Research Writing Project: Overview

Valerie Ross

You will now put to use the strategies of reasoning, evidence, and arrangement, as well as introductions and endings that you learned and practiced in the first part of the semester. Emulating the approach of scholars and professional writers when producing longer works, you will research and write in sequenced chunksunits of reasoningthat you will ultimately be able to use in whole or part for your final research essay. The research essay assignment is broken into four main parts leading up to the creation of the final research essay. Each of these stages, in some form, is to be found in the writing of most disciplines and professions. Analysis and evaluation of the object of study (in this case, your research text): Putting your close reading skills to use, you will outline it; you will then use your skills of synthesis to identify keywords for it and write an abstract of it. Then you will analyze the text to identify an issue in it that you wish to pursue and write a brief statement of interest. You will also identify some of the sources that the author of your research text consulted and prepare to locate those sources for yourself. Synthesis of author and sources : For some the most demanding and ultimately most rewarding part of research or problem-solving, this particular form of synthesis demands creative thinking as you analyze the four texts to locate relationships across these different documents, the research text itself and the sources it cites in the selected section of the book. This work of pattern identification, while initially strenuous, almost invariably results in new insights and ideas. You will once again engage in close reading and analysis as you outline and write abstracts of the three articles, as well as produce a Table of Common Elements that will help you find commonalities. This stage of the research project culminates in another chunk of writing, a synthesis of sources. Synthesis of keywords : Following one or more leads from your complex synthesis, you will choose a keyword that will lead to the discovery of three or more sources to elaborate and likely complicate your initial findings. In this stage, you are building upon the work you began in the earlier steps. Once having located three articles related to your selected keyword, you will outline and write abstracts of these, and add them to your Table of Common Elements as you continue your process of analysis and synthesis of research. The work you do in this stage will provide you, and ultimately your readers, with a deeper and broader context for your final project. Along with practicing the skills and knowledge you have acquired during the course of the semester, you will also be acquiring an increasingly sophisticated understanding of textbased research techniques and library resources and research strategies, including subjectspecific databases and Boolean searches. The synthesis of keywords will be the last assigned building block of your research essay. Synthesis of book reviews (collaborative exercise). Like the synthesis of keywordbased literature, this synthesis of reviews provides you and your readers with a different context for considering your research text. It will reveal how some other scholars and critics viewed the book you have been intensely studyingperhaps more intensely, at this point, than the reviewers! You may be able to incorporate what you learn from this exercise, but the goal

here is to teach you how to find and consider reviews of scholarly texts, which is an excellent strategy for familiarizing yourself with texts on your course reading lists as well as texts cited in writing assignments. Its also an indispensable strategy for graduate students and scholars in text-based fields. Finally, and most importantly, it introduces you to a strategy of analysis and synthesis that you can use to break down and emulate any written genre: gather a few examples of the genre (in this case, book reviews), preferably on the same topic, and look for the elements they have in common. In so doing, you will create a does outline that you can use to produce a text in that genre yourself. Once you have completed these basic building blocks of a research paper, you will be ready to use some or all of your work as the foundation of your final research essay. You are free to write an explanatory or a justificatory paper. Base this decision on the complexity of the material, the nature and knowledge of your readers, and your own goals and desires as a writer and apprentice scholar. If your readers are unfamiliar with the material you are discussing, it might be wise to write an explanatory essay. Its difficult to persuade a reader to agree with you on an issue about which they have little knowledge. If, on the other hand, your readers have a basic familiarity with the issue at hand, it may make more sense to write a justificatory essay that persuades them to consider your perspective on the matter based on the inventive arguments and evidence you will present. As the sequence progresses, you are likely to encounter many intriguing avenues for further research. Beware: Stay the course. The purpose of this sequence is to teach you how as a writer to join a scholarly conversation. Too many false starts will prevent you from gaining the depth of knowledge needed to participate in that conversation. You need to learn how to identify, analyze, and enter into the debates, explanations, and proposals that the scholarly community is making. This may mean contributing to the solution of a well-defined problem, identifying a new problem, arguing in support or in opposition to a position held by others, or perhaps contributing an entirely new perspective, reasons, or evidence to a field. Since you have only six or seven weeks to familiarize yourself with the issue, you need to stay focused and build upon what you encounter, rather than change topics. If, as your project unfolds, you are drawn to other topics, make note of these. You can always sign up for related classes or propose an independent study or research project with one of your professors. But for now, be pragmatic: you will learn more about writing and researching (the goal of the course) by staying focused. Finding patterns and relationships takes study, time and serious thought. In turn, if you absorb this approach to writing papers, you will not only write substantive papers, you will also learn much about planning and managing lengthy reports and essays and, for some, booklength work. You will also have acquired, in short order, the practice and knowledge of reasoning and research that will serve you in various walks of life. You will be able to recognize what others want you to believetheir propositionsas well as the soundness of their reasoning and in turn organize and test your own, whether as speaker or writer. You will know how to break open a discipline or profession, and their genres, and commence your apprenticeship as a writer, noting their structure of reasoning, premises, nature of evidence, main players. You will also get an introduction to and substantial practice in the very basis of innovation and creative thinkingcomplex synthesisa skill in great demand in all professions.

