into that. What I find in the archives is going to be a big part of my research for how financial aid has changed or evolved. I am hopeful that I am going to find something that will help me learn more about this question.
A few days ago in class, we read an article by Katherine E. Tirabassi called “Journeying Into Archives”. This article really helped me to prepare myself before going into the archives. Tirabassi talked about the specific principles we should follow when researching in the archives.
Principle of Selectivity: The researcher’s understanding of how archivists select and omit artifacts for a given collection.
Principle of Cross Referencing: The practice of searching across documents for contextual traces that clarify an archival documents rhetorical situation or that confirm, corroborate, clarify, or contradict a fact or point cited in a given document.
Principle of Categorization: The development of keywords and finding aids that help researchers access information in the archive.
Principle of Closure: The researcher’s understanding that there are inherent gaps in archival records and that while the archive is complex and rich, it cannot be searched exhaustively.
These principles are going to be really helpful for me to use when I go into the archives. Because I have never worked with archival sources, it is important that I realize I am not going to find exactly what I am looking for. I need to be open to finding sources that might not be exactly what I wanted but will ultimately help my research. It is also important that I find multiple sources that both agree and disagree with each other and that confirm or clarify facts. The archives are going to be a whole new world for me but I am really excited to see what I find! Stay tuned to hear!