First, here are the basic directions:
o Write a research paper of about 1500 words (5-6 pages, not including works cited, images, or appendixes) in which you convey technical information from computer & information science (insider knowledge and vocabulary) to a non-technical audience.
o Your target audience: educated adults with no formal training in computer science.
o Your main purpose: to make some topic or concept in computer & information science understandable to this audience in a way that makes that information relevant to their lives. Think of this as building a bridge between your academic expertise and the rest of the world (excluding, of course, the computer technology world).
o To make your technical information relevant, you need to find an intersection between CIS and some other institution or context that matter to or involve most other people: politics & the law, education, ethics, health & medicine, or sports—to list just a few.
o Another way to think of your ethos for this project is that you are doing what journalists do: informing the public in an accessible way about something they wouldn’t be able to grasp on their own. You’re just doing it as a guest-journalist.
First Steps
o Brainstorm: Start thinking of possible topics—some case or institution in which your expertise as a CIS major can shed light for the average person on one of the pertinent issues.
o Pre-research: If you are stuck, sometimes doing pre-research can help. Pre-research means simply diving into newspapers, magazines, and academic journals to trawl for ideas and debates. What issues are people—both CIS experts and those with no CIS training—talking about that involve some aspect of CIS? Specialized tech magazines and journals are a good place to look, but even better would be the Technology section of a good national newspaper, The New York Times being the gold standard and best place to start.
Research Project Tips: Next Stages
The first stage of research is a time of mass consumption. Read anything and everything to put as much information about your topic into your brain as you can. Read or skim dozens of articles and book chapters. As you do, record any keywords or terms that are often repeated that are particular to your topic.
As you read, you are looking to pick up two kinds of information: facts and opinions. It is important at this early stage to bulk up on facts, since you can’t have an informed opinion if you’re uninformed. But as you move from mass consumption to the next phase—devising an argument—look also for secondary sources that offer arguments and opinions, too.
It is vital to keep that distinction clear as you start to conceive your thesis. You are NOT writing a report—a simple explanation or sharing of information; your paper should be based around, an in support of, a central claim or thesis: think this way, or behave this way. Part of the assignment is to explain technical information, yes; but you are doing that in service of bigger purpose: to explain do your non-technical reader why the information should matter to them
Evaluate Your Sources: Once you have digested a couple dozen sources, you should be ready to move on to the next stage: focused research. By searching with the right keywords, you will be able to sort through all that’s out there to find the best secondary sources. As you do this, you want to evaluate them by asking yourself these questions:
o Is there an author named? Websites with no named authors should be held in suspicion—if no person or group is standing behind the content, there is no penalty for spreading misinformation. If there’s an author named, look them up: what do they do for a living? Are they an expert on the topic, or an armchair-quarterback merely tossing in their two cents?
o Does the source appear credible? Sources affiliated with a college or university are especially reliable. Established newspapers and magazines should be preferred over lesser known ones.
o Can you trust or use personal blogs? For opinions, sure; for information, no. Always confirm data by corroborating it with other, trusted sources.
o Freshness dating: Some sources from years or decades in the past contain information or opinion that remains relevant and useful; others do not. If a source article was published more than a few years ago, double check to see if things have changed. An article arguing for the right for two women to get legally married, for example, might contain some useful info, but its position is irrelevant now that the U.S Supreme Court has established nationally the right for any two adults to marry.
o Bias: Does the source appear to be biased, or compromised in any way? If an article is sponsored by the poultry industry, I wouldn’t be too trusting in what it has to say about vegetarianism, for example. No source can be 100% unbiased, but do due diligence in making sure the author isn’t unduly influenced by money or ideology. If you have any suspicions, double-check their facts with other sources.
o Finally, big databases like Google and Wikipedia are fine to start research but not good to end research. Use them to gain information and then spring to other, more reliable sources for arguments and ideas. Same with magazines and newspapers: USA Today, for example, is a good source for up-to-date, easily digestible information; but its journalists really water things down for a mass audience. Use it to get started, but look for more serious, in-depth journalism or academic articles.
o Research never stops: Even when you think you’ve got your topic and thesis set, keep reading. Things change. Look at how much has radically changed in just one month!
So far, the paragraph-length proposals I have read on Blackboard are promising, and I encourage you to go and read what kinds of topics/questions your classmates have put forward. Also read my responses to them, because the advice I’ve given them individually will almost surely apply to and help you on your project, too.
The most common advice I have given to those who have posted is that your project idea needs to—from the start—include a clear sense of what specific way(s) you are making the technical information relevant to your audience. Remember, your audience is everyday people who do not and will not be studying computer science, and who not work in the tech industry. In fact, diversify your audience: speak in some parts to parents, at others to doctors, at others to teachers. At the same time, don’t water down your points by spreading out your analysis too thin—one or two kinds of context is about right.
Next Steps: Revise and adjust your topic and research goals based on my feedback, and then start gathering facts and opinions by searching out more sources. Find out what discussions or debates exist about your topic and context—and be sure that you are reading up-to-date articles! If you’re looking at a source that was published five years ago, are the salient facts still the same? Has recent history changed things? Your final draft should include facts AND opinions from at least four different sources.