ENG 489: Research Summary
I wrote my paper on how textbooks have evolved from the mid-1800’s to modern day. Within this topic I focused on how popular culture (i.e. printing technology improvements, changes in teaching methods, and American cultural diversity) has influenced the modifications which have been made in textbooks over the years. Overall, I am relatively happy with how my paper turned out, and the process of research and writing I used while developing it.
The biggest challenge I faced while writing this paper, in regard to research, was simply knowing where to look for information and determining if the information I had gained was creditable enough. A lot of the research I found was not wholly pertinent to my topic so I had to do a lot of digging to find usable quotes. After my mid-quarter conference, I had a few more leads which definitely helped develop my paper. But even then, I struggled to find a solid field conversation to work with. Additionally, I had some difficulties in finding historic schoolbooks to use in my case examples that were from different parts of America. As I live in Cincinnati, I mostly used local bookstores to find historic schoolbooks. The common books that they had were published in Cincinnati. Since I wanted the paper to be more broad (textbooks from Northeast America) I had to look around a lot to find books from Baltimore, New York, Boston and Philadelphia as well.
Next time, I would improve the research process by searching with more appropriate keywords, such as “schoolbook” over “textbook”. Also now that I have a better understanding of how to use the more advance search options, especially on JSTOR, I believe my future research will progress more smoothly.
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