Dialectical Journal: Davis & Shadle

Author/title:

Robert Davis and Mark Shadle: "Building a Mystery": Alternative Research Writing and the Academic Act of Seeking

Summary:

In this essay, Davis and Shadle discuss the problems of the modern research paper generally taught in freshman composition and beyond. Several of the introductory pages discusses Steven Posusta's guide book Don't Panic: The Procrastinator's Guide to Writing an Effective Term Paper (You know who you are) followed by synthesizing research from Richard Larson, Derek Owens, James Elkins,and several others. Before presenting their alternatives to the research paper, focus is given on historicizing the modern research paper and what it was intended to do. Finally, the authors present their alternatives: the research argument, the personal research paper, the research essay, the multi-genre/media/disciplinary/cultural research project.

Since the authors thought it was important enough to mention and name their piece after Sarah Mclachlan's "Building a Mystery," here is the video (just in case it is really important to their essay) :) .

Reflection	Quote
Agreed. Why we still teach this model makes us out-dated and irrelevant as educators.	“…the “research paper,” has seemed ready to collapse, undercut by the charge that it is an absurd, “non-form of writing” (417).
So now we need to find examples of textbooks where this isn’t the case, where we begin to see the progress of this new research.	“…textbooks typically provide sample papers, and stock advice on the “rules” of logical argumentation, linear organization, acceptable evidence, and the proper way to cite sources” (418).
Thesis statement	“In this essay, we will present a series of alternatives to the modernist research paper: the argumentative research paper, the personal research paper, the research esssy, and the multi-genre/media/disciplinary/cultural research paper” (418).
In a recent writing response, many of my current students said as much. They commonly said that writing was only done as a way to fulfill an assignment and contained no original thought—nor was that originality sought by the teachers they did this work for.	“…it may be as often the case that the research paper assignment teaches students little more than the act of producing, as effortlessly as possible, a drab discourse, vacant of originality or commitment” (419).
To add to this standard argument, we should also discuss why the English department is the inheritor of the responsibility to teach writing to all students (regardless of their major). The burden should be spread equally amongst departments in order to develop stronger student writers. Writing Across Curriculum (WAC) programs should be the norm, not the exception.	“We must teach the research paper, the argument goes, because students are likely to encounter it again in other courses across the disciplines” (420).
Self explained. The standard research paper often is a dead end and rarely returned to by the student.	“Conceptually, the generic term “research paper” is for practical purposes meaningless” (420). In-quote from Richard Larson.
As we see from this essay, this is not the case—students are frustrated by these assignments and gain little from them.	“Research writing, we are told, should teach students about how data is generated and expertise gained…cultivate their intellectual curiosity and expand their knowledge” (420-1).
Can the modern research paper still do this?	“According to its original ideal, modern research writing was to inscribe an act of seeking by presenting the knowledge the act secured” (421).
Understanding writing through this lens shifts its value.	“…there is no looking without thoughts of using, possessing, repossessing, owning, fixing, appropriating, keeping, remembering and commemorating, cherishing, borrowing, and stealing” (421). In-quote from James Elkins.
This would certainly apply to the academic institution.	“…one soon realizes that these possessions, regardless of their value of significance, are but stand-ins for themselves. And while they use their objects for inner security and outer applause, their deep inner function is to screen off self-doubt and unassimilated memories” (422). In-quote from Werner Muensterberger.
Through the proposed alternative we can create an endless stream of wonder—a way to create curiosity that is never quite sated. Creating this hunger early should be one of the goals of instructors.	“…instead of wanting to possess, or even “know” the other, we want to sustain the experiential excitement of not knowing, the seductive wonder we feel at discovering that the other is beyond us, unknown, inexhaustible” (422).
	Here begins the history of the research paper
At least we can say that the early modern academic model tried to be open to all—to assume a sense of egalitarianism. The academic institution is not really in the habit of keeping their doors open any more.	“Research writing was conceived in the modern era as a way of writing the making of knowledge, and this writing was, at least in theory, open to all” (423).
So what happened? How did the move to text from the oral tradition get so corrupted and useless?	“Oral performance for a local academic community demanded only a display of learning, but the new text-based standards demanded an original contribution to a disciplinary community in written form: a research paper” (424) In-quote from David R. Russell.
	“…it also sought to enforce a set of rules about the ownership of the known” (424).
And here we have a major problem—the concern more for property than the growth of the student.	“These concerns were just a formalization of the growing concern with intellectual property that had become a notable part of nineteenth-century law and jurisprudence” (425). In-quote from Robert Connors.
Noun: 1. A manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing. 1.      2. Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.	Palimpsest
	Survey of Alternative Research Writing Methods
While I appreciate a certain amount of authorial flourish, I found this to just be over the top.	RE: Argumentative Research Papers “The stunted will to know is here eclipsed by its shadow: the academic act of seeking inspired by the endless seductions of mystery and the shimmering promise of syncretic mapping” (427).
I was waiting for when Booth would be brought into the conversation! More importantly, this quote should remind us of Greene and his use of the Burke Parlor metaphor.	RE: Argumentative Research Papers “The authors recommend that research writers imagine themselves in conversation with their readers: “…you making claims, your readers asking good questions, you answering them as best you can” (427). In-quote from The Craft of Research.
I think this is great! I love using personal research over traditional—students are way more engaged and involved when the subject is themselves (or something they are connected to).	“…the advantage of the personal research paper is that it allows students to formally thing about subjects to which they feel intimately connected” (429).
Same as above—allowing for a more creative approach only helps to engage the student.	“In form, personal research papers often use a narrative structure and chronological order to recreate the writer’s unfolding search” (429).
J	“…lively writing makes these [personal research] papers captivating” (429).
And here is where we as instructors need to create ways to access these kinds of skills—how do you teach flexibility and fluidity in thinking, writing, and researching?	“Essay writing requires fluid thinking, rhetorical flexibility, and the ability to orchestrate” (431).
I love these books! Very helpful to me as a young instructor.	The Curious Researcher
	“It [research essay] can be used to teach students various modes and genres, while also showing how this variety can function together” (431).
The vast majority of the authors section on alternative research models focuses on this type of project—I have selected a few quotes from this sections introduction to respond to; however, the several pages that follow this introduction highlight and sample projects students have done in this mode—to which I will not be commenting on, other than to say that the many student projects highlighted are of an exceptional quality and caliber, and that their examples provide me with a clearer understanding of the multi-modal approach.	The multi-genre/media/disciplinary/cultural research project
And this is exactly something we should be investing it—shifting perspectives. The traditional research paper does not allow for a lot of resisting…	“These projects often resist, suspend, and/or de-center the master consciousness or central perspective inscribed in the essay as a unifying voice” (431).
I like to think about these projects more like art installations than “papers.” The audience can really interact with the projects and help authors push their research even further.	“…multi-media research writing enacts a process of intertextual linking that erases the boundaries between texts, and between author and audience. […] often inspire readers to contribute more…” (432).
	Concluding remarks by the authors
Well right, instructors have an obligation to continue to guide students through these purposes and model the nature of these demands that are placed on research writing.	“…establishing a progression is vital, for it shows the purpose and nature of research writing changing to meet the demands of a fluid world of complex relationships” (440).
This is a beautiful description of what instructors want for their students—we talk all the time about how students’ potential is unlimited, yet we confine them to projects with endless limits—I think the models presented in this essay really break with that tradition and focus on providing that springboard from which students can take their knowledge and imagination and apply it to research, developing meaningful connections.	“What we envision, finally, is a discourse that will not have limits, that will allow for various kinds and levels of inquiry to echo, question, and deepen one another” (440).