The iterative process of research question formation

1. Framing a research question
Notes, Hist390-003, the Digital Past, Lee Ann Cafferata, Spring 2014, GMU

2. Pick a topic
• Something you’ve already worked on
• An object that interests you and makes you
want to know more
• Take a current event and look back in time to
for correlations
• Pick a place
• Pick a person
• And ask questions.

3. Question, Question, Question
• Brainstorm
• Ask big questions

4. From your Cronon readings
Cronon models raising questions about a place.

5. Vietnam Veterans Memorial

6. Add your own questions
• Why are there three Memorials related to the
Vietnam War
• Why is one of them such a different style from
the others
• The Wall is different from other memorials
(regardless of when they were created) on the
Mall because it is abstract, minimalist. Why?
How?

7. Start looking
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•
•
•
Secondary sources
Search on public web
GMU Databases
Card Catalog
• RESULTS???

8. Searches
• Public Web:
– Wikipedia: basic background, names, dates
– Followed up. Went to The Black Gash of Shame.
[http://www.art21.org/texts/the-culture-wars-redux/essay-the-blackgash-of-shame-revisiting-the-vietnam-veterans-memorial]
– Used that bibliography to locate detailed time line with primary
sources that provide context for the Memorial through Lehigh
University digital library
[http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r3/may/]
– What’s missing here? In part: Info on design, on Maya Lin
• In JSTOR: Maya Lin, Jan Scruggs, Vietnam Memorial
• EACH RESOURCE RAISES NEW QUESTIONS

9. New Questions
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•
•
•
What was the controversy?
What WAS Maya Lin thinking?
What is the significance of the Memorial?
Who goes there? Why do they leave all those
items?
• What happens to the tributes?
• Did the Vietnam Veterans Memorial change the
way later Memorials were built?
• And more: controversy, decisions, design

10. How can I keep track of my resources?
• Diigo [easy]
• Zotero[detailed]