The Research Text Outline and provide keywords for the book
The research text will provide the foundation for your research paper. That is why we ask you to read it carefully, like a scholar or professional in the field. If you give all scholarly or professional texts this kind of reading, you will rapidly develop a depth of knowledgepresuming the book itself is worth careful reading. In the sciences, the research text is generally data, and the same close attention is paid to data as you are asked to do in this phase of the research sequence. The object of study may vary from one field to another, but the approachcareful observation and analysisis a consistent feature. Write a says statement for each chapter. (2-3 sentences maximum) Write a does statement for each chapter (3-5 sentences maximum). Use your Guide to Says/Does Outlines, as well as the following questions, to help you consider what the chapter is doing. Here are some questions you might consider in terms of analyzing what a chapter does: What kind of proposition/reasoning is being used: justificatory or explanatory? How does the chapters proposition relate to the books proposition? How is the chapter organized: by division (i.e., first, second, third), or by reason/refutation, chronology, spatial/numerical organizations? Does the chapter introduce a set of premises and challenge them? Introduce and explain a problem? Pose a problem and solution? Refute or extend or concede a position? Provide a literature overview (synthesis)? Use what you have learned in the first half of the semester to identify the rhetoric of reason: is the author providing reasons, evidence, refutation, concession? Sometimes the author actually subtitles these blocks of reasoning, making your job a little easier. When you have completed each chapter, write or revise, as appropriate, what you regard as the books proposition. Your understanding of the books proposition may or may not dovetail with that of the author. Finally, as you complete each chapter, make a note of its keywords. Keywords are significant words, or sometimes phrases, that capture the main ideas of the book. Librarians (as well as Google, Wikipedia, etc) use keywords to organize information. You will be using one or more of these keywords later on as the basis for your research projec. Coming up with keywords is a form of simple synthesis (dividing, defining, classifying information). As you read the chapters, be on the lookout for a section that attracts your interest. Make note of the sources that the author uses to discuss that topic, as well as any special features related to it: footnotes, maps, charts, illustrations, important acknowledgments, etc.

Synthesis: Author and Sources Assignment Sequence

Read: Explanatory Reasoning

Analysis and Synthesis

Statement of Research Interest:

Write a brief statement, approximately 150-200 words, that outlines the issue, drawn from your research text, that you will be exploring. Also provide a bibliography of at least five sources cited by the author related to this issue. Note that you will be staying with this issue for the remainder of the semester, so take a few moments to explore your outline and the book itself. Dont overlook footnotesthese can sometimes be a condensed overview of a particular debate or problem in the field. Choose sources wisely. Your first instinct may be to select short, easy sources, such as newspaper articles or photos, but you will find that the more bare-bones your sources, the more difficult this assignment sequence will be for you. Read the remaining instructions to get a sense of what awaits you. More challenging readings (longer and more substantive) will provide you with more topics and opportunities for complex synthesis as the assignment unfolds. On the other hand, if you choose texts that are very long and difficult, you will not have enough time to read and mull over the possible relationships among and between the texts.

Research Text Source Articles/Books: Three outlines

Choose three sources from the list you compiled for your Statement of Research interest. Use the tools your instructor or librarian introduced to locate these three sources (this process is called known item searching). If you cant gain access to a source or discover that it is unreadable, try another from your list. Read the three sources. Do a rhetorical outline of each of these sources. If the article is divided into subsections, do a subsection says/does. If the article does not have delineated subsections, then create your own subsections. If the source is a book, do a chapter says/does. Note that you may confine your reading of a book to its preface, introduction and conclusion, along with whatever chapter(s) have been cited by your author. Submit copies of the articles and relevant chapters of the book, along with your outlines.

