While the Analytical Research Project is still fresh in everyone's minds, I would like everyone in the class to write a brief comment in response to this blog post. For your comment, I want you to reflect back on the entire process of analysis and research. Your comment should try to answer some of the following questions, but it doesn't need to address all of them:
What aspects of the analytical process did you find valuable?
What were some of the challenges that you encountered while working on this project?
Did your experience of conducting research for this project differ in any way from research that you've done in the past? If so, how?
By asking you to consider how a primary source conveys meaning and to think about the larger implications and underlying assumptions of it's rhetoric, how has this assignment affected your understanding of symbols/representations of culture.
During the entire process of crafting the analytical research project, the most helpful step I find is looking for additional sources to expand the article, and this is where it's genuine different than all the writing assignment I've done before. In order to search for a proper resource and to develop what I've done in PSA, I first look for relatively short and informal article which talks about the theme I was writing. I found some interesting points which I could use to expand my article. They generally pointed out a way where I could find more sources. After I had a clearer idea of what kind of sources I was looking for, I started using database to find peer reviewed articles and published books, and I learned a lot from reading them. Actually I didn't have a quite clear view of my theme, but I found what I wanted to talk about gradually through reading different articles. I couldn't have finished my analytical research project without getting all those ideas through researching on the net.
ReplyDeleteMy topic object for research project was a Chinese painting named Ladies with Head-pinned Flowers. In the research project, the characters, color using, clothing style and decorations were thoroughly analyzed. Then the meaning of women freedom and beauty that the picture conveyed was focused to generate the research question. During the project, the progress of observation was quite provoking. For instance, I did not notice some detail of the picture in my PSA but after studying the secondary resources, a number of details suddenly made sense. And the method of doing a research was very valuable either. The ability of critical thinking was well practiced for this research project. However, it was not easy to come up with an ideal thesis topic which could be both interesting and profound. The research itself was challengeable too that it required the research to deeply understand the resources and generate novel idea above that.
ReplyDeleteAs biology major, I did some research project in my major subject. But this is my first time to conduct a research about art. For my major researches, the experiments were always primary. We usually settled the research topic first and make experiment guidelines. During the process of research, the experiment method was revised and revised until ideal results could be gotten.
By doing this research project, I learned several things. Firstly, the simple decorations like a head-pinned flower could convey symbols of culture. This point not only provides us the idea of the meaning that it conveyed but also reminds us that we tend to neglect details. Those details may not seem useful at the first glance but a new view would be open if the meaning behind could be analyzed. Secondly, the picture offers me a chance to learn more about ancient Chinese culture. Both the clothing and the decorations in the picture were served as important culture symbols during that era.
I found the method of looking at each explicit and implicit detail to be very helpful in guiding the thought process to things I had not previously noticed. Although I was a little familiar with my primary source, I would not have thought there were so many details that went unnoticed. The process of researching and integrating secondary sources was something I had no prior experience with and was extremely valuable to me. I found it surprisingly challenging to look at all my sources with an analytical but unbiased eye. I discovered some preconceived ideas I had on the subjects, especially the one of my primary source. It was very interesting to look at subjects in my paper and ones we discussed in class under a new light. It's made me look at random things differently, also.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time doing any research paper. I had done research before, but I never had to write a paper discussing the process. I think it helped me to understand researching more to actually see it on paper in black and white.
I felt that breaking the assignment into separate parts like the secondary source integration was really helpful when it came to organizing my paper. I was able to get all of my ideas together and then work in the sources much more easily. However, I still had some difficulty coming up with seven pages since I tend to run out of things to talk about. This research project was pretty similar to other projects I've done but I think it involved a lot more in depth analysis of the subject than I've done in the past. I think it will really help me analyze other primary sources in the future.
ReplyDeleteI found that separating this project into three separate entities was helpful for me to discover a thesis and to develop my paper. The step-by-step progress made me think about the material in a much more in depth manner. This also helped when looking for secondary sources, because by writing the primary analysis, I could find sources that were much more relevant.
ReplyDeleteI had difficulty at times trying to figure out how discuss the meaning in my paper because my primary source was about a short story. Much of the evidence to support how the author conveyed meaning was within the written word, and I had trouble at times trying to convey that without sounding redundant or like I was summarizing.
