Monday, March 15, 2010
Booth's the Craft of Research, pages 3-27
Have you ever thought of research the way the writers of The Craft of Research are describing it in these pages? What have been some of your myths/misconceptions about research in the past? Why do you think you held those myths/misconceptions? After reading these pages, how do you think of research now? Are your opinions the same or are they changed? Why or why not?
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I have used a few of the research techniques but I have forgotten most of them over the years. Like I always pick a topic I like and figure out what I want to talk about but I just lose my vision easily. One of the biggest myths for me is that I write for the teacher. Writing is not enjoyable to me. Reading isn’t enjoyable to me either; I’m hands on type guy. The reason I think people hold one to those bad habits are that they work on a lower level and teachers are lazy and don’t want to do double the work. This is what most college student’s lack that went to poor schools. I think of research papers now as teaching to someone instead of showing them what I know. Research papers are supposed to answer questions not just state facts. My opinions have changed now because I want to become a better writer.
ReplyDeleteI am not a good writer at all. In high school, my essays weren't very in depth. And of coarse, my teachers always gave me As. So I never saw the need to go any further than I was going already (that tends to be the downfall in LA public schools). I would just write essays that present the facts and statistics. So this semester, when it came time to present an opinion and support it, I am having a really hard time. Another misconception I had was that I had to find sources on the internet alone. I don't think I have ever looked at a book for sources until I started college.
ReplyDeleteI have always believed when I was curious about a topic, subject, or a person, I was doing research. Now I do know that not every "research" I do is really for a piece of writing or for an assignment, that is what I first think about when I hear the word "research." I personally agree with John when he said that "One of the biggest myths for me is that I write for the teacher." When anyone writes a paper or an assignment to make an argument or a point, many people think that since the teacher is grading the paper, that teacher is their audience. TOTALLY 100% FALSE! The teacher is one of many, possibly millions of people, that are in the audience. I unfortunately found this out a little too late in high school, but eventually I figured it out. My opinions on research changed Junior year of high school and they have stayed the same, and I think they will stay like that for a very long time!
ReplyDeleteBtw, just wanted to know, but since the protest is tomorrow, I was thinking of going to school in drag... what does everyone think? Seriously, Diana needs to come out of the closet in all her rainbow glory!
ReplyDeleteI can’t even think of any researching techniques that I used in the past, I’m not even sure if I had any because English has never been a concentration of mine. I have never been a good writer, mainly because I have never been an enthusiast of reading or writing. My papers in the past have always been brief and to the point. But like Sam I also went to a public school and received decent grades so I never tried to improve my writing and now college English is very challenging for me. Like John and Justin, I use to write for the teacher, now I try to write for readers. My thoughts for research changed after my first semester of college English, not because I want to be a better writer but because it is very much mandatory in modern society.
ReplyDeletePersonally the word "research" has always had either of two effects: it scares the hell out of me or it pisses me off, because it means "reading a lot of crap on a subject I don't care about so that I can attempt to turn out a ridiculous amount of pages' worth of tripe that someone who barely knows me will tell me is written wrong and therefore make me remember all over again why I hate taking English classes. The concept of writing for an audience, too, is a daunting one to me; I don't understand people. I don't know what they understand or don't, what they feel or don't, etc. I never have; I give new meaning to the phrase "lives inside his/her head". Because of that, when I'm told to keep my audience in mind I haven't the slightest idea what the hell I'm supposed to be thinking about as I write something.
ReplyDeleteIt's always advised to pick a topic you like, but since when do teachers ever let you pick the topic you're going to write a research paper on unless it was from a list of topics you don't want to write about and you picked the least of all the evils?
I don't know about it being a myth that you write for the teacher, in that context; if I'm being told to write a paper on something that I wouldn't have chosen myself, whether or not it was from a list of possible topics to write on, I'm sure not writing it for myself-- I'm writing it because the person responsible for helping me get out of school said I had to and no one else is going to read it but that person, so in that situation at least yeah, I am writing for the teacher.
…I just realized how angry this post sounds, haha. I would apologize but it’s true; I really, really cannot stand having to write papers in most English classes because it seems like it’s more a case of trying to adhere to a set of stupid rules some dead person made up that make no sense to me only to have someone else tell me that I’m doing it wrong.
I think I’m going to end this now before something catches fire.
Something that has always gotten me to question my writing skills has always been researching to choose a topic. I feel as though I have a great idea, and then, once I present it to my teacher, I am told that there is either not enough to write about, or that my topic is too broad to write however long the essay needs to be. Once I got to college my issues did nothing but swell. My English 1000 teacher always told me that I had horrible writing skills, but, somehow I had managed to straighten all of my topic issues and got A's all throughout high school on essays.
ReplyDeleteThe audience is yet another issue. I have always been told to write as though I have to explain every detail of what I say to the reader as if they do not know anything I am writing about. Now that my audience is technically the grader who, most likely, is aware of the topic and the subject matter, I feel as though I do not know where to begin.
