Empoword

Part Three: Research and Argumentation 280 Consider the difference this can make: if research is about learning , then an inquiry-based perspective is essential. If you only seek out the ideas that agree with you, you will never learn. Even in the event that the investigation yields the same answers, their differences are crucial. The example in the table above demonstrates confirmation bias, or as we called it in Chapter Four, “projection.” (You might be familiar with this phenomenon from politicized social media spheres which tailor content to the user ; 99 you may have also identified it as the force behind many axes of prejudice, racialized police violence, and discrimination.) When we only look for answers that agree with our preexisting ideas, we are more likely to ignore other important ideas, voices, and possibilities. Most importantly, confirmation bias inhibits genuine learning, which relies on challenging, expanding, and complicating our current knowledge and worldviews Consequently, inquiry-based research is time-consuming and intensive: instead of only dealing with evidence that supports a certain answer or perspective, it requires the reasoner to encounter a great diversity of evidence and answers, which can be difficult to sift through. This distinction has important implications for the kind of research and research writing for which this book advocates. e) You don’t have to—shouldn’t, in fact—have a thesis set in stone before starting research. In lieu of a thesis guiding your process, a research question or path of inquiry will motivate your research and writing. You might have a hypothesis or a working thesis, but you must be tremendously flexible: be prepared to pivot, qualify, nuance, or entirely change your answer as you proceed. f) In order to pursue your research question, you will need to encounter a lot of sources. Not all of the sources you encounter will make it into your paper, which is a new practice for some students. (When I engage in inquiry-based research, I would approximate that one in every twelve sources I encounter makes an appearance in my final draft. The other eleven may be interesting or educational, but might not have a place in my discussion.) This is a time-consuming process, but it leads to more significant learning, more complex thinking, and more interesting and effective rhetoric. “The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” – Thomas Berger "Investigation" by Paul Vladuchick i s licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0