Heuristic for your Academic Paper

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your academic research paper:

- What was my research question, again? -- As you start reading the thoughts of others, it can be easy to lose sight of exactly what you set out to question. You want to make sure that you don't allow your research paper to simply become a book report about what other people have said on your topic. Ideally, it should enter the conversation already started and lead to some insight that is uniquely yours. Of course, you should review what other people have said in your paper (in fact, this is often called an article's "lit review"). But this should not be your whole paper.

- How do the texts I've found help me answer my question? -- You can engage with other people's writing throughout your research paper, not just in the lit review. The ideas and approaches you find in your research can suggest ways to answer your question. If you don't find that the sources you've found directly address your question, you may either need to find more appropriate sources or you may have to consider what other forms of research (analysis of textual artifacts, interviews, etc.) will provide you the information you need.

- What are the questions that my sources seem to focus on? -- In regards to any issue, there are only certain questions that are being focused on at any one time. For instance, with today's economy, no is asking whether or not government should respond in some way, they're asking exactly how governments should respond. Sometimes, your own research can progress by asking a question that isn't being asked by anyone. At other times, it progresses by finding a new way to answer an existing question. By addressing the questions that other people find engaging, you can add some credibility to your own research (it's also much more likely to get published if someone agrees the question you're addressing is important).

- Are the sources I've found adequate? -- In the process of completing your annotated bibliography, you'll be able to determine what types of conversations are going on about your topic. when you review your sources, you should ask yourself whether you've sought out the types of sources that would help you develop a critical perspective on your topic. Are your sources all advocacy sources (people with an agenda to persuade you one way or another)? Are any of them academic journals or books? Is there a popular perspective on your topic that might be useful? Of course, it's likely that you'll continue to seek out sources beyond your annotated bibliography as you run into issues in your won writing where you need further information.

- Am I finding this interesting? -- It's hard to imagine wanting to spend time researching and writing about a topic that you don't find interesting. If you don't find it engaging, how will readers of your research respond? Intellectual inquiry should be about discovering things and making connections. If you feel like you're forcing yourself to learn about your own topic, maybe you need find a topic you're actually interested in.

- How does my project fit into writing studies? -- This can seem like a tough question if you've chosen a topic that is outside the normal scope of writing studies. But the topic you choose is less important than your method of researching it. Any topic can be studied through the lens of language, representation, persuasion, education, discourse, and so on. Cultural studies is especially good at looking at how we deal with the world from diverse perspectives inflected by issues of race, class, and gender.

- Who cares? -- why should people care about your topic? Often, it's important to establish the need for your research, and to show how your question is worth answering. If you don't believe your research matters, why would anyone else?

Online Discourse Analysis Resources

Discourse Analysis Resources from Loughborough University - http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/resources/links/da.html - Their DA primer explains some of the approaches within discourse analysis.

Discourse in Society - http://www.discourses.org/ - The web site of academic Teun A. van Dijk, a discourse analyst. See his resources page, including links to bibliographies.

What is discourse analysis? - http://www.eamonfulcher.com/discourse_analysis.html - explanation of one approach to discourse analysis, including a sample text.

Bibliography of Sources for Discourse Analysis Methods -
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/meth-bib.htm

ANALYSING VERBAL DATA: PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND PROBLEMS - http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/papers/handbook.htm - discussion of pros and cons of various discourse analysis research methods

Online Cultural Studies Resources

Here are some online resources related to cultural studies (although there are many, many more):


Media/Culture - http://www.media-culture.org.au/ - an Australian cultural studies journal that is more accessible to non-academics than other journals

Voice of the Shuttle - http://vos.ucsb.edu/ - an online database of resources in humanities research; includes categories like architecture, dance, religious studies, and so on; see their "cultural studies" resources here: http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2709

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies - http://rccs.usfca.ed - there are many sites like this focused on specific areas of cultural studies

Cultural Studies Resources -
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/culturalStudies.html - resources from the University of Iowa

Media & Cultural Studies Resources - http://stephen.macek.faculty.noctrl.edu/mediastudies.htm - resources from a professor at North Central College in Illinois

Online Rhetoric and Composition Research Resources

Here are some resources for research in writing studies (mostly rhetoric and composition). Many of these are or include bibliogrpahies on specific topics:

Comppile - http://comppile.org/ - "an inventory of publications in post-secondary composition, rhetoric, technical writing, ESL, and discourse studies"; See their list of bibliographies - http://comppile.org/site/compbibs.php



The National Writing Project - http://www.nwp.org/ - "The National Writing Project (NWP) is a professional development network that serves teachers of writing at all grade levels, primary through university, and in all subjects. The mission of the NWP is to improve student achievement by improving the teaching of writing and improving learning in the nation’s schools."



Rhetoric and Composition Eserver - http://rhetoric.eserver.org/ - "This website is intended to list a variety of resources useful to rhetoricians. While many rhetoric and composition pages on the Web are written in conjunction with writing centers or specialize in computer-mediated communication, this page also has links to works of classical rhetoric, articles on literacy and education, comprehensive bibliographies in the field and a few miscellaneous but useful things--how to suscribe to some highly-trafficked mailing lists and links to glossaries of rhetorical terms, for example."



Rhetcomp.com - http://www.rhetcomp.com/ - "a portal to sites relevant to the field of rhetoric and composition"



Rebecca Moore Howards's Bibliographies - http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/bibs.html - bibliographies on a bunch of writing studies topics



The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing - http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/bb/contents.html - Lists books and articles by topic and provides an annotation for each summarizing its content.

Workshop 1 - expertise and interests

Expertise in:

• writing
• rock climbing
• web/graphic design
• knot tying
• food labeling
• video games
• construction
• copyright law
• 
  

Interested in:

• maps
• politics
• 
  

Some Resources on Fallacies

Fallacies in argument represent a host of unethical, sloppy, or inappropriate modes of persuasion or reasoning. But they also have legitimate uses at time. An ad hominem fallacy is usually described as an attack on a person’s character rather than that person’s reasoning. But sometimes a person's character is relevant to the argument being made. Most of these fallacious strategies are unacceptable all the time, but some are acceptable in some cases. This i spart of the reason it is easy to get sucked into using them inappropriately.

Standard List of Fallacies in Argument, categorized by ethics, emotion, and logic - http://projects.uwc.utexas.edu/handouts/?q=node/30

Expanded List of Fallacies, including some more specific instances - http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

The Toulmin Model in Brief

The Toulmin Model shows that arguments are made of three basic parts (the claim, the support, and the warrant), but that real arguments may also contain additional elements (backing, rebuttal, grounds, and qualifiers).

Claim - the main point of the argument; also called thesis, proposition, or conclusion.

Data - the evidence, opinions, reasoning, examples, and factual information that support the claim and make it possible for the reader to accept it; also called proof, evidence and reasons.

Warrant - the assumptions, general principles, the conventions of specific disciplines, widely held values, commonly accepted beliefs, and appeals to human motives that are an important part of any argument, and which enable the audience to accept the data as proof of the claim.

Backing - additional evidence provided to support or “back up” a warrant; often directly addressed if there is a strong possibility that your audience will reject the warrant. Answers the question: how do you know or why do you believe in your warrant?

Grounds – additional evidence provided to support or “back up” the data; often when the audience is likely to challenge the data. answers the question: how do you know your data or how do you know it is good data?

Rebuttal – conditions under which the argument will no longer hold true; exceptions that are outside the scope of your argument

Qualifiers – ways of avoiding presenting your claim as an absolute certainty, allowing for some uncertainty. Limitations you set on your claim.