Textual Research Activity

Purpose  Doing this activity will give you practice at conducting research for a complex issue by using multiple textual sources.

Scenario

Your group is working for the Tippecanoe County Council. The elected councilmen have to make a statement on the impact of the Hoosier Heartland Corridor on the Greater Lafayette area. Because the councilmen are doing the "real work" of politician, they want you all to conduct the research and draw up a short position statement.

Research

As a group develop a strategy for conducting the research. A recommended approach would include...

  • determining what the various issues (e.g., fiscal, social, environmental) related to the project are
  • deciding what types of texts will provide the needed information
  • determining where to locate those texts
  • exploring these texts and mining them for information
  • determining the value of these texts
  • developing an opinion after examining multiple texts.

As a group, you will need to find four or five textual sources. You are highly encouraged to draw information from multiple kinds of textual sources.

Writing Assignment

The writing assignment will include two part.

For the first part, you will write a 500-600 word memo. In this memo, the group will...

  • articulate a position that the councilmen should adopt
  • support this position with evidence from the sources that you have found
  • explain to the councilmen the type of opposition that they can anticipate by taking this position.

For the second part, you will write a 500-600 word appendix to the memo. In this appendix, the group will explain their research process. Therefore, this part of the document will include...

  • a description and justification of the decisions that the group made
  • A description and justification of the data collection process (i.e., what documents did you look for? where did you look for them? what search mechanisms did you use? what keywords did you use? what dead-ends did you experience? how did you cope with these dead-ends?)
  • a description and justification of what you would do if you had more time.

Logistics

You will work on this assignment outside of class; if you want to use Heavilon 227 on Tuesday during the class time, the room will be available to you.

The memo will be due as a hard copy on January 30th at the beginning of class.

If you have any question, email the instructor.