OUTLINE FOR CLASS HELD  JANUARY 31st. 1996

	Let’s start this dialogue with instructions for the assignment for our next meeting.  If you were at the class session you may have gotten only some parts of the exercise so what you see here is all inclusive of what should be done by March 7th.  
	Last week’s assignment was that each student should have a topic to begin researching.  I asked that you put this topic in written form---not more than a paragraph---describing your particular area of interest.  Well, I saw only one such proposal.  However----for this assignment you can continue with that proposal--only now it is going to be a little more refined. 
	Let me explain-----This week’s exercise was that each student gather and read 9 (nine) articles concerning their interest area (ex. depression, corporate tax benefits, biofeedback).  Three articles were to be located thru an AOL source, three via a WEB source and three from a local library source.  (If you have any difficulty with any of these sources please contact me.)  From these articles you should be beginning to get a clearer idea of what you are dealing with-------then again maybe not!!  But that’s ok-----if you are beginning to feel overwhelmed that is the way you are supposed to feel about now.  What you are seeing is that even if you begin your search with one word---like depression---you may be faced with what appears to be dozens of unrelated topics and ideas.  This is part of your job-----to sort out this mess you got yourself into---just joking.  What you should be doing now though
 is---begin to focus on a more concise topic and specifically on one question you might have.  That could mean you will have to do even more work.  For example----if your subject is depression and you have the 9 articles and you have read them--- you might be saying to yourself-----what I need now is a CLEAR definition of what depression is!  And this could now actually become your goal----that is to define your subject matter.  There are many research issues that need much redefinition before the issue can be further explored.






  
	But-----to get on to what we are doing for our next session.  In order to avoid any further tangents on my part I will describe the assignment in list form:

***Get 9 (nine) articles related to your topic----3 from ALO sources, 3 via the WEB                                                                	and 3 from local library sources.
***Read the articles so that you can summarize the contents -----to the end of
	further defining you topic.
***WRITE a paragraph describing your topic.  Within the description there should be 	a sentence that could be considered a title for your finished project.
 	Ex. DEPRESSION: A NEW DEFINITION FROM A WOMAN’S POINT OF VIEW  		(I am not sure that we will ever get any further than this paragraph but humor me 	and pretend there will be a complete research report at the end of this course.)  I 	would like to see these paragraphs before class Wednesday night February 7th, 		if that is possible.  Also-----I would like to see the surveys from those students 		who have not sent them in so far.
***You should be preparing a bibliography of the articles you read---IN WRITTEN 		FORM---no special style.
***THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT----you should document each step you take 		to reach the point of downloading an article.  This could be a benefit to yourself 		when you need to look for other material but it should----in this case of using 		online functions---also be part of your bibliography.

OK NOW FELLOW RESEARCHERS GET OUT THERE AND START DIGGING IN THAT GOLD MINE OF INFORMATION WE ARE TOLD THE INTERNET IS.

	At this point you may be wondering why I seem to be hounding you about getting some of your work into written form.  Well if you go back to the original class description you will notice that the specific goal of this course was NOT just to “surf the net” or “web crawl”  The goal was to become RESEARCHERS.  And I hope you remember the statement I made in last week’s outline----”you can think of research as a conversation” and the place you conduct that conversation is in a research report.  Well a report can be verbal but NOT HERE!!!.  Remember I also stated that there are standard forms or protocols through which researchers report their findings.  Part of our plan Is to follow those standards.
	Without reliable, WRITTEN, research, in whatever form it may appear, we would all be prisoners of what we alone see and hear, locked in the opinions of the moment.  No doubt most of our everyday opinions are sound (after all, we got many of them from our own research and experience).  But mistaken ideas, even ugly and dangerous ones, flourish because too many people accept what they hear, or want to believe, on no very good evidence ( written, documented), and when they act on those opinions they can lead themselves--and us--into disaster.  So just think of it this way----writing a research report will give you the opportunity to join the oldest and most esteemed of human conversations----the conversations conducted by the likes of Aristotle,
Marie Curie, Booker T. Washington, Albert Einstein, and Margaret Mead just to name a few.
	Now, some of you are probably saying to yourselves, this is one conversation I would rather stay out of.  Your lazy side is saying---if she would just tell me the answers or point me to the right places I could just concentrate on learning what I want to know.  After all, what do I gain---that lazy side says---from writing up my research, other than proving I can do it???
	Unquestionably----the first reason to write something down is so that you will not forget it. (like those addresses on the WEB we think we will remember)  What you don’t write down, you are likely to forget, or worse---MISREMEMBER!  Most of us can answer hard questions only with the help of writing----listing sources---assembling research summaries----keeping notes on particular ideas.   That’s one reason researchers don’t wait until the end of the process before they start writing.  They write from the beginning of their project to its end so that they will better understand what they find and retain it longer.
	Another reason to write is to see more clearly the relationships among our ideas.  When you arrange and rearrange the results of a search, in new ways, you see new connections and implications you might otherwise have missed. Writing induces thinking, not just by helping you understand what you are learning, but by helping you see in it larger patterns of meaning and significance.  And further, once we get our thoughts out of our heads and onto paper, we see them in a clearer light, one that is always brighter and usually less flattering.  Most of us---professionals as well as students----think our ideas are more coherent while they are still snuggled up in our brain than they turn out to be in cold print.  But you can reflect on those thoughts clearly only when you separate them from the fast flow of your thinking and fix them in written form.
	In short then, we write so that we can think better, remember more and see more clearly.  And as you will begin to see, the better you write, the more critically you can read.
	
	Writing a research paper-----BEGINNING HERE WITH JUST A 
PARAGRAPH----is, finally, just thinking in print.  It gives your ideas the attention they deserve.  Written out, your ideas are “out there”, disentangled from you memories, opinions, and wishes-----ready to be explored,  and expanded into new forms of knowledge.