READING INCLUDED: READ: Massey, Chapter 6 (Pages 211 – 241), READ: Mettler, Chapter 1 & 9 (PDF’s Included), & READ: Thurston, Chapter 5 (PDF included).
The research ideas memo should suggest several researchable questions that could be expanded upon in the full research paper.
(The following is adapted from Theda Skocpol’s advice on writing an effective research prospectus):
A good research idea involves a compelling puzzle or question that you can investigate through previous scholarly research and by analyzing and interpreting new evidence that you assemble. In this first stage, the most important challenge is to clarify the question or questions you want to investigate. This is necessary to do before you plan the research to explore plausible explanations. You may need to work through various possible questions or puzzles before you find a compelling one; and to do this, you almost certainly will have to familiarize yourself with facts about the real world. Good research questions are grounded in reality.
You should start by posing your research question or puzzle – grab the reader and say “this is something interesting we should wonder about.” If you are interested in a general subject area – like education or unequal political participation – what, specifically, will you ask about? It is never enough to say “I am interested in educational inequalities, or income inequalities and voting, or differences between men and women in expectations at work.” What, exactly, are you asking about? You have to delve into details and learn things before you can pose an effective research question.
A compelling research question often takes off from surprising or counterintuitive variations you or others have noticed (for example, that some schools in disadvantaged communities perform a lot better than others on key measures). Or maybe there are prevalent theories about a phenomenon and you have noticed cases that are exceptions to the rule, and wonder why. Or perhaps there are two or three arguments about an important phenomenon that lead us to expect different outcomes or relationships, and you want to do new research to help sort out which hypotheses are correct. You will identify – and expand upon – those arguments and hypotheses as you work on the research project over the course of the semester.
Put differently. the Research Ideas Memo should be 3-4 pages, double-spaced, and should synthesize the findings and disagreements from the week’s readings, citing them appropriately. Put differently, after reviewing the readings you should write an entry based on your findings, opinions, and interpretations based on the reading. The memo should include critical thought-provoking questions that you have as a result of your findings. If you agree with the reading perfect develop those thoughts and write about them. If you disagree the same rules apply. Why do you disagree elaborate as much as possible? Please base your findings primarily on the readings. However, feel free to incorporate personal experiences and outside cited sources. This memo can be used to identify topics and themes you may wish to develop through your analysis and research. You can look at specific readings that you identify as necessitating some further explanation or you can synthesize general ideas and themes from the readings, or you can apply the readings to primary examples you find in the media you observe.