Assessing the Credibility of Sources

1. Assessing the Credibility of Sources 5 Aspects

2. 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 aren’t peer reviewed) • Final and Technical Reports

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

4. 5. Type of Research in Relation to Questions Asked • Empirical • Historical • Theoretical • Textual Analysis • Personal or Anecdotal

5. 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.

6. 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)

7. 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)

8. 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]

9. Using Theoretical Frames --to guide research questions --to guide methodology

10. 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

11. British circa 1600-1630 (V&A) British circa 1630-1699 (V&A) 17th-Century Samplers

12. Jenny Beaman 1736 Sampler (Montague) Ann Smith 1767 Sampler (FW Museum) 18th-Century Samplers

13. Operationalizing Foucault’s 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.

14. 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?

15. 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

16. 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?

17. 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?

18. 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?

19. 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?

20. 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?