Research and Methodology: Inscription as a Liberating Practice

    Today's speaker was Dr. Dana Williams.  For the majority of the class, she talked about the basic components of research. She most likely chose this topic because the groups in class are starting to work on their research questions and she was giving us options and pointers on how to get started. There were six different types of research that she addressed: statement of the problem/challenge, review, methodology, framework, development of thesis and conclusions. Methodology helps us with how we decide to approach the topic and Framework is how we decide to put the project together and how we show the data. Development of Thesis is the stage where we give a thesis. It's also the stage where we must start to provide clean details and structure our research. And as for the conclusion, it’s the step in which all questions that were asked at the beginning of the project have to be answered. The conclusion also has to answer, "What new insights has your research revealed?" and "What future study should this research undertake?" After discussing the methods of research, Dr. Williams then gave examples of each that were very helpful. She presented a case study of the Freshman Seminar class. How they made up the idea to teach the class the way they  do now. She used the word institutionalize a lot, which made me think deeper about what my project would be. As of now, I honestly have no idea, but I know that once my group and I come up with our project, Dr. Williams’ lecture which help us a great deal. I’m still not completely sure about what the actual Freshman Seminar class is, because we do something different every Monday and there’s a new guest speaker every Monday. I missed the first class on the first Monday of the first semester (my bad), so that’s probably why I’m still confused about the class, but either way, I just want to make it through the semester and pass the class so that I don’t have to take it again. 

-Rebecca Zoll