Blog Entry Two: Thinking about Research

Approach:  Class, you will want to start this blog entry early, but I would suggest going back to it to a few times this week before the due date to update your post as you learn from your sources. Double check on your journal hints and annotated bibliography assignment sheet in Moodle for help with this entry. It will be due on Blogger on Thursday, April 5^th at 2 pm.

Describe a self-directed (not professor-directed!) research activity from your daily life this week. What did you research, what prompted this research, what did you get out of this research, and how did you use the fruits of your research? For instance, you might have looked for a car part on Craig’s List for the repair of your car. This is self-directed! As another example, you might have looked up something that made you curious on The Godfather (not from my prompting), and you might have discovered something that you did not know or that we did not cover in class.  This is to get you thinking about how you view research at this point in time and your relationship to research that you do outside of class and research in response to course requirements!

Now I want you to describe how you acquired your sources that I required for the annotated bibliography this week! You started with a question, and you conducted this research in response to your question. How did you approach this process? Did you see any major similarities or differences between your self-directed, daily research and your academic research? Was it harder, easier, or about the same? Why? Did you note any problems with searching or feeling like you were on the right track with either kind of research? Where do you engage in research? Just as I have you analyze your writing process and what makes your way of writing unique to you, I want you to analyze how you go about being a researcher and what that means to you as a person and writer!

Finally, explain what you feel you have learned this week conducting academic research. What is academic research? How does your experience of academic research for this class compare with what you see as your self-directed research as well as your initial beliefs about research for your inquiry project?