Research Exercise #4

Purpose: This exercise helps you to: 1) extend your corpus; 2) hone the social location of your proposed research project 3) expand a bibliography from which to draw inspiration for your research question/hypothesis; 4) practice textual analysis / interpretation. 

Assignment: Submit a 2 -3 page single space written report that includes the following sections:

Texts (Corpus / Exhibit / Evidence)

Build out your corpus to five texts, listing each one. If you are sticking with your initial four corpus texts, include a labeled reproduction of the additional text. If you are changing any items of your initial corpus, include copies and annotations  of any new texts.

Social Location

Your discussion of social location should consider the most narrowly conceived way of defining the social category(ies) that are most pertinent to your interests. List specific locations, dates, people etc.  that would be specified in a research proposal. 

Working Bibliography

Create an annotated bibliography of two scholarly sources  from sociology or anthropology that might help frame your questions/hypothesis/argument. These sources may operate as argument or theory in the BEAM typology.  One of the items may be carried over from Research Exercise #3. The source may focus on some combination of: 

the kinds of texts in which you are interested 

the kinds of arguments/relationships in which you are interested 

the social location in which you are interested

Annotation of each should be in the form of a paragraph  that includes a “they say..I ask/hypothesize” move that links the source with a provisional research question/hypothesis. Include a properly formatted bibliographic citation of the source. The question/hypothesis should use the language of relationships drawn from our SOAN repertoire. 

Textual Analysis / Interpretation

Write a one page analysis / interpretation of one text in your corpus focusing on one category of salient features (content, form, materiality, pragmatics). You may refer to other corpus texts in order  to demonstrate patterns, but your analysis / interpretation should focus on one text in particular. You may employ complementary methods, such as an interview or a participant observation session. This is an opportunity to experiment with exploring your research questions / hypothesis based on textual evidence. You are encouraged to incorporate an explicit statement of argument, drawing on our vocabulary of SOAN relationships, and/or an “I say/they” move.