Research+Guidelines

Introduction:
This seminar focuses on research. Research involves inquiry into the unknown. A research paper/report summarizes and documents that inquiry. This seminar is about people, nations. We are attempting to understand Mexico and the relationship of our country to Mexico. We are the subject and to some extent, the object of our own inquiry, the investigator and the object of investigation. All research is tricky because of the tendency people have to see their values, aspirations, and preferences in the world they encounter. Research, however, is an inquiry into reality, what is, rather than what we believe, hope or assume is the case. As we do research, we do our best to keep our biases from contaminating the inquiry. This is not an easy task, even in chemistry and physics where the subjects and problems engage us emotionally to a very limited extent. We are able to study fractals, the Krebs cycle, and String Theory without, however, having to deal with the issues that researchers studying cockroaches, for example, or human beings have to confront to attain accurate results.

It is a point of interest that many people have an aversion given that cockroaches are closely related and ecologically similar to crickets, insects that evoke pleasant associations for many. Is this irrational? Is it threatening or humiliating to conclude thus? You see how people investigating humans and cockroaches could arrive at results that reflect distorted perspectives of both. Institutional research seldom avoids the implied problem. Most research centering on cockroaches, for example, is oriented towards eliminating them from our surroundings. Some studies of Mexican sociology are oriented towards keeping Mexicans out of our country. The nature of this sort of inquiry often contaminates the results. It is our job as researchers to minimize this contamination so as to attain results that better portray the truths of the world we occupy.

What we can do in this seminar is to direct our attention towards our own biases. In this way, we will be able to better see if and how we are skewing our results. We can then take steps to minimize the distortion and inform our audience of the possibility of skewed results as we make our reports. As an added bonus, we can learn about our biases, predispositions, and assumptions enhancing our mastery and understanding of our personal world views.

Research Topic:
Each student will pick a topic connected to the discourse in this seminar. The topic should emerge from your interests. As a person learns more, he or she tends to develop a greater breadth of interest. This can make it difficult to choose. Discussions in class, conversations, books, films, and growing knowledge will suggest topics. Typically, researchers find that they have to refine their choice, sometimes limiting themselves to a subset of their original topic.

Research Goals:
Research in this seminar involves two goals. First, students should learn as much as they can about the topic of choice. Second, students should learn as much as they can about the context of the topic, the potential utility of the knowledge you are learning through your research. You do not necessarily address the topic of context in your reports, but context certainly informs you in your choice and provides a framework for growing knowledge.

Research Design:
Students need to develop a plan to attain the research goal. Students will inevitably modify this plan as the semester proceeds. Many students, for example, will need to progressively limit their inquiries. . Research design encompasses both the scope of inquiry and specification of the methods the student will be using to generate results and the means the student specifies to document findings.

Research Methods:
Students can use a number of methods. Scholarly research at the library or on the web relies on the research carried out by others. To do successful scholarly research, students need to be able to assess the credibility of the research source. We will discuss means of assessing credibility in class. Direct primary research methods, systematic observation, photography, sound recording, survey, interview, and participant-observation work can involve students more directly.

Documentation:
As students apply research methods, they must develop means of documenting their findings and organizing the facts they gather. Documentation needs to be comprehensive, systematic, and detailed. Notes, sketches, photographs, journals, and checklists are all means of documentation. Student should develop the habit of constantly attending to the situation that forms the background of documentation. Observation notes, for example, should always specify the location and time that the observation was made along with pertinent features of the setting. Doing scholarly research, I would note down the bibliographical information and write a brief synopsis of the content of the article. Reports, both the progress reports and the final paper/presentation, would list the conclusions I drew from the research I was able to accomplish. Reports articulate what the researcher has learned.

Research and Opinion:
There is some overlap between essays and research papers. Essays are designed to persuade, and often use research to bolster credibility. Research papers, while not free of opinions, are more slanted towards the presentation of discovered information than persuasion to a given viewpoint. Choice of a topic is always based in one's values, but the primary purpose of research papers is to inform, analyze, and classify rather than persuade.

