After reading Ballenger's chapter #1, I want you to pick one or two things from his chapter that you may not have realized or thought about before in terms of research. In other words, what's one/two new things that you learned that you can apply to this first week of research. Once you pick this out, I want you to connect it back to either Vatz or Russell/Yanez drawing connections between what is considered research and how the key terms that we learned from Vatz and Russell/Yanez can inform one another.
Shoot for 250-400 words. Engage with one another. Use specifics--show me that you read and didn't just skim.
Due: Thursday, April 5, 2012.
After reading Ballenger’s chapter #1, one thing I did not think about or realize before in terms of research is “beginning with a good question rather, than a preconceived answer.” In my past experiences with research, I always began with a topic like abortion, gay rights, or global warming. I never realized how predictable and overdone these topics are, but I constantly found myself as a writer falling back on these topics. I think this is one of the reasons why it is difficult for me, and students like me, to come up with intriguing research topics from scratch. According to Ballenger, starting with a question allows topics to really have limitless possibilities. This concept is highly applicable to this first week of research for me because I should brainstorm potential topics based on questions I personally care about or have stake in. This research paper is going to be an extensive project throughout the quarter; therefore, it is imperative to choose a topic that cannot be answered in a paragraph. Discussing something like abortion revolves around an answer that can be established with surface level research and personal opinion. Approaching a research paper from this angle leads to a dull paper that does not explore the inner trenches of our thoughts, ideas, and the many research methods available. In short, Ballenger argues that finding the appropriate topic for research is sparked by asking the right question. Formulating a research topic around a question also increases curiosity. Curiosity is something which should be applied to this first week of research because curiosity ignites the topic and keeps the writing process flowing. The idea of utilizing a question to create a topic can be connected back to our first reading from Vatz. Vatz stated that the rhetoric determines the rhetorical situation. If a writer lets the right question lead to the research topic, the rhetoric is indeed determining the rhetorical situation. This means research can be considered the evidence or support giving the rhetoric credibility. The question being asked also provides the rhetoric with salience, which is an important term from the Vatz reading. Audience is another key term from Vatz. Vatz perceives the audience to be the arena where the writing appeals to. In the genre of a research paper, the audience should be people who have an interest or stake in the issue, not just the professor. In regards to research, the terms of rhetoric, rhetorical situation, salience, and audience all build on one another and are key factors in producing a successful research paper.
ReplyDeleteThe first key point that I found in Ballenger’s chapter was that pictures and writing were similar. He used an analogy to compare the two. A lot of essays really can be so repetitive in nature because “we see the most obvious features”. It makes sense that when different angles and views are taken of a subject that the information would be more interesting. This will be helpful in applying to my research because I know to take a subject that interests me but view it in a new way. In doing so, I can create something original that will be helpful for me to write about and also entertain an audience. One of the other pieces that I took from this chapter was when writing the proposal considering the prior biases that I have. Going into a research project knowing that I have preconceived notions or feelings in a certain direction can really help me shape my writing in a less biased manner. Recognizing these biases can really allow me as a writer to add more into the question because I can realize that those biases can be present and have a negative affect on my writing and research strategies. I think that research connected to Vatz should focus on the key terms of rhetorical situation, audience, etc. that focus on how to really get an argument across to a reader. Since research papers are a different format than what I normally write, I should take into consideration the Russell/Yanez article and how I need to use different systems to successfully complete a research assignment.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I learned from Chapter 1 of Ballenger’s book is that a thesis does not always have to come first. From school, I learned that a thesis comes first because it is almost like a short outline of the entire paper. It includes the subject and what the paper will inform the audience about the topic. According to Ballenger, “much academic research, at least initially, works inductively.” (Ballenger,2012) Ballenger does not necessarily wrong and uses SAT or other examples that use the method of thesis coming first, but gives a method that runs oppositely that is used for research. Ballenger's method begins with looking through a lot of data and narrowing the subtopics within the topic to find what the main topic should be. Ballenger also includes that using a thesis or main topic to write is an easier way to write, but starting with questions reveals what was not seen before and makes it more interesting. Another thing I learned was that even if a regular or obvious topic, a different angle can make a difference. This relates back to Ballenger’s idea on the thesis. Ballenger states that a different angle can help uncover something unknown about the subject just like how starting from questions rather than the thesis will uncover something new. This relates to what we learned from Vatz. Vatz had stated that the rhetorical situation did not always to be used to start writing. He argued that the rhetoric defines the situation. Ballenger's argument aligns with what Ballenger believes to be the method to do research. The terms found in Vatz, rhetoric and rhetorical situation are key components to writing a research paper. It connects with Vatz’ idea of how the rhetoric forms the rhetorical situation. The terms found in Russell/Yanez, audience and synthesizing should also be kept in mind for research. When writing, type of audience is always important because the language would vary depending on who would be reading the paper. Synthesis because it is important to bring all the sources together to answer the question that started the research.
