THE GREAT WORKS SYMPOSIUM RESEARCH PROJECT

WHAT IS RESEARCH? The creation of new knowledge The search for facts and evidence that will establish an argument and/or prove a theory A structured inquiry, open to inspection, verification, and repetition A creative act, expressing the point of view of the researcher through the exploration of difficult questions The central act of modern science, innovation, and capitalism

WHY IN THIS CLASS? Development of talent in asking research questions Development of talent in designing a research strategy/method Development of talent in conducting the key skills of research: synthesizing secondary literature, locating and analyzing primary sources, data collection, development of an argument based on primary sources, explication of an original argument, defense of an original argument

HOW WILL WE START? TIMELINE: NOW What is my question? What is the meaning of life? v. Why did Bill Johnson cross Walnut Street at 2pm on August 3, 1995? To whom does this question matter? (to you!) How have others asked this question?

HOW WILL WE START? TIMELINE: NOW What is my genre? War and Peace v. a Powerpoint of Wikipedia links To whom is this genre relevant? (to you!) Can our audience be Barack Obama? Yes! What are the strengths and limitations of the genre for making my argument?

WRITING THE PROPOSAL TIMELINE: WEEKS 3-5 What is my question? What is my genre? How will the team work? What ideas are out there in the secondary literature? What is secondary literature? The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New Yorker, Newsweek, NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, Arts and Letters Daily, Planetizen, Next American City Academic literature: Hagerty Library, Upenn, Temple, Free Library, JSTOR, Worldcat Write-up: Due Week 5, 2 pages with clear explanation of topic, question, genre, team work strategy, and examples of key literature; bibliography of secondary literature

CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH TIMELINE: WEEKS 4-7 What is my research strategy? What evidence will I gather and how will I gather it? Reading footnotes is not a crime Scientific or social scientific/humanities Plans and maps, statistics, letters and autobiography, published reports, structures and art, food, fashion Interviews, surveys, photography and film/audio Write Up: Due Week 7, 2 pages, what evidence have you gathered? Is your argument coming together? What more is required?

WRITING THE PROJECT TIMELINE: WEEKS 8-9 Draft, draft, redraft, draft again Methods of collaboration Go back to the evidence Go back to the literature Test the argument! Draft, draft, redraft . . .

PRESENTATION TIMELINE: WEEK 10 This is a public presentation What do I need to present it effectively Do I have an elevator pitch? A 2-minute explanation? A full explanation? What are the questions and critiques I might expect? Where could/should the project go from here? Have I sent it to the professors? Did I eat, see everyone else’s projects, and take pride in my work?