At this point, you have workshopped and conferenced your Annotated Bibliography, and should have a good "foundation" for your research. You are probably finding that researching is part of the inquiry process, that the more you find the more you realize you don't know!
For this post, please answer the following questions. Like last time, we're aiming for a minimum of 500 words. Use your blog as a place to thoroughly think through your work: your careful thinking and analysis here will help you (a) better understand your research and (b) will prepare you for writing assignments to come (in this class, and in others).
First, what is your main, driving inquiry question? Articulating your main question will help you move forward.
1. Who is involved in the academic conversation you're eavesdropping on? What groups of people are interested in your topic and are talking about it? How are they answering the inquiry question you've posed? Why are they so invested in your topic? Define and explain at least 3 invested people/groups of people.
To keep with my example from the Blog Post #1 assignment, say I was researching whether chiropractic was healthy. I would explain here that chiropractors are invested in this conversation because this is their profession we're talking about, and they understand why chiropractic benefits their patients. I would then explain chiropractors' main beliefs about why chiropractic is healthy. I would then go on to explain how skeptics feel about chiropractic. (Since I haven't actually researched this very deeply, I'm not sure who these skeptics might be, but probably some medical doctors fall into the skeptic category b/c they believe in prescription drugs or surgery over spine adjustment). Another group I might explain are chiropractic patients, who could explain how chiropractic has changed their lives - hopefully for the good, but perhaps, in some cases, for the bad.
2. Choose 2 sources from your annotated bibliography that come at your topic from a different perspective. Briefly summarize each source, explaining where they "fit" in your answer from #1 (above). Next, create a dialogue (a conversation) that the authors of these 2 sources might have with each other. This dialogue should exemplify how these authors agree and disagree. Aim for at least 10 lines of dialogue.
I'm not going to leave an example here - get creative!
3. Read your peer group members' posts and leave a comment! Remember, all your classmates' URLs are posted under your class's Moodle forum.
