Research Paper
Prospectus
|
·
Prospectus due Thursday,
November 6 ·
3 copies of first draft of
research paper due Thursday, November 21 ·
Second draft of research paper due Tuesday,
December 2 ·
Check out the tips for research
writing below |
The
simplest way of thinking of a research paper is as an extended answer to a
question, or to a set of related questions. In this way, it's like any other
paper -- and it's like all the papers we've written so far in the class. In the
first two papers I’ve helped you to define the questions you were trying to
answer by giving you assignment prompts; for the final paper, I want you
to define the questions, and I want you
to define the context in which you will answer them. Research is almost always a matter of placing
things in context: you might use
research materials to help you place the idea, issue or event you are
discussing in a historical context; you might use other materials to supply the
theoretical terms that will help you talk about your central ideas; and you
might use still other research materials to help you to place your paper
within a larger academic discussion going on about the subject you're
researching.
Keep
this in mind: a research paper is not
substantively different from the papers you have written so far.
The same skills are called for: close
reading, analysis, comparison. The same
argumentative components are called for:
claims, support, conclusions. The
only real difference between a "research paper" and any other paper
you've written this semester is that a research paper always involves a wider
context.
The Prospectus (2-3 pages, typed)
BE SURE TO READ CRAFT OF RESEARCH, 29-63 (I HANDED IT OUT IN CLASS), BEFORE YOU
ATTEMPT YOUR PROSPECTUS. IT WILL HELP.
A
"prospectus" is a proposal for a research project and, as such, is
kind of like a map of a country to which nobody has ever been. The main point
of the prospectus is to give you a chance to define your research questions, to propose a working hypothesis in answer to those
questions, and to define the areas where you need to do research in order to
address those questions intelligently. Thus, your prospectus should have two
sections (and they should be clearly marked with subtitles):
·
Section 1: What do I want to know?(1 page)
What are you trying to find out and why? This section should lay out the
questions that will drive your research project. Those questions usually begin – as the
section of The Craft of Research I gave you suggests – with something fairly
simple, some little nagging question that has been bugging you in small ways
for a couple of weeks. Right now, for instance, you might be thinking about
violence in film noir: you’ve noticed that the so-called “neo” noirs
are more graphically violent than the classic versions. But you also know that all films noirs – new or old – center on
crime, and the crime they usually center on is murder. So you might now be asking a couple of
questions – first, why have the films
become more graphic, and what are their directors doing with that graphic violence?
Is the violence in films like Blood
Simple, The Hot Spot and Red Rock
West “gratuitous,” or does it serve a purpose of the director’s? What is the difference between a film about
murder in which the murder happens offscreen and a film about murder in which
the murder is played out in front of you?
Note
what just happened there. While I began
asking fairly simple questions that come from my direct experience with watching
a single film, if I follow those questions where they lead, they very quickly
lead to larger questions about the role of violence in film in general. That’s a good sign: you’ll know you have a good research question
when it opens up – it will lead to
other questions, and those other questions will lead you to your reading. In this section, then, the most important
thing is to explore the kinds of questions you want to ask in your research,
and to suggest, if you can, what you think will be the answer to those
questions. Just remember that, if your
research is any good at all, that answer will probably – and should probably –
change over the next couple of weeks.
The questions are far more important than the hypothesis right now.
Section 2: What do I know already and what do I NEED to know? (1 page)
What
do I know? What do I need to know? Where can I go to find it? This section should define the
texts you want to consider in your paper. If you're writing about violence in film noir, you should identify a couple
of films to place your central focus
on. If you're writing more generally
about a historical or sociological question, you should isolate the period or
event that you'll be considering.
Then
you should try to define what you need to know (besides simply what's in your
primary texts, or what happened) in order to answer your research questions
intelligently and completely. What
historical or theoretical background will help you to understand what you're
looking at? Do you need to know
something the era in which a film was produced? About its director and the other films he or
she made? About a psychological theory that helps to explain the behavior of a character, or group of characters, you’re
looking at? What do other people in the
field talk about when they ask the kinds of questions you ask? The point here is to think out, in writing,
what kinds of research you'll need to do, to assess, as specifically as
you can, what you need to know.
For
example: if I start with the questions I
raised above, it’s pretty clear what I’d need to know in order to address those
questions fully. I’d need to know
something about film noir – I’d need
to be able to say what its dominant themes are, and I’d need to be able to discuss
its relationship to crime in general and murder in particular – that could come
straight out of the packet. I’d probably
also need to know something about how violence in film works more
generally: I’d need to read up on some
theories of film violence – its effect on audiences, its relationship to real
violence, the way directors in different periods have treated and used it. That might lead me to books like Sissela Bok’s
Mayhem, or Stephen Hunter’s Violent Screen. I would of course also need to know what
people talked about when they spoke about the films you’re interested in. The point is that the questions you ask will
help you to define the things you need to know, and that you’ll need to know
things that are both specific to the film(s) you’re interested in
and more generally about American film
itself.
You
don't need to supply a list of books here – you haven't done the research
yet. But it would be a good idea to talk
about your research project with other students and with me: we can give you a lot of help in finding
resources; that is, in fact, a large part of the process of research.
Start
your research as soon as possible. You can go to the library link here.