ReplyDeleteBallenger’s chapter one pointed out something that I never really noticed about higher level writing. This point is comes from the heading entitled Narrowing the Subject where Ballenger states the difference in focus of college level writing versus pre-college level writing:
ReplyDelete“The research reports many of us wrote in high school typically mimicked landscape photography. We tried to cram into one picture as much information as we could… The college research essay is much more of a close-up, which calls for narrowing the boundaries of a topic as much as you can, always working for a more detailed look at some smaller part of the landscape”
In this quote Ballenger uses photography to compare the traditional (boring) high school essay with the non-traditional (exciting) college essay. Higher level writing attempts to capture the attention of the reader by looking at a familiar topic in a nonconventional way. For example, in their book Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner create an intriguing book by examining common questions in economics through a never-before used angle. In the first chapter, Levitt and Dubner study the decrease in crime rate by correlating it to the use of abortion. The benefits of taking a novel view to a traditional topic are that it is new to the reader making them more likely to enjoy the writing and that it is easier for the writer to write because it allows the writer to personalize the topic.
Ballenger’s view of taking a different approach to personalizing a topic can be compared to the writing from Vatz. Vatz’s belief in the use of rhetoric to define a rhetorical situation can be supported by Ballenger’s view of taking a different approach to a normal topic. This is because although the topic has been written about before, the writer presents the information in a new way making it so that the reader cannot identify the rhetorical situation until they have read a good majority of the writing.
Prior to reading the first chapter of Ballenjer’s The Curious Researcher, I never thought about how “some of the best research topics [could] grow out of your own experience” (Ballenjer, 2012, 24). I used to think that in order for something to be interesting it had to be something never seen before, but I can see how that really isn’t the case. I think that these intriguing topics that are basically right in front of you become more fascinating to us when we realize that we spend a lot of time around something, but in reality we truly don’t know that much about it. It sounds somewhat elementary to me to not realize that the best things to research were all around me, but it makes a lot of sense at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though picking a topic you are pretty familiar ties into rhetorical situation, as defined by Bitzer. Bitzer basically describes rhetorical situation as a combination of audience, genre, and purpose. For example, you are a full-time volunteer at a local homeless shelter and you often help in the soup kitchen. After your shifts are over, you like to talk to other volunteers or even some of the shelter’s clientele. You then decide to compose a research paper about an issue pertinent to homelessness for your WRIT 1133 class, and so on and so forth. When applying Bitzer’s interpretation of rhetorical situation, you can easily come up with audience, genre, and purpose for the paper itself. If I were writing this paper I would choose to “target” people who are unfamiliar with homelessness. This sets up for a pretty good research paper in regards to keeping the paper unbiased, yet incredibly informative, which sets up the genre which would then be research paper. The purpose is pretty obvious; You want to inform citizens who do not know much about the topic and want to persuade them to, for example, realize homelessness is not a form of laziness, or that the shelters are without adequate funding, or perhaps you want to let others know the shelter needs help and would love extra volunteers, and how they can get involved. The purpose then again ties into audience and genre and can alter the two as needed.
I found it very interesting that genuine research begins with “situational curiosity” and “a sustained interest” in something. Since learning about the rhetorical situation in class last quarter, I have viewed writing in a very specific way. I think that it is important to realize that something as small as curiosity can be the difference in starting a paper. That is something that I had never really thought about before. I believe that this goes against what Vatz said about the rhetorical situation. He claims that it is rhetoric that molds the rhetorical situation, not the other way around. If curiosity is something that sparks research and writing, then it must be that it starts with the rhetorical situation. I can apply this to starting my research by allowing my curiosity to choose a topic I am really interested in.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that it is possible to make an assigned research topic your own by “finding the questions that bring it to life for you.” Although the research that will be done in WRIT 1133 isn’t assigned, I think that this can still be applied. Through finding questions that make a topic I choose interesting to me, I can make it even more personal. This can allow me to further develop my thesis and write a more effective piece of writing. Through this, I will be able to be able to participate in my writing in a new way, just like Russell and Yanez suggest in their article. I think that through asking these questions, and analyzing deeper I will be better able to write an effective paper. Conducting research for writing is unique, and asking questions to analyze information is essential for the genre.