Author Source Abstract.

Write a 250-300 word abstract of one of the three articles you have outlined. There are two kinds of abstracts: a) Descriptive: gives brief summary of the purpose, method(s), scope of work b) Informative: includes the information provided in a descriptive abstract, but also addresses the main arguments and the conclusion of the text. All abstracts should include: - A full citation of the source. Precedes the body of the abstract. - The most important information first (the proposition of the piece), followed by the main ideas supporting that proposition. - The same level and style of language found in the original, including technical language.

Dont translate jargon; if the article uses it, you should use it. That cues the reader into the level of difficulty and targeted audience of the text. - Key words and phrases that quickly identify the content and focus of the work - Clear, concise language Although the architecture of the abstract varies with discipline, the main elements are these, which you should use as a guide to writing your abstract. Proposition: What is the main argument/thesis/claim? What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the project? Significance: What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the larger work? Method: Depends on the discipline: Some disciplines in the humanities do not describe their methodology. However, an abstract of a scientific work or social science work may include specific models or approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the research. Results: An abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way. Implications: What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work? How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?

Prewriting Analysis: Creating the Table of Common Elements

The most important step in synthesis is to read the sources. Synthesis is creative intellectual work that involves identifying patterns or relationships that others have not already remarked. If you have nothing to work with, you will find no patterns: plain and simple. As you reread your selected section(s) of the assigned research text, along with the sources you have chosen, look for common premises, sources, terminology, positions, authors cited, ways of approaching the problem, types of evidence used, and other elements that catch your attention and that strike you as possibly common ground across the four texts. Also note significant points of departure. This activity of breaking a cluster of data into smaller elements and studying them is called analysis. Refer to the reading, Analysis and Synthesis, to refresh your understanding of these operations. Beginning with the second article create a table illustrating the common elements shared by your sources, with page numbers referencing where each element appears. Continue to add to this table as you read, first including your three author sources and the research book. In a future assignment, you will be synthesizing another set of articles as you continue to acquire expertise in your topic, or what is sometimes called domain knowledge.

Complex Synthesis of Author & Sources: Skeletal Outline

Using your Table of Common Elements, and whatever else has helped you to find a pattern across your four texts (author, three sources), create a skeletal outline. For this outline, you do not need to do an overview. Instead provide the following: Explanatory Proposition: Statement of Complex Synthesis Then divide your four sources into four reasons, each of which features one of the four individual authors as the subject of the explanatory reason: For example: Proposition: Authors A, B, C, and D are informed by the work of Kenneth Burke: Reason 1: Author A uses Kenneth Burke as.

Reason 2: Author B uses Burke as .. Reason 3: Author C uses Burke as. Reason 4: Author D uses Burke as Now write the same proposition, but provide at least two explanatory reasons for which the four authors are the subject. For example: Reason 1: Authors A, B, C, and D use Burkes authority to launch their arguments Reason 2: Authors A, B, C, and D use Burkes concept of humans as symbol-producing beings Reason 3: Authors A, B, C, and D agree with Burke that the study of rhetoric is fundamental to human understanding

Essay: Author, Sources

800-1000 words, with an abbreviated rhetorical outline, that explains a relationship, link, or pattern that connects all of the following: your research text and three (or more) of the sources it draws upon. Use your Table of Common Elements and your Skeletal Outline as guides, once these have been approved by your instructor, tutor, and peer reviewer. Your rhetorical outline should have the following overview elements:

Proposition Description of Synthesis: explain to the read the specifics of your synthesis. May be a paragraph or more, depending on the complexity of your synthesis. Note that you are presenting the results of your synthesis, so this is a chance to demonstrate to your readers in greater detail what elements you isolated and the pattern your identified. Audience: Goal: Plan:

Here are some representative propositions for explanatory (complex) syntheses: Authors W, X, Y, and Z share a premise Authors W, X, Y, and Z rely on the same source for some (or all) of their argument Authors W, X, Y, and Z use the same term but define it differently. Authors W, X, Y, and Z use the same data/evidence for some or all of their explanation or argument Authors W, X, Y, and Z seek the same outcome Authors W, X, Y, and Z agree upon the cause of B Authors W, X, Y, and Z agree upon the effect of B

