Outline, Rationale, & Abstract Lab

What is your topic?

My topic is trade networks - particularly the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade network - and how they were linked to and affected culture in the places they influenced: the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the East coast of Africa, and Asia (especially China and India). More specifically, I want to demonstrate that the importance and the historical legacies of these trade routes are badly misunderstood in common knowledge. Also to teach readers about the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade network more generally, to create a foundation for the rest and to correct some mistaken assumptions about what they were really like.

What do you think about your topic?

Every culture in every time period has the unfortunate habit of categorizing all the world into ‘us’ and ‘other’. I intend to prove that our perception of these trade routes have been affected by these faulty assumptions. Where these attitudes and misconceptions persist, we are unknowingly self-centered. Where this is true, we are crippled in an increasingly global world. It is not good not to understand that, say, China and India had and have agency independent of us in a world where our economies are completely interdependent and the distance between us is reduced to not months but mere hours.

What do you know about it?

A collection of some details: Marco Polo has little to do with the reality of the Silk Road. Most land trade and a great deal of ocean trade was composed not of long journeys, but of short trips. A study of material culture in India and China especially shows clear exchange and exchange that has nothing to do with, say, the Roman Empire. Traders from the Mediterranean were a very small part of Silk Road trade, barely a trickle. Africa was a very large part of global trade in the same period, especially through the Indian Ocean trade network. This trade did take place in NETWORKS, and each node was not only a stop on the road but a destination in its own right, with its own products and culture and influence. And so on and so forth and in greater detail.

What is your claim about the topic?

Cultures we see as ‘other’ can and do relate to one another independent of ‘western culture’, and that cultural exchange is not one-way or even two-way, but a global melting pot with lines of influence moving in all directions. Lots of rich traditions, lots of independent and also interconnected histories.

What is your stance on the issue you’re writing about?

US common knowledge provides a shallow and overly simplistic view of the nature and impact of historical trade networks, and my readers, at least, should be able to learn more from my paper. My paper will be aimed at convincing my readers that there IS something more to learn, and that they MAY have unexamined assumptions, and to provide the information and perspectives that will encourage them and help them to examine them.

Which sources back you up?

All of them right now, to be honest -- most of them are about various things to do with one or the other of the two major trade networks I’m examining, and my use for them is as sources of information. There are a few sources MENTIONED in my current sources that I can seek out that make assertions that directly oppose my own ideas, but since most of my argument at present is “this thing you never thought about exists and it’s REALLY COOL”, everything I’ve found so far that falls within my topic has supported my thesis, since my thesis is basically “this exists and it’s cool let me tell you more.”

How about the sources you disagree with?

Like I said, I’ve heard of a few that were cited in my other sources, but I haven’t been able to seek them out yet. Mostly they’re papers and other sources that take a very Western/Mediterranean-centric point of view of what the Silk Road was and what it meant. I will have to keep searching for some of these. Though to be honest, on the whole my stance is not one that sees much opposition. It is not a difference of opinion between two groups, but rather the fact that one group doesn’t even realize there’s something there to have any opinion about.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 is a short overview on citation styles and proper documentation of sources. There are several documentation systems, all of them associated with different disciplines, and they all have their own rules for documenting sources.

If I were writing my own paper for submission in a scholarly magazine, I would want to use APA if I were submitting to a magazine with a focus on sociology, anthropology, or political science, and I would want to use Chicago if I decided to submit it to a primarily historical magazine instead.

Chicago would be my most likely choice, and a history magazine the best match for my paper’s topic. Most of my sources have used the Chicago style. It’s characterized by in-text citations in the form of footnotes -- a superscripted number at the end of a point that needs citation, with the matching citations arranged at the bottom of each page. These citations are repeated at the end of the document in a works cited list.

Chapter 17

In my personal opinion, revising and editing are the most important parts of the writing process no matter which discipline you’re writing for. I don’t know that the book shares my opinion.