That said, I think that Alisa brings up an important point. It is important to make sure that while personalizing writing, one does not involve personal bias. This can take away the credibility of an essay, through making it one sided. I also agree with Jesse that “higher level writing attempts to capture the attention of the reader by looking at a familiar topic in a nonconventional way.” Higher-level writing is unlike what many people are used to, and it is important to realize that in order to understand it, one must break down their constructs. In order to be successful one must learn how to write in a new way.
Ballanger shows in his book called “The Curious Researcher” that writing a research paper doesn’t have to be a long, dull, and painful process. In his first chapter he teaches us that the experience with research process is not only a reflection of an author’s thought, but also a place where we can explore and argue about something. I have never fully realized that research topic should be chosen carefully. As Ballanger says “your curiosity must be the driving force behind your research paper. It’s the most essential ingredient.” I absolutely agree with this statement. In my opinion every writer should put his or her heart into the text, however to this we have to be passionate about what we write about. Our topic should trigger another. Ballanger also talks about writing down whatever comes to mind, because it’s much easier to get rid of some things that don’t make sense than to be left without any ideas. We get the control of the information we put on our papers, and that sets a pathway to the destination, which is the conclusion where we answer the thesis question. Choosing a topic might be hard. Even though there are many things we would like to write about, we have to choose one thing that is particularly intriguing. Being able to argue a topic is the goal we should set at the very beginning. We have to have something to say about the subject we are passionate about. The author taught me that even though it’s hard to choose an unpopular topic, no one else before us wrote about, we should try to generate a question that raises the curiosity of others, because curiosity is the central point of the essay analysis. One of the Bitzer’s idea is that people, events, relations are part of the big picture, because they have the power to make decision and to change the situation. What Ballanger is trying to tell us is close to what Bitzer says, because he wants us to be the creator who fully participates in the piece of formation of the research paper. Also being able to go beyond ourselves to learn a new way of thinking according to what Yatez thinks is something extremely helpful in research essay, because as Ballanger says “you pose the question because you’re unsure of the answer,” so we have to go further than what we know and learn about the topic from the scratch.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of this course, one of the main things I wanted to get out of it were other research methods to expand my pool of research tools. I never really realized how many different research sites there were out there, and that my papers have been limited to conventional research sites. In Ballenger’s chapter #1 he discusses a website called “Zotero” that “can save and organize all kinds of Web resources in folders you create that are accessible wherever you have an Internet connection.” Ballenger later goes on to describe how this tool has the ability to “sense” the document and image you are looking at and then organize the information to make a citation of the source. To me, this will be a new and interesting resource to use during the process of writing my paper. Throughout Ballenger’s essay, he discusses the importance of organizing questions and then how to narrow your question and the scope of one’s paper. Many times for my research papers, my topic has been very broad and my teacher’s have had to make me narrow my subject and area of concentration. For example, for my last research paper I chose to write a paper about Russian immigration to Israel. My teacher emailed me back saying how large the scope of that paper was and I had to choose a topic within Russian immigration to Israel that interested me. Now, in preparation for our upcoming research paper, I will make sure to follower Ballinger’s steps on what makes a question “researchable,” especially making sure I chose a topic that interests me and raises more questions to maybe delve into while writing the paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alison in how she connects using a question to create a topic, which relates back to Vatz. Vatz believed that the rhetoric determines the situation. In my research paper, I also hope to focus on something salient. Similar to Carissa, I agree with Alisa in her comments about leaving out personal bias in our research papers. By being aware that my bias may permeate my paper, I can look out for it and make sure I am just adding pertinent information and not superfluous opinions.
Ballenjer starts out by stating that when you start to write you need have curiosity in the subject you are going to expand upon. This way you have some passion in your writing. This will help tremendously help research as well because if you are interested in the subject you will want to research the topic a lot more. I need to find something that I am really interested in so I can research it really well and research it fully. Just by surfing the web can spark many of your interests and make you open your mind to new research topics. I agree with Alison when she says that she began to look up topics and not questions. I usually have an idea on what I want to write about before I start researching. It never occurred to me that I could start with out knowing and I would probably find something that I truly like to research about. Starting with a question could definitely expand my mind and make my researching more enjoyable to do. I also learned starting with a general search on Google could really help you get started on research. It just give you a broad idea and it will give you a lot more research ideas for in the future. Then you can break it down and do more advanced searches on what you really want to talk about in your paper. This relates to Vatz’s article because it shows that you need to keep the rhetorical situation, audience, and genre in mind. This will help get your argument across and make people engaged in your writing. Also when you are researching you need to think about what the audience would like to hear and what they would be interested in. I know people like different things but if you make it interesting enough people will want to read your writing. I will definitely keep all of these things in mind while researching my next topic!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first chapter of Bruce Ballenjer’s “The Curious Researcher,” I realized a different approach to writing college-level academic writing pieces in a particular fashion. While Ballenjer emphasized multiple points in this chapter, I found two to be the most interesting. Ballenjer’s discussion of the need to develop a piece outward from an initial question or interest and then continue to research an individual topic with a more microscopic lens was enlightening and drastically different from writing styles that I have been accustomed to in the past. I agree with Jesse and Alison’s interpretations in the chapter in which they also stress the importance of how beginning a research question with an inquiry and narrowing the research further to more specific aspects of the subject makes for more interesting and intelligible writing.