Authors W, X, Y, and Z use the same methodology Authors W, X, Y, and Z have the same belief in () Note that in each case the author of the complex synthesis has identified a pattern that s/he detected in all four sources. The complex synthesis must include the author of the scholarly text as one of the four sources, and seek a point of intersection, common ground, shared by all four:

Figure 1: Complex Synthesis of Author & Sources

You are free to develop and arrange this research essay as you wish. However, you are advised to go back and review the materials and exercises on explanatory reasoning and consider the best way to present your main and subpoints (reasons) to make it engaging and accessible to your readers. This is also a good time to study the scholars you have been reading in your seminar (and perhaps in other classes) to see how they construct their explanationsskillful writers are always on the lookout for effective strategies and structures (does), as well as words and ideas (says).

Synthesis of Literature: Keyword Articles

Read: Analysis and Synthesis Explanatory Reasoning Three keyword articles

Keyword Research Articles: Three Outlines, One Abstract

Now that you have immersed yourself in a scholarly topic, and performed your own complex synthesis (no small feat), its time to pursue further information and follow one or more of the leads generated by your synthesis. Come up with a few keywords or keyword phrases related to it, and then find at least three articles generated by that particular keyword or keyword phrase. Outline the articles as you did in the last exercise: by subsection identified by the author or by yourself, if the author didnt use an explicit principle of division. Write an abstract of one of the articles, using the directions provided in the prior exercise. Note that if you attempt to mingle keywordsin other words, find one article on one keyword, and two others on a different keywordyou may dilute rather than deepen your project. In this phase, your aim is to extend and intensify your synthesis rather than branch into different directions. If you were a scholar or had a few years to work on this, you might indeed branch out and explore a variety of leads. However, the final research project for this class must be based on your author synthesis. Given the limited amount of time until semesters end, and our goal of your getting some experience entering deeply into a scholarly topic, its wise for you to stay focused on one keyword. It will simplify the synthesis you need to do for this portion of the work. You may be able to expedite your keyword process if one or more of your author synthesis sources focuses on the issue that interests you. In that case, you should be able to find the article or books keywords. These are available on the librarys online description of them. Here, for example, is a screenshot of an article on video games that I located through the librarys EBSCO database. Notice that along with the author, publication, and abstract, the citation also provides a list of Subject Terms keywords! Clicking on these opens up other articles that have already been organized by that keyword. The library has kindly done the first step of my synthesis for me:

A researcher may get lucky and happen upon an article that offers up the right keywords in this effortless manner. But generally speaking such keywords are beginnings, rather than ends, as the researcher tries to hone in as precisely as possible upon his point of inquiry. Like the act of complex synthesis, coming up with keywords is a mixture of hard work and luck. For your keyword search, use the databases the librarian has provided your class to locate at least three articles on your selected keyword. Look over the articles: If they have abstracts, read them. If you cant find three readable articles, search some more or try another keyword. If you have no luck with identifying useful keywords, consult with your colleagues, your instructor, the writing tutors, and most of all, the librarian assigned to your class. Librarians are typically brilliant keyword searchers. You may use the library chat feature on the librarys home page, or go to Van Pelt and visit the reference desk. All of these will help you drum up and refine your keywords. Research is a social act. Once you find your three articles, read, outline, and write abstracts of them.

Prewriting: Table of Common Elements, Continued

Continue to assemble the Table of Common Elements that you began in the first stage with your author and sources. Analyze and chart the common elements shared by all of your sources (complex synthesis). At this stage, what you set out to synthesize will depend on the direction you wish to go. For example, your keyword articles might provide further background on your author synthesis, or they may address a question or fill in a gap raised by your complex synthesis.

At this stage, you are likely to be looking for distinctions as well as connections. For example, if you are seeking background informationhave other scholars explored some aspect of my author synthesis proposition?you might want to see how each weighs in on it. Similarly, if you are filling in a gapwhat do other scholars say about the costs of the death penalty?you might find scholars that confirm but also dispute your findings. Since the librarians have done the work of complex synthesis for you in this instance (gathering all of the articles under a particular keyword) you may be able to engage in the work of analysis and then division and classification, or what is called simple synthesis. Theres nothing simple about it.

