Craft of Research, 2

1
Craft of Research, 2
2
Asking Questions, Finding Answers

• Recap researchers look for significant
  questions
• Actually trying to pose and to solve a problem
  that s/he thinks others should recognize as worth
  solving
• Narrowing from idea to researchable problem
  isnt easy.
• Try to identify subquestions.

3
From topics to questions

• When reading an article, see if you can fill in
  the blanks
• The author is studying _______
• because s/he wants to find out who/how/why
  ______,
• in order to understand how/why/what _____.

4
From questions to sources

• Look for these themes in the Reflective Inquiry
  slides
• Sources
• Librarians
• General encyclopedia and dictionaries
• Bibliographical guides
• Card online catalogues
• Specialized enc., dict., bibliographies
• Guides to the literature.

5
From questions to sources

• Librarians
• Experts
• Other people
• Printed resources
• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary

6
Using sources

• Be careful make correct bilbiographic citations
  and accurate summaries/abstracts of the text
• Get the context right
• Why?

7
Claims Supporting them

• Researchers make claims,
• support them thru the literature,
• through their argumentation, and, esp.
• through the evidence.

8
Claims Supporting them

• Good argumentation
• Notice the cause-and-effect (you claim x caused y
  because )
• Consider the readers questions (p. 89)

9
Claims and Supporting them

• The Warrant
• To explain why your data are relevant, you may
  have to articulate an element of your argument
  that is often left tacit. It shows why any
  particular body of data should count as evidence
  in support of your claim.
• Key to persuasion
• Great opportunity to mislead by accident or by
  design
• Is the warrant qualified? Should it be?!
• Does the qualification affect interpretation?

10
Claims evidence

• Substantive (facts)
• Contestable (your goal is to demonstrate,
  explain, not proclaim)
• Specific thats why the research problem is
  vital.

11
Warrants

• Whats the quality of the warrant?
• False
• Unclear
• Inappropriate
• Inapplicable

12
Qualifications

• Does the research qualify the claim? Is there a
  complete, accurate, fair explanation of
• Rebuttals
• Complete review of all relevant aspects of the
  problem?
• Concessions updated research on the problem?
• Limiting conditions (generalizability)
• Limiting scope (whats being studied)

13
Preparing to Draft Revise

• Before writing assemble all the evidence,
  warrants, objections to rebut
• Preliminary interpretations conclusionAlternati
  ve interpretations?
• Is the research question answered?

14
Preparing to Draft Revise

• Main points
• Are quotes, c., accurate?
• Is there a logical structure to the argument
• Dont be afraid to draft, revise, and revise
  again!
• Because researchers construct an argument
  carefully, we can deconstruct the argument
  carefully, too.

15
Ethics

• Plagiarism
• Fabrication of data
• Conflicts of interest
• Ethical treatment of subjects
• Science as self-correcting process
• Peer review
• Reviewers evaluate quality, validity, importance
• Study replication

Students can you provide real-world examples?