ReplyDeleteBallenjer also stressed the importance of choosing a topic that carries interest for the author, suggesting that a research topic could potentially stem from a desire to delve deeper into a question or investigate some branch of a broader topic. In this way, Ballenjer also places importance on straying from the traditional five-paragraph essay of middle school and the essays in high school or other areas that tend to zoom out on a subject instead of focusing on details.
Upon reading this chapter, I drew some conclusions that reminded me of our previous discussion surrounding Bitzer and Vatz. I found Ballenjer’s emphasis on developing a research paper from an initial question similar in principle to Vatz’s emphasis on rhetoric growing out of an analysis of a context of some rhetorical situation. I believe this will ease a writer’s ability to hone in on the details required for a research paper and allow for a research topic to develop naturally out of a situation as Ballenjer favors.
Bruce Ballenger’s book “The Curious Researcher,” he raises many interesting ideas to consider when engaging in writing a research paper. He takes us through possibly the most difficult part of a research paper, getting started. He suggests a three step method at the beginning of every paper. Ballenger advocates finding a topic that you have a genuine interest in. In the first chapter he gives us methods that can help a writer find a topic they are interested in. This all stems from his three step method. The method largely involves investigating a few categories and writing down everything that comes to mind. After that process has finished the writer must analyze what he or she finds in order to figure out which topic would be best fit for a research paper.
ReplyDeleteAfter the topic is all settled for writing a paper and your ideas for the direction have been put on paper, there is a step that Ballenger claims is important for narrowing down the focus of a paper. This step involves four specific categories: time, person, place, and story. If you are having a rough time with the broadness of your topic Ballenger suggests creating questions that stem off of those four categories. Once you have centered yourself on an idea use the questions to find a thesis statement as well as supporting arguments. With your thesis statement in mind a paper can be additionally strengthened when considering some of Richard Vatz theories. Vatz stresses focus as well through his concept of Salience. When you ask yourself those questions posed by Ballenger, consider choosing the value and importance of the events you come across, as this can create a presence, or salience, that will inevitably make your research more specific while at the same time making your writing better.
What I found most poignant regarding Ballenger's, "The Curious Researcher," was the distinction between a research paper and a research essay. In almost all the academic essays I have written, the main goal was to prove a point. And according to Ballenger, research papers are dedicated to arguing a point while research essays are meant to explore. I do not recall writing a research essay since middle or elementary school. The majority of my papers were required to be argumentative, so it is news to me that a research essay is merely explorative.
ReplyDeleteI also found the ways to narrow a topic useful. I oftentimes get overly ambitious over the topic and become over encumbered with the amount of information I have to gather and organize. I also enjoyed how Ballenger drew on modern resources to advise students. For example, I never knew of the Zotero program until now. I am delighted to know there is such a useful program, as I absolutely despise tediously citing all of my sources.
Ballenger states that one needs to find salience within their own topic, or something that personally interests them. This relates to Vatz in that the rhetor has the power to choose what is or is not salient. And because of this, they are able to create their own subjective rhetorical situation through their rhetoric.
After reading Ballenger's chapter, I found that I agreed with Alison's point. Alison reiterated the point that we should "begin with a good question rather, than a preconceived answer.” As writers, we often bring preconceived notions into our pieces. As humans, we bring all of our own experiences to the table when forming our own opinions on a topic. Though it is good to learn from things that we have experienced in life, it is imperative that we allow research to speak for itself, especially when we are forming opinions and writing papers.
ReplyDeleteIf we begin with a question, we can bring some of our experiences to our pieces, but we are also forced to think and consider all of the evidence that is given. This will be particularly important in the first week, so we as writers are not influenced by what we think should be the answer to our findings.