Certainly it presents the revision process as a time when you should question and reaffirm absolutely every element of your work, to be very thorough and to carefully examine every choice you’ve made so far. I agree with this.

Some useful tips for editing:

• double-check quotations, facts and figures, and spelling for accuracy.
• focus on ensuring that every statement you’ve made is stated as plainly and as efficiently as possible.
• edit for consistency -- consistency in your formatting, in your treatment of concepts and ideas, in your methods for writing out numbers, and perhaps obviously your citation methods for your sources.

Quality editing takes time and relentless thoroughness. The book recommends reading your entire paper backward sentence by sentence or even word by word. Other than that, don’t be afraid to mark up your document and make lots of changes, and don’t depend overmuch on automated editing tools. Microsoft spellcheck has more than its fair share of foibles.

Finally, the book would remind us emphatically that outside feedback is one of the most valuable resources we can find, for revising and editing. Well, in some situations it can be difficult to acquire outside feedback. Still, a fresh perspective can spot things the writer can’t -- like points that weren’t explained clearly enough, or simple errors the writer might have passed over simply because they’ve seen the paper so many times.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 is on drafting. It’s an effective strategy to work from an outline when you start drafting, though it’s important to consider your outline as a guide rather than a hard and fast blueprint.

The building blocks of your draft are your paragraphs, so you want them all to be effective. It’s important to focus each paragraph on a specific idea or concept. Paragraphs should be organized according to some consistent rationale; chronology, cause and effect, process explanation, and compare/contrast are all possible ways to set up and organize your paragraphs.

When drafting, it’s important to keep your reader’s attention and to use your sources correctly. To this end, always seek to use as much detail as possible, though all the details you present should be relevant. The information from your sources should be well-integrated into your own prose and argument, but also clearly cited and delineated. Keeping your reader’s attention and comprehension can also depend on consistent and effective transitions, and the chapter provides examples of some of these.

The next section of the chapter goes into strategies for constructing an effective introduction in particular. There are a variety of ways to construct an interesting and effective introduction, and you’ll want to select one of the ones the book describes based on your own writing situation, subject, goals, and target audience. The chapter also provides advice for structuring your paper to be easily followed, and closes with a section on conclusions with similar advice to the section on introductions. What stands out as ideas to keep in mind for writing a conclusion: you’ll almost certainly want to link back to your introduction, and your link should use a technique that complements the ones you used in the intro. Further, a conclusion ought to offer something like extra analysis, speculation, a question, or a call to action depending on your writing circumstances, your goal, your subject, and your intended audience.

It sounds repetitive, but then again repetition is one of the best ways to really get ideas through to people.

Chapter 18

This chapter covers document design from a more visual point of view as opposed to content and structure.

Important vocab:

• Balance - vertical alignment of text and of images, headings, etc. Is your document balanced or unbalanced? Whichever it is, the decision should be deliberate.
• Emphasis - the arrangement of images and headings to create emphasis or flow, size of images, text color of headings or important words, etc.
• Placement - esp. the location of images; put related images close to each other, place images next to the specific passages to which they’re relevant.
• Repetition and consistency - patterns are good. Certain elements should be the same every time they come up to make comprehension as simple as possible for your readers.

When designing your document, your reader’s comprehension should be first in your mind. Make it easy to understand the organization of your document, the separation of parts, the places to find and review specific points of information.

Use fonts, line spacing, alignment, layout, colors, shading, borders, rules, and images or various types as the elements in your document’s visual design.

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 goes over a number of ideas related to proper use of sources. Perhaps most importantly, it explains proper practice for the attribution of sources, as well as the correct formats for citations and different kinds of quotes. It also provides overviews of other ways to integrate sources -- paraphrases, summaries, and so forth.

Here are some uses for sources beyond being sources of information:

• You can quote a source to say something you couldn’t say yourself without sounding biased
• You can use sources to introduce ideas and arguments, choosing what to paraphrase or how to summarize to place emphasis on different points
• You can use quotations and paraphrases to show, rather than tell, where disagreement or contrasting ideas are present
• You can use quotes from sources with authority to give your own ideas more authority

And so forth. Of course, you can also use a source to expand on ideas with further information and things like that.

