Low-stakes: Exploration of Research Topics
See the list below of numerous potential research topics you may choose to pursue for the main assignments this quarter. Examine them and then answer the questions below as best you can. This a low-stakes exercise meant to get you thinking about your research interests and processes. These interests almost surely will change and evolve as the quarter progresses.
TOP 3 TOPIC CHOICES:
Describe your top three choices for your 39C research and explain the relevance of each topic to Evicted. What is your favorite topic and what interests you about this topic? What obstacles do you think you might face in doing research on that topic?
RESEARCH YOU’VE COMPLETED SO FAR:
Describe the kind of research you’ve done in order to search for a 39C topic, making sure to distinguish between online research and in-person library research. (Note: It is perfectly OK if you have not done much research on topics at this point.) What kinds of researchable questions do you have in mind regarding your potential topics?
INTERESTS YOU WOULD LIKE TO EXPLORE IN RELATION TO 39C:
Give two examples of topics you’d like to study in 39C that you feel are only tangentially related to Evicted, especially in the case that you are very eager to study a tangentially related topic.
HOW DO YOU PICTURE THE THREE MAIN ASSIGNMENTS IN 39C IN RELATION TO YOUR RESEARCH?
Read the prompt for the Historical Conversations Project. List 3 challenges you picture facing as you progress through the stages of writing and research in 39C. How do you plan to face these challenges?
TOUCHING BASE ON YOUR CONFIDENCE ABOUT WRITING AND RESEARCH:
Write a few sentences about your confidence in yourself as a writer and researcher, and then write a question for your instructor based on your feelings of confidence or lack of confidence and what kind of guidance you would like to receive.
Writing 39C: Potential Research Topics*
*Keep in mind that you certainly aren’t limited to any one of these and that ALL of these are generalized and will require a great deal more narrowing of the focus before you begin your project. Whatever you choose, it should relate to a specific contemporary event/policy/law/movement, etc.