ENGL 1007 Course Guide

Moving from collecting and understanding others' research to joining the conversation ourselves can be one of the most challenging aspects of academic writing. However, it is also potentially the most creative and fulfilling -- this is how we can add our perspective to an ongoing investigation of a problem or issue. 

Theorists (most famously Kenneth Burke) have used the metaphor of a party to represent part of the challenge here: we may arrive in the midst of these conversations, requiring work to understand what's already been discussed, and they will likely continue after we depart. So too with scholarly conversations, as described by the Bucknell Library:

In order to see how prior research fits together, comes into conflict, and prompts new questions, a "research matrix" can be a helpful tool. In addition to organizing and drawing comparisons among your sources, such a matrix can help you see gaps or missing voices in the conversation and point to areas of further study.

See below to view examples of these along with some description of what they can accomplish.

Once you find relevant research, read it, and understand its value to your project, you will need to find ways to actually incorporate it into your writing. There's no one right way to do this -- it all depends on context. But there are three common means of working directly with others' work in our own academic writing -- quotation, paraphrase, and summary. UConn's LibGuide Understanding Citations (direct link below) provides a detailed discussion of the differences among these approaches and how to deploy them effectively.

The next page of this guide (Citing Research) provides a more holistic view of citational practices in your work.