Chapter 16

Style is a vital part of any writing project. As with many other things, appropriate styles vary between different genres of document. It’s important to be aware of things like the appropriate level of formality to use and the preferred methods of citation.

Other elements of style to pay attention to are choices about sentence structure, when to use active voice vs. passive voice, effective transitions, varied word choice, and even choice of pronouns when describing people and professions in general cases.

The chapter provides in-depth examples and comparisons of all of the above, and several other things.

Worksheet: MLA Citations - Theory & Practice

1. Identify each bibliographic element in the following entries:
1. “Article title” in quotation marks. Periodical name in italics. Organization name, date published. Medium. Date accessed.
2. Website name in italics. Organization name, year published. Medium. Date accessed.
3. Author’s last name, first name. “Paper Title” in quotation marks. Periodical title in italics. Volume.issue (year published) in parentheses: first page-last page. Medium.
4. Documentary title in italics. Dir[ector’s]. First name Last name. Perf[ormers’]. First name Last name, First name Last name. Distributor’s name, year published. Medium.
5. Author’s last name, first name and initial. “Article name” in quotation marks. Periodical title and volume.issue (month and year released) in parentheses: first page-last page. Database name. Date accessed.
2. Write out bibliographic (works cited) entries for each of the following sources; give an explanation for each.
1. The source is a government publication; list government, then the government body that authored it, then the type of document followed by the title of the document, then publishing body, publishing date, and medium.
   United States. Federal Maritime Commission. Rept. Hawaiian Trade Study: An Economic Analysis. Washington: GPO, 1978. Print.
2. Personal interview; List interviewee’s last name, then first name, then list type of review or review medium, then the date the interview took place.
   Montez, Mary. Personal interview. 21 June 2012.
3. For an unpublished dissertation with a quotation in the title; author’s last name, first name, then the title enclosed in double quotation marks, with the quotation enclosed in single quotation marks, then the school, the date, and the medium.
   Casawantay, M.J. “Timing in ‘Once More to the Lake’: E.B. White’s ‘Chiller.’” Yale, 1985. Print.
4. For a newspaper article; author’s last name, first name. Then article name in quotation marks. Then the periodical name in italics, with the city indicated. Then date and medium.
   Harmon, Amy. “Have Laptop, Will Track Each Blip in the Market.” New York Times 12 March 1998. Print.
5. Article in a journal: Author’s last name, first name. title in quotation marks. Journal name and volume, issue, and year: pages. Medium.
   Robbins, William G. “Triumphal Narratives and the Northern West.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 42.2 (1992): 62-68. Print.
6. Article from an online database; ame as an article in a journal, but in the medium part you list the database name, then ‘Web.’, then the date accessed.
   Robbins, William G. “Triumphal Narratives and the Northern West.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 42.2 (1992): 62-68. JSTOR. Web. 12 May 2005.
7. couldn’t find a relevant source of this type
8. The Silkroad Foundation. Silkroad Foundation, 2000. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
9. Palmer, Carla. Personal interview. 6 Feb. 2014.

Chapter 12

This chapter is an overview of the process of developing your argument. Starting from your thesis statement, you’re to generate and explain your reasons for supporting your thesis statement. You should have a number of them. The chapter explains what sort of reasoning will be expected in various different document styles. All your reasons, then, should be backed up by logic and by evidence.

In addition to explaining your reasoning, a good argument will require appeals. The chapter explains the main types of appeals and how they work. The rest of the chapter outlines what aren’t acceptable appeals, or acceptable reasons. These are fallacies. There are a number of different fallacies. Generally speaking, they can be generalized as based on one of four things: distraction, questionable assumptions, misrepresentation, or careless reasoning. All of them are sloppy and dishonest, and if your readers detect them, they will not trust your reasoning.