Figure 2: Simple Synthesis: Sorting & Dividing

You may wish to divide your sources into categories based on their methodology, or problem definition, or premises. You may find that three use the same type of evidence, while others use different forms of evidence to ground their claims. In the figure above, all of the disciplines share the goal of improving student writing (complex synthesis/shared problem identification and goal), but they divide into a few distinct groups when it comes to their approach, their evidence, or their solution.

Synthesis of Literature Essay: Keyword Articles: Skeletal Outline

Proposition: Synthesis Description: Audience: Goal:

Synthesis of Literature, Essay or Chunk, and Abbreviated Outline

You have the option of imbedding this portion of your research into your complex synthesis, or of writing a new chunk. Imbedding: 400-500 words of explanatory reasoning based on your keyword articles. Highlight the section that you have imbedded. Make sure that this synthesis relates to the proposition of your complex synthesis, which you are likely to have to revise at least somewhat based on the knowledge you will acquire from this portion of the assignment. Also pay attention to overall unity and coherence. Feel free to revise your complex synthesis to accommodate your new findings. This draft can serve as a draft of your final project (maximum 1500 words). Include an abbreviated rhetorical outline with proposition, description of syntheses, audience, goal, and plan, as well as paragraph-level says/does descriptions. New: you may not feel ready, as yet, to integrate your findings into your complex synthesis. In that case, feel free to write a 500 word chunk and abbreviated rhetorical outline using the same categories as for the imbedded version above. If you choose this path, do not fret about making direct connections; just explain what you have found. Your next step will be to discover how to synthesize your own findings to create your final essay. Sometimes these things need to percolate for a bit before bigger connections identify themselves.

You are free to use whatever strategies and arrangement that you feel will best meet the needs of your readers. Make sure that you do, however, adhere to the demands and basic architecture of explanatory reasoning. Review the prior materials on explanatory reasoning and study the scholars you have outlined to see how they approach the task of explaining their syntheses. Please be aware that, as with all text-based syntheses, reading the texts carefully is crucial. Here are some typical propositions for explanatory complex syntheses (pattern identification), demonstration of which is required in the final project. Authors W, X, Y, and Z share a premise Authors W, X, Y, and Z rely on the same source for some (or all) of their argument Authors W, X, Y, and Z use the same term but define it differently. Authors W, X, Y, and Z use the same data Authors W, X, Y, and Z seek the same outcome Authors W, X, Y, and Z agree upon the cause of B Authors W, X, Y, and Z agree upon the effect of B Here are some typical propositions for explanatory simple synthesis (dividing and sorting into groups that are joined together by a conceptual linkcommon text, premise, focus, etc). Authors W, X, Y, and Z define (KEYWORD) differently. Authors W and X agree that (KEYWORD/ISSUE is (fill in the blank), while

Authors Y and Z argue that (KEYWORD/ISSUE) is (fill in the blank). The main premise of Author W about Z is (fill in the blank), while the other authors use premise X as the basis of their arguments about Z. While some authors argue X about Z, others argue Y about Z. While some authors use statistics as their primary reasoning about Z, others use case studies to demonstrate their proposition about Z. Author X and Y are social scientists and thus their major concern about Z is (fill in the blank). In contrast, Author W is a literary scholar, and Author M is a zoologist, so their concerns about Z are markedly different.

Assignment: The Research Essay

Skeletal Outline, Research Essay
Your final research essay will be a 1500 word explanatory complex synthesis with abbreviated outline, Custom Proofreading Sheet, and at least one peer review. For your skeletal outline, include the following: Proposition: Description of complex synthesis: explicit discussion of what you synthesized and its originality (i.e., not simply a reporting of ideas and evidence that others have already presented in published work). Audience: (faculty readers: describe as you understand and imagine them and their knowledge and attitude toward the topic and toward you). Goal: Plan: Works Cited: At least five, including the research text

Research Paper
1500 word single-spaced explanatory complex synthesis, with works cited, abbreviated rhetorical outline, Custom Proofreading Sheet, and at least one peer review. The explanatory complex synthesis must be based in whole or part on the research text.

The final research essay is likely to cite all sources used in the complex synthesis and perhaps the keyword synthesis. To be certain that your proposition is explanatory, based on the research text, and the result of complex synthesis, your first draft proposition should include all of the authors as its subject. However, the final draft proposition could be based on a synthesis of scholarly work about a topic raised by the research text that you have expanded, through your keyword search, to include additional research, so that the subject of the proposition is a particular concept or object rather than the authors as such.