Progress Reports:
These will consist of brief informal presentations to your student peers in class. When students make these presentations, they should provide synopses, a brief summary (1 page) of what you’ve learned to date plus a brief summary (1 page) of what you’ve done to attain this new knowledge and information. If you are doing mainly scholarly research, a two page annotated bibliography would be fine. Progress Report #1 will be due March 2nd Progress Report #2 will be due April 1.

Research Paper:
The paper you write will simply (1) Summarize what you have learned in your research. (2) Document your direct methods (your research strategies and your scholarly sources). The paper should be around 8-10 typewritten pages (3200 words plus notes and bibliography). In structure, the paper should first identify the topic and discuss its importance or interest. Second, the paper should present several major points or issues you've discovered in your inquiries. Third, the paper should conclude with an extended statement of the perspective(s) that are attained through the research you've completed. Finally, you document your methods or sources. This can be accomplished within the text in the form of footnotes, in a bibliography which lists the sources you've used, or in an appendix describing direct research methods. The paper is due April 20 (note that this is a Tuesday). Talk to the instructor if you have an idea for an alternative means of presenting your research.

Style and Style Manuals:
The research paper is the primary form of professional communication for scientists and scholars. For that reason, style and form are important and often rigidly specified. You should name the style manual (MLA, University of Chicago, etc.) when you submit your research plan/bibliography. You can choose your style manual, just specify it and then use it consistently. In general you should use the style manual that people use for professional papers in your major.

Rubric Summary:

 * Research Paper and Presentation**

Length – 3200 words of text plus citations, bibliography
 * Paper:**

Stylistic features: Font - professional (Times New Roman, Arial, Courier), 12 point Spacing – double – long quotes indented and single spaced Margins – 1.25”

Sources: five, two of which should be ‘hard.’

Citation: footnote or parenthetical according to your style manual.

Bibliographic Style: consistent, and according to your style manual

Parameters of Assessment/evaluation: clarity, balance, challenge (how much you learned through the research), accuracy, structure, and presentation.

Length - Poster presentations: 10 minutes (5 devoted to discussion) Other: (PowerPoint, media, or oral): 14 minutes (5 devoted to discussion)
 * Presentation:**

Parameters of Assessment/evaluation: clarity, professionalism, poise, connection to audience, balance (between entertainment and educational value).

Presentations - Parameters and tips:
Short Presentations (ten to fourteen minutes plus five minutes for questions and discussion) based on the research summarized in the research paper will be scheduled in late April – early May. As stated above, this presentation can be a conventional formal presentation of the research, a poster presentation, or a PowerPoint multi-media presentation. Here are some tips. Presentations should both entertain and inform. Bells and whistles are not necessary but do engage your audience, make connections to issues of interest in previous meetings and presentations and pay attention to eye contact and diction. Presentations should be precise. They should not run longer than the allotted time and should not vary in pace (If you have to rush, do so consistently). Using media is taking risks - to minimize the risks, prepare - if possible, do a test run of the video, music, PowerPoint, etc. on the machine you will use. Otherwise, cross your fingers and pray. If you collaborate, work out your “choreography.” To open discussion use open-ended questions that connect to the experiences, opinions, and thoughts of your audience. End discussion explicitly. Be courteous throughout and at the end thank the audience for their attention to your work.

//“Each student is expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty and integrity in academic and professional matters. The University reserves the right to take disciplinary action up to and including dismissal against any student who is found guilty of academic dishonesty or otherwise fails to meet the standards. Any student judged to have engaged in academic dishonesty in course work may receive a reduced or failing grade for the work in question.”// Pathfinder, The UNM Student Handbook p. 58
 * NOTE: This is the first paragraph of the UNM Policy on Academic Dishonesty:**