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No a starting a research paper Yeah How do you

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even do that Okay what's a pram joke age to

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do to do we have to do that Okay Hey

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did that down julianne tube six soups We're not making

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a soup Go ahead read me Didn't take you long

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did it Yeah That's Because i'm blank Little miss research

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paper writer over here has a case of writer's block

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Hey i get it Writing a research paper is no

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easy task And getting the ball rolling That's the toughest

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part So how do you do it Fortunately there are

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these guys handy dandy bullets Basically a checklist of stuff

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you need to do to finish the paper Follow the

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steps and a research paper will literally fall right out

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of you Well okay not Actually that would be really

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gross prunes work people The first trick Figuring out what

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our paper is even going to be about Do we

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want to inform e readers about the social norms in

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seventeenth century england Do we want to convince them that

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jerry mandir ing is creating an unlevel playing field in

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our political process Or do we want to persuade them

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That a toilet paper roll should hang over and not

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under if we're starting with no direction whatsoever it can

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be kind of tough to settle on something Most of

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the time though our assignment will guide us a bit

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like maybe our teacher tells us that we need to

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write a research paper about mark twain cool we still

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have some work to dio we need to figure out

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if we're going to write a paper about the details

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of twain's life arguing whether or not twain was a

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racist or arguing he was our country's greatest writer or

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whatever but at least we've got some place test start

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in other instances will get a prompt what's a prompt

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only hear new best friend prompt is a suggestion or

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question that does all the narrowing down work for us

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It tells us exactly what our paper is going to

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be about and what its purpose will be from there

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It's merely our job to write a paper that achieves

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that purpose so without further delay because it would suck

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if we didn't promptly give you are prompt Here it

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is How did the events of the eighteen fifties and

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sixties influence realist slash naturalist writing and here's a bit

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more guidance you'll be drawing on urban life and development

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the civil war and the rejection of romanticism As you

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answer the question posed to you you'll need to use

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two of the sources you've read in your response and

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find three other sources to support your claim Okay so

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there's a lot of instructions there but that's Awesome Embrace

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instructions Love them Squeeze them so hard that could hardly

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breathe The more instructions we get the less brain work

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we have to do on our own Don't look at

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them as rules that restrict us as much as helpful

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Guide post that keep us on the road and prevent

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us from driving over the side of the literary cliff

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All right prompt phase over now it's on to the

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brain storming portion of the program What's a brainstorm it's

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Something like a thunderstorm Actually there are loud heart pounding

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cracks of sound Whenever we happened on a brilliant idea

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there are brilliant flashes of light whenever we come up

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with a convincing argument And if we stand too close

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to a television broadcast tower we could die All right

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So the last one's mainly thunderstorms still good to keep

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in mind when we're brainstorming we're taking our prompt if

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we've been given one which we have and racking our

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brains to come up with convincing argument that answers the

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question posed in the prompt in other words we're trying

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to nail down our angle Talking about poverty in general

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isn't the basis for a paper What do we want

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to say about poverty What do we want to convince

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our readers to believe Are those in poverty victims of

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our economic system Are they in poverty because they lack

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the gumption or intelligence to contribute positively to our society

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and get paid for doing so Are they in poverty

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because they think fitting everything they own into a shopping

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cart is cool Brainstorming is about figuring out what angle

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we believe and one that lends itself to a convincing

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argument Okay so back to our prompt how did the

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events of the eighteen fifties and sixties influenced realist slash

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naturalist writing Well we've been learning a little bit about

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this time period First we learned about upton sinclair's the

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jungle which both made a sympathetic to the working conditions

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In meatpacking plants and made us never wanted a hot

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dog again in our lives Then we learned about jacob

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rees and his photographs Rees wasn't just about capturing light

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in an interesting way or volunteering on picture day at

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a local high school Instead he wanted to make a

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statement with his work showing the public without mercy the

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devastating conditions inside tenement housing Then there was stephen crane

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and his novel maggie a girl of the streets about

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an irish immigrant family that lives in squalor and is

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treated about as kindly as field mice at an owl

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convention And finally speaking um owls there was ambrose bierce

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is an occurrence at owl creek bridge a story set

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during the civil war about the death of a plantation

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owner by spoiler alert Okay time to storm our brains

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What was happening in the world at the time that

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inspired these artists to write and photograph what they did

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The good news is that these artists were naturalised and

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realists In other words we don't have to decode a

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bunch of metaphorical mumbo jumbo to get to the heart

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of what motivated them what they saw they funneled without

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Filter into their work they saw death and disease They

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saw people with skin sticking to their ribs people who

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are stealing even killing just to put food on the

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tables for their families They saw intolerance toward immigrants toward

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those with different religious beliefs different backgrounds toward just about

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everyone Really So why did these artists reject romanticism Aii

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the movement that focused on beauty emotion and individual ism

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well wouldn't you If all you see around you is

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misery and starvation and dark and dingy buildings Are you

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going to be much concerned with beauty If people are

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struggling just to survive Are they really going to care

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too much about getting in touch with their emotions Isn't

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that a luxury reserved for the healthy and wealthy So

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here we go Here is a good thesis for our

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paper artists and writers in the eighteen fifties and sixties

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became realist and naturalists because the conditions they observed were

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so grim that it was difficult to see much beauty

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in the world Okay so a little wordy but it's

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definitely a strong idea One we can build an argument

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for all right now that we've poured in the concrete

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For the foundation of our paper we can start to

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assemble all of our various joyce and girders The next

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episode search for sources we were told we have to

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use two of the sources we've already covered seems the