I thought breaking the paper up into three different parts was very helpful. At first when I was just describing the picture and starting to make some claims, I overlooked several things. As I went farther along in the paper, I noticed that objects in the picture had more meaning to them than what I first noticed. By integrating my secondary sources, I was able to thoroughly support all of the claims that I made from looking at the picture. This research project differed from the ones I submitted in high school. In high school I was usually given a topic and just had to find different sources that had information to support it. This process left things a little more open for something to be contrary to what I originally thought. I had some trouble coming up with enough information for my research paper, but by going back and reanalyzing the picture and secondary sources, I was able to add more details to select parts of my writing.
ReplyDeleteAs a whole, I feel like the Analytical Research Project was a success. As others have mentioned, breaking the project up into parts was a very interesting, and rewarding aspect . I've never written a paper this way, and it does help with developing a complex thesis. Finding secondary sources was difficult, in particular the scholarly piece. Also, expanding the paper enough was a tough task. Rhetoric is a completely new style of writing for me, as I've never done a paper on "how" something is conveyed; however, now that I've done this kind of writing I feel like in the future I can write more sophisticated, in-depth papers. Did the project have flaws? I don't think the ARP has flaws in itself, but I think there are things we could have done to prepare for it better. Perhaps a pre-ARP paper would have helped, such as a shorter piece, with a narrower scale in terms of what we could write about. I'm not sure if that's completely necessary, but the lack of experience in this type of writing caused me to have some problems. All in all, the ARP was a tough, but rewarding challenge.
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ReplyDeleteThe Analytical Research Paper was very managable when being split into three different sections. This process really sperated out what needed to be done for the final paper. Adding small amounts at each step made it clear. The most difficult part of the paper I feel was the secondary source integrations because I have never done this before. The thought of a secondary source blending into your paper to help your personal argument was somewhat difficult, but the book did help explain as well as class lectures. Overall, The paper was a success. I took out of it the fact that everything in society can be analyzed to a degree as well as everything having some deeper meaning, whether it being obvious like a Coca Cola commercial, or it being deeper such as a poem. Also, I feel more prepared for persuasive arguments by seeing all the factors that go into a good persuasive argument.
ReplyDeleteI felt that splitting this paper into three separate parts was effective and helpful. These different steps really helped me think about my source and the analysis. Each part made me realize something new and different about my primary source. A challenge I encountered was expanding my paper after the secondary source integration. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly I wanted to focus on for the final analytical research paper. At first I felt I could not analyze my source much more than I already had but after further research I realized just how much more I could write about. This project made me realize that there is much more to pop culture than it may seem. By analyzing a music video I realized that the majority of the time there are important aspects to the video that we do not even realize. This project helped me to view my primary source in a whole new way.
ReplyDeleteI found it extremely helpful that the paper was split into three separate assignments. With most lengthy research papers, it can become overwhelming writing so much for one giant assignment. This strategy made each section more manageable to the point where at the end of the process you don't feel as if you've had to write an eight page paper, but rather three shorter papers. The research gathering process was kind of similar to what we did in my high school english class for our research papers. It was different, however, because that research was much more superficial than this research. In this class we were more encouraged to look at the underlying meaning if things instead of what it explicitly says. This makes the research slightly more difficult.
ReplyDeleteAt first I was quite confused about what the ARP was. So I didn't know exactly how to select the proper primary source and how to analyze it. So I think it might be better to be aware of what the final essay would be like and the relationship among the three essays before we get start on the first one. I think it is very important to be able to find a qualified and relevant secondary source because that will help you prove your thesis and analyzing. However, I think this is the most difficult part and require a lot of time. Without good secondary sources, it is really hard to come up with a seven-page essay with thought-provoking thesis and logical evidences. Anyway such an essay is helpful to make progress about writing and researching, but rather difficult for us to finish.
ReplyDeleteI found this assignment an interesting one to deal with. It is because by engaging in three separate yet interrelated phases of the assignment, it kind of gave me some inspirations. I learned that what I have been analyzing before this was merely touching the very superficial stuff. This assignment on the other hand has gotten me exposed to a deeper level of analyzing process. During the process, I was stuck at some point but at last I managed to overcome the challenges of not having an exact argument to continue with. I managed to view the same old subject in different perspectives and from there, I started to enjoy doing that assignment.
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