WRITING IN THE MIDDLEBecoming an Activist Note-taker

Rather than merely collecting information,

and S T U F F I N G it

into your research essay

TRANSFORMATION!

Engaging with the information you collect as you are collecting it, reading and taking notes. This is what Bruce Ballinger calls writing in the middle, a practice that enables you to transform the raw

materials of yourresearch into your own thinking.

HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR SOURCES

Ask questions Talk with, to, and even against what

you are reading.

HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH THE RESEARCH YOU READ: WRITING IN THE MIDDLE

Become an Activist Note-Taker! Take notes while reading. Use fastwrites to interact with what you read. What’s a fastwrite? Try the Double-Entry Journal and/or The Research Log

OPEN-ENDED, MESSY WRITING IN THE MIDDLE

Writing while reading can producesurprising ideas, new ways of seeing and saying things as you converse with the authors of thetexts you read.

DOUBLE-ENTRY JOURNAL

Notes from Source Collect direct quotations,

paraphrases, summaries of key ideas from source.

Write down facts, passages, and claims that surprise or puzzle or generate some emotional response from you.

Record material from the source accurately.

Include page numbers

Fastwrite Response On this side, think through your

pen/keyboard. Think while writing.

Try “believing” and “doubting.” What are the strengths and merits of the author’s ideas, assertions. Note questions doubts, counterclaims.

What strikes me about this? First thoughts when I consider

this? What does this make me think

of? Remember? What else that I’ve read

connects to this?

ROTHENBERG, DAVID. “HOW THE WEB DESTROYS THE QUALITY OF STUDENTS’ RESEARCH PAPERS” CHRONICLES OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 43(49), P.A44 15, AUGUST 1997.

“But too much of what passes for information these days [on the Web] is simply advertising for information. Screen after screen shows you where you can find out more, how you can connect to this place or that. The acts of linking and networking and randomly jumping from here to there become as exciting or rewarding as actually finding anything of intellectual value” (44).

(4 minutes into Ballinger’s fastwrite:)

…It strikes me that the real virtue of the Web might be its central weakness: because so much of the Web is, as Rothenberg claims, insubstantial and unreliable, we have a wonderful opportunity to get students to consider that distinction between information and knowledge, between legitimate and specious claims to authority…. Where Rothenberg sees pitfalls, I see opportunities, I guess.

FROM BALLINGER’S ESSAY: “A NET FULL OF NOTHING?”

I don’t think most of my students think that the Internet makes research easier. It makes research more convenient, and that’s why students’ first instinct these days is to pull up a chair in front of a monitor rather than to journey into the stacks. For the foreseeable future, the campus library will remain the best place to cast a net for term papers, but I’m coming around to seeing that the Web may be an even better place for students to practice how to evaluate their catch. Can the Internet’s weakness as a source of knowledge tutor students in the opportunities for knowledge-making? I’m not sure yet.

STRATEGY 2: THE RESEARCH LOGTANNER, MARTY. “AMERICAN CHOPPERS.” NEW YORK TIMES, 20 FEB. 2005. WEB 4 APR. 2009.

What strikes me most? A prosthodontist is a dentist that

specializes in making teeth look a certain way. While many people are born with smiles they are proud of, a prosthodontist can take any smile and modify it in any way. Unfortunately, more and more people are falling into a trap that there is only one ‘perfect’ smile, and they are asking for their own mouths to be modified. This disgusts me because I think there should be as many smiles as there are people. It’s becoming like a nose job or a face lift….I also think the prosthondist to the stars, Dr. Levine, is really disingenuous in this article. While his job depends on people being unhappy with the way their teeth look, he tries to play the ‘good guy’ card and say that people’s smiles are looking too perfect, and that people need to have a great set of choppers, but not overly great. He seems to want to make the polite statement that nobody has a perfect smile but then through his profession his job it to make people believe they can get a perfect smile—and they don’t already have one. I think that’s kind of slimy.

Source Notes “Within certain strict boundaries, Levine likes

to see some imperfection because it renders the hand of the dentist invisible. This is his art.” Many famous people, like actors and actresses, think of their smile as a sort of symbol of their status that they can flash to attract attention. Many of these smiles are exactly the same, with the golden mean the proportion of the length of their top six front teeth, and with each individual tooth having a width that is 80% of the length.

“smiles are looking too much alike.”

Source Reconsidered When the article mentions Julia Roberts or the

“iconic American smile” I know exactly what it means. In my mind, I truly have an image of that smile, and I realize now that’s because every single starlet and commercial model seems to have that smile. Yet, when I look at my friends and all the people around me, there are so many different smiles….Changing somebody’s smile sems to control and modify the way they communicate a feeling, and that is really bothersome. They are modifying something far more personal than just their appearance, they are changing the way they emote. That’s freaky.

SOURCES

TextsBallinger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers. New York: Longman, 2009.

Rothenberg, David.“How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers” Chronicles of Higher Education. 43(49), p.A44 15, August 1997.

Images

“How to Apply.” Photograph. Australia Awards. Web. 12 April 2014.

“Overstuffed Library Home.” Photograph. Frambles. Web. 12 April 2014.

“Packing OverStuffed Suitcase.” Photograph. Supershuttle. Web. 12 April 2014.

“Research.” Photograph. MSMBABLOGS. Mar. 2010. Web. 12 April 2014.

“Transformations.” Photograph. Businesschicks.com. Web. 12 April 2014.