RR #5 Wadsworth Ch. 6-7

          Chapter 6 in the Wadsworth Guide to Research discusses how to read rhetorically. Reading rhetorically means you are paying attention to the context and analyzing the rhetorical situation. When reading something rhetorically, you must be aware of your purpose for reading that specific material. It might be helpful to read the material more than once to understand all of the information. Reading rhetorically requires you to not only understand the context, but to annotate your resources. Annotating is writing on or about something. When reading a resource, you must identify its claim, reasons, and evidence. The claim is the overall point that the resource is making. In other words, its thesis. Reasons are what is used to support the claim, and evidence is needed to show support for the reasons and claims. After reading your resources, you should be able to summarize them. You may also choose to paraphrase, or use direct quotes from your research.
          Chapter 7 talks about tracking and evaluating data. There are four steps to tracking data: verify, copy, respond, and fill gaps. Verifying data helps keep you organized and progress in your research project. You must decide what research you actually need according to your research plan. Once you have verified a resource that you want to use, it is important that you copy it. Making copies of secondary data, and keeping detailed notes on primary data will help you avoid losing any research. Responding to your research entails that you analyze the resource in relation to your research question. The last step, filling the gaps, is when you trace the resources referred to in your research. If you follow a certain author's work, you may be able to find other resources that could be very helpful in your research project.
          I thought these chapters were very helpful. I have not really heard much about these topics in any of my previous English classes. I did not know what reading rhetorically even was. I guess I have always sort of done it, but it helps that the book really explained it. The most helpful thing to me was the section talking about paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting. I feel like me, along with many of my peers, have not completely understood the difference between these three ways of recording research. I found the description of these methods very helpful. The information from Chapter 7 was more familiar to me. I feel that I have always followed these steps for the most part when tracking and evaluating my research. However, filling the gaps was one thing I had not heard of. I have not ever really thought of tracing resources used in the research that I have found. This method can be very helpful in finding related material, and I look forward to using this method while conducting my own research.