Even though the book does give insight and answers some questions, I still find myself lost in the world of English Composition.
I can say honestly that I’d never thought of research quite the way it is presented in the readings. I think that is partially because from a very young age we (schoolchildren) are sort of socialized into the thought that we are only writing for a grade and not necessarily for personal enrichment, which is kind of disappointing in a way. I think I would’ve enjoyed lab and books reports much more if I were told that they were going to be important to people other than me and my teachers. Additionally, I had no idea the information should presented differently to different audiences. These readings have most certainly changed my opinions and outlooks regarding research.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Justin, totally dress up!
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to have great english teachers throughout my high school career who really emphasized techniques such as annotating and reading between the lines of texts we wrote about in class. I feel like writing is one of my stronger suits, actually the only part of the ACT I did well on, but I would like to improve my skills because writing is something I enjoy. I like learning how to formulate a strong argument and support it in a way that is difficult to refute. It kind of makes me think of what a lawyer may go through in the process of putting together a defense argument for a case; no stone can left untouched, and every possible rebuttal must be accounted for and refuted before it can even be thrown out for debate. I like to write and am looking forward to cleaning up my future papers with techniques presented in The Craft of Research in order to help me formulate stronger arguments.
ReplyDeleteI did a 10 page paper for a science class in 9th grade that required a lot of research, but it was very specific to that paper- in general though I tend to write about things that I’m already curious about, and I don’t really consider it research when I’m looking it up. I do however work in Hill Memorial in Special Collections and a lot of what I do is doing research for the exhibits on all sorts of subjects, some very interesting and some that bore me to tears. I don’t feel like I ever really knew what research was until I came to college because I agree with what you guys have said- I always felt like I was either writing for myself or my teacher and while I liked many of the subjects it was never really hard to get a good grade so there wasn’t a big challenge until now.
ReplyDeleteAnd Justin- go for it! : )
ReplyDeleteMany people simply see research as a means to an end; within the school population it is mostly a way to get the grade. The book talks about continuously about picking a topic that will enrich yourself and your knowledge about something you want to know. At a university, we are continuously in contact with matters like that. Our professors chose to become experts in a field that they craved more knowledge about, and undergrads and graduate students are trying to learn about something they’re interested in. The main purpose of a university is to assimilate, transfer, and create new knowledge. However, research isn’t just al l about learning a particular topic, you must be able to tell others or apply what you have learned from your studies. Making a breakthrough is nothing if it can’t be shared with others, thus good oratory or writing skills are essential to not only bolster your research, but also the research of others.
ReplyDeleteLike Sam, I too was never a great writer. I loved my high school but the education was not really up to par. Especially our English department. had never heard of MLA format until I got to college. I know SAD! We never did works cited pages so I'm still learning really. I've never written a paper longer than 3 pages in my life so finding a topic that interest me that much is going to be a struggle. Hopefully after reading this book I will have a much better understanding of how to write a detailed and informative research paper.
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ReplyDeleteI feel like today’s society is almost convinced that research isn’t necessary. With the internet to conveniently at our fingertips, there really isn’t much research that needs to be done. Honestly if someone asked me to research something, I’d just type it into google. And if you asked other people the same question, I bet you that would be the immediate response of a lot of those people. We are so technologically leashed that most people don’t even know how to use a library anyway. Everything is electronic based. Books are slowly becoming obsolete. Which is rather depressing. Even our books aren’t really books anymore. With books electronically on your iphone or on the new “Nook” people don’t even need to turn the page any more, they just scroll. I’m telling you it won’t be long before writing on paper goes out too.
ReplyDeleteI have never considered research the way the writers of The Craft…have described. I would say I’m a self-proclaimed ideal writer; however, they opened my eyes to a new level of writing research papers. I usually chose a topic that the teacher assigns. It’s crazy that the writers were able to pinpoint this bad habit in most students. Writing to an extent is enjoyable, only if, like the writers of “The Craft…” say you chose what you want to write about. I never looked at a research paper as me giving all the information and teaching something, but as giving as many facts as I could find. I’ve learned that research papers are not only facts, but they answer questions and allow readers to formulate new ones. My opinions/beliefs of research papers have changed drastically. Hopefully, following the advice of the writers of “The Craft of Research” I will become a better writer.
ReplyDeleteIn high school the only English teacher whoever really talked about research was my junior year and the teacher wasn’t very helpful. I never learned how to properly site anything within the text of my papers. Really all that was talked about were things not to do such a plagiarism and using Wikipedia. Although now when I get bored sometimes I will just get online and click and read things. One thing makes me want to read about something else and so forth. I now feel like that is more of what research is supposed to feel like and not just finding articles on you’re specific topic. I also used to only really use one source to write my paper although still present the required number of sources on my works cited page. I had just glanced as most of them, but figured everything I needed was on this one awesome website or book. However in high school we were never really able to choose what we wrote about and after getting to college and having decisions I really started to really want to learn more in order to incorporate it in my essays.
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