The I-Search

The subject of the search will be, we hope, of great interest to you, and must be explored

using libraries Internet interviewing experts using the dialectical process

The process of exploring the subject is at least as important as the paper you produce. The process must be deliberate rational recorded for verification The product of your investigation will be in four parts: What I Knew & Why I Investigated This Subject The Search What I Learned Works Cited

Choosing a subject
The I-Search is a research paper that will occupy much of your time over the next two months. It requires a lot of work, whether you are interested in your subject or not. If you are interested, however, the burden is infinitely lighter because you want the answer. So take your time to settle on something you really want to know. Settle on a topic that's rich enough for you to live with for quite a few weeks, and one that will lend itself to thinking, not just compiling "facts." Formulate your topic as a question, not as a word or phrase.

Getting Information
Information for your I-Search must come from two kinds of sources -- recorded materials (primarily books and magazine articles, but this might also include CD-ROM sources and videotapes) andinterviews (in person or by phone). Magazines are often more up-to-date on a subject than books; real people are often most up to date of all. The balance you strike between books and interviews will depend on the nature of your subject, but you must do both.

Dialectic
The dialectical process is how we describe a research project that uses information from sources which disagree with each other. The easiest way to picture this for most students is to think of a topic as "controversial." That is, there are different sides to the issue, and your research process must represent the thinking of both sides and come to a conclusion about them. Your topic does not really need to have this for and against quality, however. Experts are not for or against heart attacks, for instance, yet there is quite a bit of disagreement among them over exactly what causes heart attacks and how to prevent them. As long as your paper reflects differences in thinking among experts, it will fulfill the dialectic requirement.

Process
The process you use must be deliberate because it is impossible to discover anything meaningful about a large subject just a few days before the paper is due. A good investigation takes a lot of time, not just in the actual working out of the problem, but in the simmering that will go on in the back of your head. To be blunt, you've got to make constant progress on the I-Search; you can't put it off just because the final deadline seems so far away. The process must be rational. That is, you follow a plan, search for material and take notes methodically -- with a goal in mind of what you expect to learn. You record the story of your search (as Part 2) so that you can reflect on and evaluate the learning process you went through in a quarter's worth of reading, thinking, interviewing, discovering, and writing about your subject. You'll be asked to keep a journal so that you can have material to write Part 2.

Writing the I-Search Paper:

Your final product is a paper, in four parts: 1. What I Knew & Why I Investigated This Subject: First, it is important to record what you knew, and did not know, about your subject before you started your research. This helps to insure that you are quite clear in your own mind what you are looking for, and helps to measure, at the end of your search, the distance you have covered. There is no need to research what you already know about. The point is to increase your knowledge, not repeat it. Second, by exploring the reasons you are drawn to this area of investigation and what you hope to find out from it, you will establish clear goals for your project. (Minimum 200 words) 2. The Search: This is the part you'll probably write last, but you'll prepare for it in the meantime through a journal. (Make a journal entry each day that you do anything related to your I-Search. This hand-written journal can be checked at any time and must be

handed in with your final paper.) "The Search" is the "I" of the I-Search, the story of how you went about this project. You'll tell about your successes and your frustrations, the lucky breaks and the efficient methods you have discovered. You'll describe what your interviews were like, and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a learner of the research process. You'll tell this story chronologically, looking back over the quarter from the perspective of being just about done. (Minimum 300 words) 3. What I Learned: This is the formal presentation of the knowledge that you have at the end of your search, the conclusions that you have drawn. This section is organized along the lines of a formal research paper. Its topic is not you but the question you explored. It uses the conventional expository methods of supporting assertions as well as the conventional bibliographic methods of crediting others with their ideas or words. A successful Part 3 can be read in isolation from Parts 1 and 2, and will convey to the reader what you know about the subject. (Minimum 500 words) 4. Works Cited: This is the list of the sources of information that ultimately became part of your paper. (Minimum 10 print sources and 1 interview)

Anatomy of a Note-card
At the top left of each card, indicate the source and page number where the information came from. Use the author's last name if there is one. If not, either the full or a shortened version of what appears first on the Works Cited card for that source. The

information here will be used in your paper to make your citation, so getting it right now will save mistakes later. This is a heading to indicate what in general this note is about. Later on, you'll be dividing your note cards into piles, according to the subject area, to help organize your writing process. It's useful early in the note-taking process to come up with headings that will work for you. They form a kind of outline for your paper. You want your headings not so specific that there will only be one note card for each heading, but also not so general that there will be dozens for each heading. The notes here are paraphrased--fully put into my own words. Most of your note cards should be paraphrased; this is the way to show that you truly understand the information and aren't just copying it down or perhaps changing a word here and there. Occasionally, you will want to quote directly from a source. When you do, make sure your note card indicates clearly that you are using a quotation and not a paraphrase. Even in a paraphrase, make sure you do put quotation marks around the directly quoted words of a "run-in quotation."

