‘Reflections’
On reflecting to Ballenger’s insightful information pages 38-58, I learned a myriad of things that will help me, essentially, with writing my research paper. I learned about: What makes a question researchable? It has to not be too big or small, focuses on some aspect of the topic, raises more questions, and interests the researcher. I also learned, when searching for a topic, if you look at a possible topic through different “lenses” (i.e. through a different point of view, inclusive to all aspects of the topics background). Looking through the different “lenses” helps you see from the different aspects of the topic, through: people, trends, controversies, impact, and relationships (all aspects crucial to a topic). Ballenger, also, stresses the importance of, “a living reference source” in the library– the Librarians (who woulda guessed? LOL)!!
I also learned about the 5 steps to finding questions. In addition to finding questions, Ballenger also exudes the tips to find ‘focusing’ questions. When writing a research paper, you’re writing it to explore, argue, and analyze a topic or situation happening that intrigues you enough. If you have a topic or situation that is able to be explored, argued, and analyzed, then you got yourself a research paper!
