Writer's Journal #5

In my past research projects we generally did very vague concepts. In my freshman year of high school I did a research project on elephants in Africa and that was a more informational research project where I was not answering a CRQ question or anything like that related. The research project was very open and I included a lot of information but it was hard to figure out what my point was other than to teach people about different elephants in Africa and more information in regards to them. My conclusion was that I was able to gather a lot of information for many resources in regards to elephants but I was never entirely sure of what I should be including and where. I kind of realize that without a specific question we are answering it’s very hard to write an informational paper or research project because there are a lot of resources out there to be able to write about a general topic.

When I began writing my paper I just found as many resources and sources as I could that taught me about elephants and what I would want to teach other people that isn’t just general knowledge. My project was research directed at finding data to back up an already hot position because it wasn’t really like a research but more of an informational paper. My paper was not inquiry-based at all because like I said previously I was not answering a question when I was writing my paper but more of teaching about the elephant.

After this module I have kind of realized that when I went to write my elephant paper I should’ve probably answered a CRQ question because that would’ve helped narrow down what exactly I was trying to do when I was writing my research paper. My scope was definitely too broad to just write about elephants in Africa. There are a few types of elephants and also many aspects of the elephant that could be addressed whether it is what the animal looks like, what it eats, what it does, it’s habitat, or even its babies. It’s something that’s definitely been already written about. I think if I was working on this now I would definitely try to come up with a CRQ question. Maybe one that asked, “how are elephants in Africa different than those in America in modern times?” This would answer Kairos, a CRQ question, and it would also address exigency.

I believe it’s very common in primary school and even secondary school for different classes to write very vague topics in regards to research because it’s much easier for a person to understand just a general concept versus a specific question that they are trying to answer. But now in college I would say it’s more important to narrow down questions. We’ve already spent most of our lives doing very general research and now because we are studying specific areas it’s going to become more relevant to do very specific research.