Writing the I-Search: Part One

As soon as your research question has been approved by the instructor, you should start writing Part One of the I-Search. Here's what it should cover, in no particular order: As complete a description of your topic as you can make at this point, including

a list of questions you hope to be able to answer by the end of your research

an explanation of the dialectic elements in your topic a plan for how you will go about identifying someone to interview

An account of your present state of knowledge and thinking on your topic, including what you know already, in some detail what theories and opinions you already have about the subject including your sense of what you expect you'll find out

An account of your personal and intellectual connection to the topic, including why you are interested in this topic and the "history" of your interest what you hope to gain personally by studying this subject why knowledge of this topic will be valuable and important to you people that you know who connect you to this topic experiences you have had which connect you to this topic things that you've read or seen which connect you to this topic

Must be typed and proofread; minimum, 200 words.

Writing the I-Search: Part Two

Part Two is the part of your I-Search that is most personal and informal. It describes and reflects on how you spent your time and used your mind during the I-Search process. The information you need for Part Two is contained in the journal you have been keeping about your I-Search activities. (There is no need to type your journal. You may attach it, handwritten, to your final ISearch paper.) You write Part Two last, as your commentary and reflection on your accomplishment. Part Two:

is based on your recollection and reflection on what you did (based on your journal entries) describes your search process and tells about what went well and what was frustrating for you. has a minimum of 300 words but often three times that length. shows humor and self-reflection. gives a detailed account and evaluation of the interview process, from identifying and contacting a person to interview through working the interview material into your paper. gives a detailed account of your library research with comments on such topics as which research tools were useful and which weren't. tells about you as a learner -- what new skills you might have learned in the I-Search process; what old skills you may have improved upon; what skills you are still unsure of; what seemed old or repetitive. comments on the I-Search process and how you handled the 8 weeks -- meeting the deadlines, understanding instructions, working independently.

Writing the I-Search: Part Three

Part Three is by far the longest and most formal part of your I-Search, the part where you combine the information that you have learned and recorded onto note-cards in a clear, organized way that will teach an audience of your peers about your new-found expertise on the subject. Part Three:

uses "I" rarely, if ever, since it's not about you but rather about your topic. is based on your note-cards. has a minimum of 2500 words but often twice that length. can be read separately from the rest of the paper. has lots of citations (generally one per note-card). is generally more formal in its writing style than the other parts. is written mostly in the author's own voice, with no more than 15% direct quotation. uses quotations well in "sandwiches," including indenting quotations that are 4 or more lines long. often uses the names and credentials of authorities in your sentences to give the paper the feel of human voices discussing your topic (e.g. "According to Martin Jones, a researcher on kidney dialysis at the Maine Medical Center..."). has substantial sections which are dialectic in nature -- that is, they show areas of disagreement, where the experts have conflicting views on your topic. may reflect your own opinions when it comes to the conclusions you are drawing from your information.

Writing the I-Search: Part Four

(Note: The points below apply to a MLA-style Works Cited or Bibiography written for any high school or college academic paper, not just the I-Search.) Part Four of the I-Search is the "Works Cited," the formal listing of all the sources actually cited in Part Three. It is the same as what used to be called a "Bibliography." It is not a "Works Consulted," a list of all the material the researcher looked at, but did not cite. In Part Four:

individual entries are formatted following the guidelines set out in the Mt. Ararat Reference Paper Stylesheet; individual entries are alphabetized by author's last name -- if there is more than one work by an author, the alphabetization of the works is set by the title. If there is no author, the entry is alphabetized by the first word of the title (excluding "The," "A," and "An"). Using these rules, the list below is alphabetized correctly: Anderson, Bob. ... Anderson, Bob and Jane Peters. ... "The Beach Boys." ... Calpurnia, Susan. Thursday's Child. ... Calpurnia, Susan. Wednesday's Child. ... "Doughnuts Are My Downfall." ... the entries are not numbered; the text is double-spaced, as are all parts of the paper; there is no need for extra spacing between entries; web addresses are not underlined or colored (see "Just Say No" on how to convince Microsoft Word to stop this); the words "Works Cited" appear centered at the top; the font is the same as that used in the rest of the paper; book- and website titles are italicized, not underlined; and in the hands of a skilled computer user, the hanging paragraph style is achieved by using the word processor's ruler, not the tab key:

You can look at a pdf file of a student-produced Works Cited page to see how the formatting actually looks (thanks, Reggie).