Chapters 10 & 11

Chapter 10 is about field research. As my own paper is very firmly historical, this isn’t much use to me. An interview is the only one that might be helpful, but finding a specialist in the topic I’m studying isn’t really feasible.

The chapter emphasizes, however, that field research like interviews and surveys are useful to a great many projects, though many people are quick to dismiss them or write them off as a last resort. With surveys, for example, it’s much better to construct your own rather than rely on someone else’s results. First, other people’s surveys may be outdated by the time of your writing. Furthermore, the questions asked in someone else’s study, and the answers they received, may not really help with your own topic and thesis. Basically, if you want something done right (for your project), you really have to do it yourself.

Then the chapter goes into explaining how to carry out various types of field research. It describes good manners and etiquette in interviews, surveys, and observations, how to avoid biases and other errors in surveys especially, how to record interviews and observations, and so on. Some observations can be done in public settings, but if you want to visit a classroom or a company or something like that, you’ll need a written permission. The chapter explains how to acquire one of these.

Chapter 11 is a very brief guide to crafting a thesis statement. It re-emphasizes the same ideas we read about in earlier chapters on finding a research question and developing a position. Identify important ideas, recurring themes, and key points; think about your aims and intentions; focus in on as specific a point as possible. I’ll spend a lot of time working with this chapter to find a good thesis statement for my own paper for my research proposal. My topic is driven by my historical curiosity, and I don’t have some issue to take a position on just yet, so it’ll take some time to find something that I want to prove.

Chapter 7

This chapter is an in-depth explanation of plagiarism; what it is, what it isn’t, how to avoid it and what to do if you think you may not have avoided it as well as you should have.

It’s very important that your notes be very clear about what ideas are yours and what ideas aren’t, and carry that clearness through to your paper. Clearly mark and cite the ideas of others, as well as little-known information that comes to you from others. On that last note, the chapter also describes and defines ‘common knowledge’. You needn’t cite information that most people are likely to know, whether through culture or through elementary or secondary education. In addition, there are bits of knowledge that are ‘common knowledge’ within the field you’re writing, if not to the population at large. In general, the book says, if you see any given fact repeated without citation within three or more of your sources, then it’s probably common knowledge within that field, and you don’t need to cite it either. (If you see it in your sources, but they always cite it to some other source, then you should cite it from that same source. I think.) The chapter also collects together various bits of information that were spread through the previous six chapters.

If you’re accused of plagiarism, it’s your responsibility to do what you can to fix it. It’s a really serious matter, and if you have done anything, deliberately or through negligence, it’s pretty much time to grovel and basically be very humble and ready to work hard.

Chapter 6

If your topic is any good, you won’t have hundreds upon hundreds of sources to search through. However, if your topic is any good you will have dozens, and that much is a lot to deal with already. Organizing your sources is very vital to your success.

Keep track of all your sources. You can choose your own way to do this, but choose a way and use it consistently. Take notes on all your sources as well. Keep track of your thoughts, highlight important passages, summarize ideas as you go -- again, you can take notes with any method you like, but pick a method and stick with it, so you can stay organized.

As you read your sources, consider how they relate to each other. Where are they similar? Where are they different? How do the different authors’ ideas and priorities fit together? Consider grouping them by the kind of information they contain or by how they relate to your position. Use these considerations to organize your working bibliography, perhaps.

The more you organize your ideas as you go, the easier things will be when you start writing.

Chapter 3

A very important part of any research project is the development of a research question. Your research question guides your research -- helps you navigate sources for the subtopics and points of view you need, among other things. A research question is meant to be refined and developed over the course of your research, as your own understanding of your topic continues to improve. Selecting a question in the first place, however, is usually done with brainstorming.

Consider your assignment and topic. What do you know? What do you need to know? What is proven? What do you want to prove? Do you want to define something? Explain something? Analyze a puzzle? Make comparisons? Think of questions that go with your purpose. Use brainstorming to come up with a long list of questions.

