Epic, Community, and Identity

research journals

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to. -Chuang Tzu

Your research projects are ultimately about ideas, not words. However, words are still necessary until we learn to capture thoughts and transfer them via the internet or some still to be invented wireless standard (80211.!!!). Words (and images, and links, and sound files, and videos) are all we have.

If you are taking the great leap into online journaling, remember a few caveats:

• write early, write often
• write about the process of your research, not just the content
• use the forum to try out ideas. Assume others are reading, and are interested (we are) and Will respond.
• think, reflect, write, and re-write.

I've added some examples of people who write about their research and their ideas, and their intellectual journeys. Do not be intimidated by copia, or slick visual designs. Be yourself above all. I recommend trying www.blogger.com - it's free and easy to get started. Send me your URL/RSS feed once you have begun.

• Matt Kirschenbaum (http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/blog/),
• Scott Eric Kaufman (http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/)
• Chuck Tryon (http://chutry.wordherders.net/)
• Timothy Burke (http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/).
• Bryan Alexander (http://infocult.typepad.com/)

Kathleen Fitzpatrick also blogs extensively about her work, her life, and is admirable for her dedication to the medium and signal/noise ratio.

Research Questions

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.
  - Thorstein Veblen

There are questions we ask because we can find the answer, and questions we ask because they help us ask more and better questions. A successful research project in this class, and in the humanities generally, is measured not in whether a question was answered with finality (such questions of fact that have specific solutions that can be found are all too rare). Rather, a successful research agenda in this class will allow you to learn something that you didn't know before, but also to see the material you are working with in a different way. You will be educating yourself, your colleagues, and your readers in a new way of thinking about the texts and issue you are dealing with.

When you take a shot at creating a research question, you have several criteria to consider:

• Is it specific and narrow enough for you to say something compelling in 15-20 pages, and in the next 12 weeks or so?
• Is it merely factual (i.e. was Homer really blind?) The answer to such a question can only be yes or no, can probably never be known anyway. So turn it into something that is not a "yes" or "no" question.
  
• Is it open and flexible enough to suggest more questions?

With the admittedly trivial example of Homer's blindness above, it could lead you to an actual research agenda by following up on the trail it suggests. Answer: we don't know, but how did the tradition of Homer's blindness start? If historians and philosophers repeated this tradition, what investment did those writers have in the idea of a blind poet named Homer? And so on. . .

Most important is your own investment in the question or topic. It has to be something that interests you enough to want to spend some serious time and energy on it. If you care about what you are doing, your work will reflect it of course.

As with all research, even if you don't know what you are doing, you will eventually.

To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend. - Jacques Derrida