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jungle and maggie would be good wants to focus on

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but we also have to find three other sources Great

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So what do we do Is it time to get

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our google on Most definitely think about the two sources

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we already have both written in the same time period

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both about the appalling conditions and pervading sadness in urban

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areas in the mid eighteen hundreds so we need to

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find a few more sources that fit into the same

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category but we can't just type need research paper help

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into the search box We need to use something called

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boolean logic No not what ghosts used to figure out

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the best houses the han in order to help us

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find the sources that best fit what they're looking for

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We won't bore you with explaining how the whole internet

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works and we don't get it all ourselves anyway But

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there are a few ways we can trick the google

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And given us exactly what we want when we join

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together search wards with and it will narrow our search

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is toe on ly the sources that contained both and

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all of those words So by searching for banana and

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putting we won't get results for all things banana and

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all things putting will on ly get stuff about banana

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pudding specifically when we join together search words with poor

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it will broaden our search is so banana or putting

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will include stuff about banana splits and tapioca pudding and

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maybe some stuff about bill cosby too So be careful

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if we join together search words with not we can

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read out stuff we don't need If we search for

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pets not ferrets google will of ferret out anything about

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ferrets and exclude them so we can focus on all

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those cute kittens and puppies and guinea pigs and rattlesnakes

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There are a few more tricks but these are the

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basics Then when we get our search results we start

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to do some picking and choosing If we see results

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from stuff like ask dot com where any joe schmo

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can lend brilliant expert advice we can skip we just

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want to get to the good stuff All right so

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what happens when we search for realist and writers and

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eighteen hundred's Okay here's one leak realism from the late

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eighteen hundreds to the early nineteen hundreds Scholastic dot com

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clicking there we see a section on realism in literature

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and in the paragraph on naturalism There's a mention of

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maggie a girl of the streets so we know we're

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on the right track Also listed there are americans frank

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norris who wrote something called mcteague and theodore dreiser who

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wrote sister carrie both worth checking out Okay going back

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to our google search what else we got Who here's

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a good one Realism in american literature Eighteen sixty two

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eighteen ninety right in our wheelhouse bc some more authors

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referenced here william dean howells rebecca harding davis henry james

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and good old samuel clemens himself Mr mark twain Now

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not all of these might be quite in the zone

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we're looking for but again totally worth looking into each

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of them If you find a work written by one

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of these folks that's in the same vein as the

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jungle and maggie we've nailed down another possible source Not

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only that but thes sites and articles about realistic naturalist

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writers count as sources themselves All right so you get

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the idea pretty easy toe lock up three more Once

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you've decided on the sources that best support our claim

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we need to evaluate them basically play teacher this one

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gets an a plus this one gets us see this

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one gets enough and should probably stay after class What

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sorts of things should we ask ourselves when determining whether

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a source is good or bad First does this source

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actually support our claim Like if we come across a

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site that argues that naturalist depicted the world in such

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dreary terms because they thought depressing stuff was awesome and

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beautiful Well then they're not going to help us much

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with our thesis and if we find a novel written

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in the same time period but it's all about an

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individual tapping into their emotion and it's more of the

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genre of romanticism and not really what we're looking for

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Second is this source legit If it's something like scholastic

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or biography dot com or some well respected academic journal

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and you're fine but if it's wikipedia or quisling or

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bob the slobs blawg then maybe swipe left on those

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puppies just be discerning if you're not sure research what

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people are saying about that source can they be trusted

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If not keep looking And third does the source offer

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something different If all they do is parithi arguments made

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in new york other sources then they're not really bring

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anything new to the table You're looking for sources that

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help make your point in some new provocative way kind

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of like the way you make friends You're not going

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to become friends with kevin because he's a vegetarian double

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jointed ventriloquist and you've already got one of those so

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sorry kevin Okay so the next step is to read

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the source's yeah you've skinned them once in order to

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evaluate their worth but now really read them if it's

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an article or otherwise short piece read it in its

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entirety If you're using another novel as a source or

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some eight hundred page behemoth of a reference book just

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seek out a few relevant part anything that will help

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you make your case and read those then you'll need

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to choose the right evidence In other words not every

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word and phrase located in the text of your sources

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is relevant You're basically making a literary cuisine here keep

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the meat and the leaves throw away the bone and

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the stems and as bring lots of hot sauce make

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extensive notes jot down what's important and jot down where

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that information appears you'll need to cite all this stuff

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I'ii give credit to the original authors so save yourself

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future headaches and keep careful notes as you go next

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step Organizing a narrowing you're thinking yes so that brain

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storm you started with now has to become a concentrated

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puddle Take all the good evidence you gathered and start

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trimming If you've done your research then you should have

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far more supporting info than you'd ever be able to

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fit into a fortified page research paper so edit and

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edit liberally keep on ly the best is the best

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and finally structure your thinking not on ly do you

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need to trim the fat and narrow down the results

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of your research to the most valuable supporting evidence But

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you also need to figure out how it's going to

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fit together in the most logical cohesive way possible if

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you've come across a lot of stuff about how the

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writers themselves were largely destitute and suffered from starvation and

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poverty firsthand Group those notes together If you found a

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few examples of writers being specifically quoted by saying that

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the world was too depressing to delve into escapism or

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something along those lines yeah keep them together If there

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are a few passages that describe orphans whipping each other

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with spaghetti noodles weird and not sure how you're going

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to use that in your argument But keep it together

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And good luck with that Okay now you're ready to

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start the actual writing part of your paper which is 00:13:01.718 --> [endTime] good my non years because i feel so empty

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