Whatever kind of project you are embarking on, you will need to carry out desk-based research. A research project is not just something you pull out of your head. It is, instead, something that develops in community, in discussion with others.
This is why “how many references do I need?” is entirely the wrong question. This suggests you already know what you are going to discover or conclude, and you just need to stick in a few references to make it look fancy. Instead of asking “how many references?” you need to get curious about the work other scholars, writers and researchers have engaged in, find out about similar projects elsewhere, and find ways of getting into dialogue with the wider world.
Most of you are not reading broadly enough or boldly enough. So today’s session is going to be about this. But before we start, let’s have a look at the idea of a “thesis”. We’ve been told often that we need “thesis statements” for research. But what does this word “thesis” even mean? Let’s go back to Aristotle.
Aristotle’s Idea of the Thesis: the Art of the Surprising
a thesis is: a) an unacceptable supposition of someone well known for philosophy…; Or b) something contrary to our beliefs for which we have an argument… A thesis, then, is also a problem, but not every problem is a thesis, since some problems are such that we have no belief about them either way.
This comes from Aristotle’s Topics, and the reference is here: Aristotle, N., & Reeve, C. D. C. (2024). Aristotle’s dialectic: Topics, sophistical refutations, and related texts. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
You can take the bit about philosophy as meaning “any kind of inquiry whatsoever.” So a thesis is something that:
- Makes people sit up and go… “Wait… that’s not right!”
- Goes against our habitual beliefs, but is supported by an argument.
We don’t need to stick firmly to Aristotle here, but this is a useful starting point, because for any interesting piece of work, he suggests, there needs to be some element of both discovery or surprise (we’re going to find out something new and something not blindingly obvious) and some element of argument that shows why this new perspective makes sense.
This is really useful, because it forces us to ask: are we bringing anything new to the table? Instead of just dutifully doing a project to demonstrate something nobody has any doubt about (“some cats are furry”, “colonialism sucks”, “some people like chocolate”), we’re trying to explore something else. Is there a correlation between chocolate growing and neo-colonialism? Are more furry cats more friendly, and if so, is this genetic, or because people pet them more? And so on…
Writing exercise: What is potentially surprising or new in my proposed project?
You’re Not Reading Enough… No, Really…
Okay. First things first. You’re never going to read everything. Nor should you try. But you should definitely be reading more broadly, more wilfully, more intelligently, more questioningly. So in this class, we’re going to think about how to do this.
As a researcher, other scholars are your very best friends. They have done work that is boring, tedious, intensely detailed, subtle, complicated… so that you don’t have to. You can, as the saying goes, standing on the shoulders of these giants, and if you are lucky and the weather is good, you can see further than they could.
Reading is important at all stages:
- At the start it helps you shape your initial ideas, by understanding the world, and the world of scholarship you are entering.
- In the middle it helps refine and develop your argument
- At the end it allows you to pin things down much more precisely and carefully, and to build a really convincing case for your thesis.
Exercise 1: Keywords
Put together a list of 10 keywords that are relevant to your research topic. Be creative, and be specific. Write out a list and post in the chat.
Exercise 2: Discussion
Now I’ll put you in pairs. Share your project with your partner, and get them to refine your list of keywords.
Let’s Play With Zotero
First, I want you to download Zotero. This is the very best home for your research, it is free, and it is available for Windows, Mac and Linus. This is the link: https://zotero.org. When you have done so, take a screenshot, and post it in the chat. You have five minutes.
Now it’s downloaded, I’ll show you round your new home.
Doing the Research 1
To research fully, you need to have access to Parami’s VPN. The information is here. https://www.parami.edu.mm/library If you haven’t set this up yet, you won’t be able to do the research. It’s like doing a thesis while you are locked out of the library. So you must resolve this first of all.
Now do the following:
- Try a search with some keywords in the Library EBSCOHost search box.
- Try a search with the same keywords using search4Life
- Now try it with JSTOR https://www.jstor.org
- Finally try Perlego (also linked on the library page.
When you find something interesting, skim it very quickly, and if possible import it into Zotero there and then. You have it saved (this won’t work for saving full-text with Perlego). You’ve started to build your database.
You have 15 minutes for this.
Going Deeper
Okay. Now let’s pause. Now let’s export our bibliographies so far. Post them on the discussion board.
The next thing to do is to step back and ask: which of these papers is most useful so far? When you have identified 1 or 2, then go to the end: to the bibliography. Now read through the bibliography, and find at least two references that you want to follow up on.
Search for these, and add the references to Zotero.
Now keep going! Circle around, and make some notes as well as your ideas begin to emerge.
Homework: An Annotated Bibliography
By the end of the week, I want you to have an annotated list of at least 20 carefully-selected academic books and academic papers, exported from Zotero, and fully formatted using APA format (it’s not my favourite system, but this is what we’re stuck with at Parami). For every single reference, leave the full bibliographic data, followed by at least one sentence that explains why this caught your eye, or why you think it might be useful to your research.
If you want to use non-academic sources as well, you can include these. But you must have this minimum of academic books / papers.
You get up to five participation points for this.
- 0 points: you don’t submit
- 1 point: you submit very few references, or very low quality references, with no sense of direction
- 2 points: you have some good references, but they are insufficient in quality or quantity, they are badly formatted, or it is hard to see the connection with your project
- 3 points: this is a solid start, but your references need more thought, and you need to push your reading and research further to give it more shape
- 4 points: looking pretty good. You have a sense of direction, and you are building a solid research base.
- 5 points: you rock! Your project is sitting on the launchpad ready to go.
We can work together on this on Thursday if you attend. But please don’t skip this week’s tasks, or think they don’t apply to you. These are the basic, everyday research skills that will allow you to shape your project.If you skip them, even though it’s technical and has quite a learning curve, your research will suffer. And so will your final thesis results.