Art & Action of Research

As the Annotated Bib looms in my future like the Apocalypse, I thought it would be a good idea to "journal" my ideas. In one of the last chapters we read from The Subject is Research, Wendy Bishop details her own ways of going about research. Interestingly enough, her chapter “The Researching Writer at Work” is part of the Research as Art and Action section of the book. This proved interesting to me because I never thought of research as either an art or a form of action. Throughout the last few weeks, I have to say, I have been proven wrong. The amount of reading that I have had to do is no less a work of art than is Michelangelo’s David. Ol’ Michel and I just might be neck and neck on hours spent. With the art emphasis down, the action is still to come. Such action will be evident in the large amount of interviews it seems I will have to complete to have any substantial information on the SWCA.

Now, as I wind my way back to my original thought like the ADD person that I am, Bishop writes that in every assignment/paper she has submitted from students, she asks for a “process narrative” to be submitted as well. In these process narratives, there will be “paragraphs, letters, and/or mini-essays that describe in specific detail how the text was written, including discussion of the physcial scene of drafting, time spent drafting, revision squences, writer's decisions, peer and teaching suggestions, and so on" (94). As I read this paragraph, I couldn't help but think that my blog is the 21^st, or better yet the electronic, version of Bishop’s process narrative. Analyzing my blog for how it would fit into Bishop’s description, I find it satisfactory in some aspects, but lacking in others. From now on, I will attempt to specify on such items as physicality, writing techniques and the suggestions that I am receiving throughout my research project.

Currently, the amount of research that I am reading is beginning to overwhelm me, so my next few blogs will be an attempt at the specific journal writing Bishop asks for. Hopefully with a level head and clear paragraphs, I will be able to begin making connections between my research material and the SWCA.