Assessing the Credibility of Sources

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Assessing the Credibility of Sources

• 5 Aspects

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1. Source of Publication

• Books (University Scholarly Presses vs. Popular
  Presses)
• Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed vs. other)
• Chapters in Books
• Conference Books (Selected papers that are peer
  reviewed)
• Conference Proceedings (All or selected that
  arent peer reviewed)
• Final and Technical Reports

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Additional Considerations

• 2. Reputation of Author
• 3. Landmark Works
• 4. Recentness of Publication

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5. Type of Research in Relation to Questions Asked

• Empirical
• Historical
• Theoretical
• Textual Analysis
• Personal or Anecdotal

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Reading/Writing Scholarly Introductions

• John Swales Create a Research Space (CARS)
  Model
• Three Common Moves
• in scholarly introductions
• John Swales, Genre Analysis English in Academic
  and Research Settings. Cambridge UP, 1990.

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Move 1 Establishing the Territory

• Step 1 Claiming Centrality of Research
  Area and/or the following
• Step 2 Making topic generalizations about current
  state of knowledge in the area
• Step 3 Reviewing prior research (review of
  literature)

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Move 2 Establishing a Niche

• Step 2 A Indicating a Gap (in topic/methods/
  theories)
• OR
• Step 2B Continuing a tradition (extending
  knowledge)
• OR
• Step 2C Raising Questions
• OR
• Step 2D Counter-Claiming (challenging or
  problematizing research)

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Move 3 Occupying the Niche

• Step 3A Outlining Purposes or Announcing main
  feature of present research obligatory
• Step 3B Announcing principle findings optional
• Step 3C Indicating or Forecasting organization of
  the essay not always present but a good idea

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Using Theoretical Frames

• --to guide research questions
• --to guide methodology

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Moving from Questions to Review of Literature and
Research Project

• Initial Research Question
• How might needlework be understood as a literate
  practice?
• Background reading on scholarship of needlework,
  literate practice, rhetorical, literary,
  cultural, and textile scholarship on needlework
  art/craft scholarship, current discussions about
  needlework, museum holdings of needlework

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17th-Century Samplers

• British circa 1600-1630 (VA)

• British circa 1630-1699 (VA)

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18th-Century Samplers

• Jenny Beaman 1736 Sampler (Montague)

• Ann Smith 1767 Sampler (FW Museum)

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Operationalizing Foucaults Theory and Method

• Definition of History History is the
  descriptive analysis and theory of various
  transformations (Politics 59)
• Method I do not question discourses about their
  silently intended meanings, but about the fact
  and conditions of their manifest appearance not
  about the contents which they may conceal, but
  about the transformations which they have
  effected not about the sense preserved within
  them like a perpetual origin, but about the field
  where they coexist, reside and disappear
  (Politics 60)
• Foucault, M. Politics and the Study of
  Discourse. The Foucault Effect.

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What transformations should be attended to?

• Within a given discursive formation, detect the
  changes which can affect its objects, operations,
  concepts and theoretical options
• What objects, operations (practices), concepts,
  and theoretical options can be identified in the
  discursive formation of needlework samplers?
• What changes in these do I detect?

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What transformations should be attended to

• 2. Detect changes which affect the discursive
  formations themselves.
• Displacement of boundaries which define the field
  of possible objects
• New position and role occupied by speaking
  subject in the discourse
• New mode of functioning of language with respect
  to objects
• New form of localization and circulation of
  discourse within a society

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Questions of transformation

• Displacement of boundaries which define the field
  of possible objects
• What are the boundaries within which this
  discursive formation (needlework samplers) take
  place? Where, under what circumstances, etc.
• How have the boundaries changed over time?
• What, if anything, has been displaced for what?

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Questions of transformation

• New position and role occupied by speaking
  subject in the discourse
• Who are the speaking subjects (needlework sampler
  makers)?
• What position(s) and role(s) have they occupied?
• In what ways, if any, have these positions and
  roles changed?

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What transformations should be attended to

• New mode of functioning of language with respect
  to objects
• In what ways has the functioning of discourse (or
  samplers) changed regarding the discursive
  formation of samplers?

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What transformations should be attended to

• New form of localization and circulation of
  discourse within a society
• Where have samplers been located and circulated?
• Have changes in these occurred? What?

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What transformations should be attended to

• 3. Changes which simultaneously affect several
  discursive formations.
• Inversion of a diagram hierarchy
• What hierarchical relationships have existed
  within which sampler making has participated?
  (e.g., in art/craft, word/image)
• Change in nature of directing principle
• What change in the nature of directing principle
  (creativity) has occurred?