The questions you start with should be fairly general. The next step is to narrow your question and focus in on your topic. You may not do this until after you’ve done some research and collected some sources. Your final research question should be quite specific, such that you might only be able to find a few dozen sources appropriate to answer it.

Another important step in the research process is the crafting of a research proposal, or a prospectus. Unlike a research plan, a research proposal is addressed towards someone other than yourself, usually a supervisor of some sort.

In your research proposal, you should thoroughly outline what your paper is going to be about. Be specific -- explain your topic and your thesis in detail, talk about your sources and what you’ve learned so far, give your supervisor an idea of your research methods, and lay out a timeline for your work. Your research proposal should also include your working bibliography. Consider making an annotated bibliography.

Incorporating Sources Effectively - worksheet

1. Compose 2 sentences including quotations from one of your sources.

1. Eivind Seland of the University of Bergen explains that “Long-distance movement in the pre-modern world was intimately linked to seasonal changes in winds and precipitation.” (406) Different routes, however, had different seasonal requirements, and so it was an effective strategy to maintain a variety of different trade routes even though some were less cost-effective than others, since the cost-effectiveness of any given route varied depending on the season.
2. Overland trade caravans had to be very large. Seland writes in his paper “The Persian Gulf or the Red Sea? Two axes in ancient Indian Ocean trade, where to go and why,”  that “The few ancient depictions we have of camel caravans also show animals relatively lightly loaded, with two amphorae on each side.” (402) It would have taken a great many of them to carry all the provisions and trade goods shipped out of Rome or Barbarikon on trading ships.

2. Compose 2 brief paragraphs, each one containing quotations from 2 of your sources and highlighting the credibility of their authors and indicating where each is published.

1. Matthew Fitzpatrick is an Associate Professor in International History at the University of Flinders. In his paper “Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism”, published in the Journal of World History in March 2011, Dr. Fitzpatrick noted “With Rome having wrested control of the centuries-old eastern maritime trade routes from Cleopatra, the last of Egypt’s Ptolemaic rulers, Roman trade with the East via the Red Sea accelerated markedly.” (31) Eivind Seland, a researcher at the University of Bergen, elaborates further in his paper “The Persian Gulf or the Red Sea? Two axes in ancient Indian Ocean trade, where to go and why,” which appeared in World Archaeology in September 2011. He says, “The total distance along the Red Sea–Nile route is about a third longer than along the Persian Gulf–Syrian Desert alternative. The overland distance to be covered between the Gulf and the Mediterranean is, however, almost four times greater than that between Berenike and Koptos.” (399)
2. 
   

Working Bibliography as of 1/23

The Silkroad Foundation -- www.silkroadfoundation.org; The Silkroad Foundation

• Run by a nonprofit scholarly organization whose mission statement is preservation and education. In that respect, likely to be extremely valuable. Has a wide range of information, so I’m bound to find something useful.

(after searching ‘Indian Ocean Trade in EbscoHost (V. GOOD SEARCH, USE IT AGAIN)) :

Margariti, Roxani Eleni. “Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States: Conflict and Competition in the Indian Ocean World of Trade before the Sixteenth Century”. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. Dec2008, Vol. 51 Issue 4, p543-577. 35p.

• Is about Indian Ocean trade and the groups involved in it and so forth, not a particular trade good. So. Useful. Six years old, but that’s not a problem w/ such a historical subject.

“Intersections, Networks and the Genesis of Social Complexity on the Nyali Coast of East Africa”

• (behind paywall, no good)

Heldaas Seland, Eivind. “The Persian Gulf or the Red Sea? Two axes in ancient Indian Ocean trade, where to go and why.” World Archaeology. Sep2011, Vol. 43 Issue 3, p398-409. 12p. 1 Chart, 1 Map.

• Different subject than silk road or medieval Indian Ocean trade, but still potentially v. useful depending on final topic decision. Nature and culture of trade routes, yes, so.