This relates greatly to Russell/Yanez's idea of Activity theory. Instead of simply transmitting things into our papers, molding them after an idea that we have already been introduced to, we should use new methods of learning and writing to absorb what information we have selected. Activity theory would certainly come into use if we use multiple sources to research, for example, finding primaries and secondary sources on your topic, as well as interviewing an expert or watching a news report. The greater diversity of sources utilized, the more easily we will learn and become better writers.
Reading Ballenger’s The Curious Research, has proved me with a different outlook on writing research papers. One thing that stood out to me in the chapter was the importance of starting your paper with a question rather than starting it with a standard topic. Having a good question will allow you to look at a topic in different angles and continuously expand upon it. I found it interesting that Ballenger was able to find a connection between photography and writing. Explaining his struggles with finding different viewpoints of the lighthouse, he was able to explain the importance of looking at a topic from different angles. Rather than simply looking at the lighthouse straight on, Ballenger could have photographed it from a different perspective creating an interesting photograph. This applies directly to writing and research and is an idea that I had never thought of. There are so many different ways to look at the same topic and finding one that is interesting to the researcher is important because it will keep you interested as you continue to research. Another point that Ballenger spoke about that I found to be useful was the way of deciding on a topic to research. This is an area that I struggle with the most. However, he has laid out seemingly simply ways to come up with a research topic. He suggests creating lists, political topics, and different areas in your hometown. I think that his idea of creating lists of interesting topics will be the most important piece of information that I get from this article.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading articles by both Russel andYanez and the article by Vatz, I am beginning to understand how they both connect to one another. The article by Russel and Yanez speaks about drawing ideas and writing styles from different systems. As Alisa stated, research papers require a “different format than what I normally write”. Ballenger seems to use Vatz’s idea of rhetorical situation to come up with a research topic. He says that it is important to create a research question based on something that is important to you. When looking for a topic one area he suggests is topics “close to home”. The topics will revolve around the writers past rhetorical situation.
I found Ballenger’s article to be useful. He had brought up a couple of points and activities to help get started that I will definitely use while starting to prepare for my essay. I have always had a hard time starting papers. Every time as I sat down at my desk to begin my paper, thought of the impending struggle that this assignment would be, would bring me to a stand still for I had no idea how to start. Ballenger’s idea of making a list of things that interest you under the categories of controversies, jobs, habits, trends, and history are excellent ways to begin. It will make me focus on what truly interests me and therefore be able to “[craft my open] inquiry question,” as noted by Ballenger. This theory can be related to Vatz’s idea of rhetorical situation. To Vatz’s, the idea of rhetorical situation is background information or where you get your ideas. Researching and coming up with a topic that interests you can be considered background information. The topic that I will choice will probably have to deal with my past encounters with rhetorical situation.
ReplyDeleteAnother technique mentioned in the article was the action of “ reading like an outsider.” This means that one must read from multiple perspectives. You are just collecting information to provide support for when the time comes to write the essay. The most perspectives or angles the you can come up with about one topic will provide more to write about which will be useful when writing 10 pages or more on a single topic. Ballenger states that college research requires students to read from a perspective that that is not necessarily from their field of study and unfamiliar to them. This point relates to the previous article written by Russell/Yanez. Their article by states that one must explore other genres or types of writing in order to grow as writers and be better prepared for career life.
Ballenger had also provided a useful, concrete, tool that I will use while writing my research paper. He mentioned an Internet based program called Zotero that I think would help me keep track and cite my sources correctly.
While reading this chapter I found many things that I had never thought about before. When I thought about research I thought like one of the first scenarios given where there is a simple conversation and someone asks a question; you then go to Google and find the answer. Obviously I knew that a research paper needs a more specific idea but research in general reminded me of something I do on a daily basis. I really like the idea of making a really long list of things that come to mind and then organizing it and picking something that I feel could be promising. I felt like this new idea could actually help me with my writing in general because it could help me think outside of the box and then relate it back to the true meaning of it. Similar to Vatz and his ideas of the situation and communicating them being “the translation of the chosen information to meaning,” this new way of thinking could help me determine the situation I am trying to create and then relate it back to the meaning of the question my paper is trying to answer about any given topic (Vatz 157). Asking myself what is interesting to me and what actually raises questions for me was also new to me. I usually have to sit there and think really hard about what question I can ask about something. Either I feel like I have enough knowledge on the topic already or it simply bores me and nothing about the topic truly interests me. The section “From Landscape Shots to Close-Ups” really intrigued me because of the different outlook the writer focused on. It is true for me when he says that “when we first look at something, we mostly see its obvious features” (Ballenjer). Overall, these two concepts that the writer focuses on definitely relate to one another and have opened my eyes to new ways of thinking before choosing a topic to write about.
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