Blog Post #3-Chapter 5

I found Chapter 5 of the Bedford Book of Genres to be a very resourceful guide on how to write not only research papers but also on how to improve writing in general and topic specification. From the beginning, this chapter emphasizes the importance of focusing on a specific topic in your writing by clarifying your main idea. I find that the best way to do this is with a clear thesis sentence and by writing sentences that clearly follow each other creating a message pertaining to what you wish to convey. It is easy to get carried away with certain details and deviate from the point, but the best solution to this is to create a concise yet evident summary to let your readers understand. Just as the chapter suggests, I agree that getting familiar with the material you are covering and brainstorming are great techniques because sometimes “lightbulb” or “aha” moments will occur as you are sorting though or maybe reading up on something. By doing so, you may notice a trend, inconsistency, or something that you have a question about which make a perfect topic for your research paper. I think that it is important to make sure your sources are reliable and do not have skewed statistics. Also, through the process, by discovering the “why” of your paper or project, it becomes easier to determine the “what” or logistics since you will be able to plan how to achieve or convey your goal/purpose. This is something that is even taught in leadership lessons that people are attracted to why you do something not how you do something. Similarly, for a research paper, your writing may be more engaging and understandable for the reader if they can understand the “why” behind your main idea and then how it relates to the “what” that you are presenting. Another good way to continue this technique that is mentioned in the chapter is by defining your terms in the research by clarifying what is meant when a certain term is used. This reminds me of the same techniques used in psychology research studies that need to make clear what they mean when they say they are researching a certain trait etc. in order to most accurately convey their study.