How were the exercises, techniques, genres and activities helpful for you as you developed your research interests during Project II?
4 discussion Forums research clusters where I curated some texts and you chose the second round of sources, for creating flexibility around the topic you’re passionate about exploring deeply
Library Exercises 1-6: databases, books / stacks / bibliographies, prospectus brainstorming, scholarly texts, digital / primary sources, for ‘low stakes’ scaffolding with deadlines designed to help you inductively gather a rich array of source material
Research Slidedeck, with design and presentation skills for visually framing your emerging structure and troubleshooting your ideas
Expanded Prospectus and Annotated Biblio for developing a complex research question, key concepts, purposeful use of evidence, and more
How are you getting stronger as a writer, reader, and critical thinker?
What do you want to get better at, over the next month, in terms of writing / reading / critical thinking as an undergraduate researcher?
The various clusters and genres helped me to think what I am really interested in and what I wanted to learn more about. When we read the texts that Ryan chose, they got me to think about things that are connected to them, so when I chose my own texts, that was my opportunity to see if I truly liked the genre/topic and to see whether or not I could make a project out of that. From the clusters, I narrowed the topics down to two: Technology and the Body and Technology and Music. From what we learned before and what we were reminded of for this project, I had to question the ideas and claims I was thinking of making for both. One of the major points that helped me decided which topic to choose was to find controversy in the topic, and I felt my focus for the Technology and Body was one-sided; whereas, Technology and Music had multiple sides to the area I was focusing on.
The Library Exercises were fun because they gave me a reason to go out and explore (or go into the library and explore) since I usually just stay in Mainstacks, cafe shops, or my room. I knew about the school's library resources and the catalog, but I didn't really know how to use it or access it, so having that library day was very helpful. Although my first round of the Library Exercises was focused on my previous topic, that all just helped me set up how I should go about for my decided topic.
The Research Slidedeck was very useful because I got to see my potential project on a slides and presentation. It helped me organize my thoughts and ideas, and it actually helped me see how I should go about my project, such as how audience or readers are going to perceive it. Although I still feel my SlideDeck was a little bit messy, I think it was a great start.
The Expanded Prospectus was a great way for me to organize everything I have and think about what I had to continue research. I found it a great way to expand on questions based on the research I have done and expand on the answers I already had. The Annotated Bibliography helped me differentiate which sources contributed to thoughts and which sources will contribute to the major with quotes.
I think I am getting stronger as a writer, reader, and critical thinker through all of the questions I am asking myself. I try to play the devil's advocate whenever I make a claim. As for a writer, I am more aware of my organization within my writing (I hope), and whenever I look back on it, I don't feel like everything is a mess. As for reader, I am learning to pick up what is important in an article, what can contribute to my paper idea wise, and what quotes are useful in my project.
I hope within the next month I will be able to create project/paper that will not lose its focus (go off tangent) because that really weakens the paper. Additionally, I want to be able to think about controversy and seek potential conversations regarding topics and claims without having to struggle too much on it.
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