Prange, Sebastian R. “'Measuring by the bushel': reweighing the Indian Ocean pepper trade.” Historical Research. May2011, Vol. 84 Issue 224, p212-235. 24p.

• Potentially useful as a case study. More specific than general, but may provide valuable information and richen the understanding of my  topic.

FITZPATRICK, MATTHEW P. “Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism.” Journal of World History. Mar2011, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p27-54. 28p.

• Will have info on Indian Ocean trade AND Rome’s connection to it, looks valuable.

Chapter 5

Evaluating sources. Is the source relevant to my project? Will it be relevant to my readers? Will it answer their questions? Is it timely? More specifically, if it’s not recent, is it outdated? If I’m writing on a topic that advances quickly, this will be more important than with, say, a paper on a piece of literature or a part of history.  Is my source balanced? Does it provide a complete or well-rounded view of its topic? If my topic is wide, my sources will also need to be wide. If my topic is more specific, then this will be less important.

How’s the evidence in my source? Is there enough of it? Is it the kind I need? Is the author of the source using it fairly, or are they engaging in one or more fallacies? Has the author of my source identified their own sources properly?

Speaking of the author, are they reliable? Do they know about the topic they’re writing on? Do they have any biases or affiliations to consider? If so, how might those biases affect their writing? Watch out for that. Same for the publisher. Does the publisher have biases? Will this affect the content or tone of the source? Its reliability?

Web sources require special considerations when evaluating credibility in particular. Here's a tutorial on the evaluation of web sources. Field sources: I’ll need to evaluate their timeliness, relevancy, and accuracy in particular. With interviews and surveys, be aware of the relative reliability of the individuals interviewed or surveyed.

Chapter 4

Reading critically vs. evaluating: critical reading is focused on questioning and understanding what a source or document says and means, evaluation is concerned with determining its reliability and usefulness.

A research question and a position statement are needed. The position statement is a tentative answer to the research question. As you continue to collect and evaluate sources, look at how each source lines up with your position statement, whether it agrees or disagrees. Allow your position statement to be changed by your reading; as you learn more about your topic, you may change your mind about things multiple times.

“Accept nothing at face value; ask questions; look for similarities and differences among the sources you read; examine the implications of what you read for your research project; be on the alert for unusual information; and note relevant sources and information. Most important, be open to ideas and arguments, even if you don’t agree with them.” (Palmquist 65)

critical reading questions:

• is this source relevant to my research question/ position statement?
• does it make me reconsider them?
• does it provide any new information, ideas?
• would my readers be interested in its contents?
• would they find it convincing?
• would they benefit from a review of the source done by me?
• what would they think of this source?
• are there any special considerations for presenting the information gained from this source?
• can i follow up on the information in this source?
• how much of this information can I use/include?

MARK, ANNOTATE, TAKE NOTES

be aware of appeals made in your sources. types of appeals:

• to authority
• to emotion
• to principles
• to values
• to beliefs
• to character
• to logic
• to reasoning and evidence

Appeals are not necessarily dishonest (they are usually not dishonest), but your reading will be better informed and etc. if you’re aware of appeals and do not take them at face value.

Be aware, also, of the author’s backgrounds and points of view. Also, most authors use one or more of four ‘frameworks’ for interpreting information. Trend analysis finds the relationships between events and series of events. Causal analysis is primarily concerned with identifying cause and effect. Data analysis draws conclusions based on data. Text analysis examines documents and texts both in and between the lines to determine various things. Identify which your sources’ authors are doing, and ensure that they aren’t engaging in any fallacies while doing so.

Reading a source: You should read each source at least three times. The first time, skim over it and look for the basic major points. Get an idea for what it’s about and how it’s organized. The second time, read it properly. Read actively, highlighting and taking notes as you go. The third time, go back and re-read for deeper understanding and more detail. Pick passages to re-read that you think may be particularly helpful, or which you had a hard time understanding when you read them before.