Ten Malone's Dr. Williams Summary

Research Methodology: Inscription as a Liberating Practice
Dr. Dana Williams’ presentation of the final freshman seminar filled the initial expectations of the lectures that I expected to receive in the class. Throughout the lecture, Dr. Williams brought all of the five previous lectures together, explaining how they fit into the main objectives of the class, which was to develop our research and listening skills. The Primary objective of this specific lecture however was to identify the principle components of research, and then related those components to the group project.
The purpose of the research project is to consider the purpose of research, explore the reasonableness of your research question, and too inquire about the question at hand. When considering the purpose of research, Dr. Williams suggest considering what has already been said about the subject, asking ourselves whether our research will reveal something new or different, and knowing what information we have access to. When exploring the reasonableness of our research question, we must ask whether the question is specific enough, if we have time to answer it, and what skills are required to answer the proposed question. When one inquires about the question at hand, Dr. Williams gave the topic a separate name, calling it methodology, or knowing how we will address our problem. In order to know our problem, we must conceptualize a research design by studying various designs, determine the method of date collection by using secondary sources and interviews, and must consider which disciplinary approach to use by deciding whether or not the question is discipline specific or if it can be considered multi- or inter-disciplinary.