1. Line of Inquiry Paper
PEER DRAFT: AT CONFERENCE
FINAL: TUESDAY, 10/23
What is a Line of Inquiry Paper?
Imagine yourself having come from a meeting in which a complex debate took place.
You want to tell a group of friends about the meeting, and to do so you need to describe
the conversation. You will explain the important ideas that got covered, who made
various points, and why they made them. When you’re finished, your friends will have a
good sense of how the conversation went, and they’ll feel able to jump into the same
discussion and make their own points.
This is exactly what inquiry papers do. They appear, in one form or another, in virtually
every academic article, recounting what has already been said in the conversation as well
as what has been left out of the conversation, so that readers can understand where the
writer is going to jump in. Line of inquiry papers are also known as lit reviews, which
describe what is considered known and unknown about a given issue. They synthesize
the arguments that have already taken place, and create a space or a “niche” for the
current writer to make her argument by demonstrating that no one has made it and why it
needs to be made to carry on the conversation.
A review of the literature is a step up in complexity from the annotated bib. The
annotated bib separately summarized each source. The review of the literature is a
synthesis of those sources, comparing and contrasting relevant points. An important
distinction between the annotated bib and the inquiry paper is that annotations are
arranged by *author* whereas the lit review is arranged by *points.* Thus, the inquiry
paper will explain what is known about important aspects of your topic, focusing mainly
on points rather than researchers. For example a main sentence in an inquiry paper would
put emphasis on the topic this way:
“Rhetorical reading is an important skill for college-level students (Haas; Flower;
Jones).”
Note that the researchers’ names generally come last, while the main point is stressed
first.
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After this sentence you might briefly describe the studies undertaken by these three
authors and explain how the studies found similar or different things, but the focus should
be on the main point that all three share—or on a point about which they disagree.
At the end of the review of the paper, you will need to establish a niche for your own
research. Here is where you say, “That is what we know about topic X. What we don’t
know is…” You can establish a niche for yourself in four ways: counter-claiming (“Jones
says X is true, but I disagree”), indicating a gap (“We know about X, but we do not know
about Y), question-raising (“We know X is true, but why is it true?”), or continuing a
tradition (“Jones and Smith did excellent work and I would like to build on it by…”) (see
Swales, Genre Analysis, p. 155+).
What are the Characteristics of a Good Line of Inquiry Paper?

2. Your paper will become a part of your research paper. Thus, it should do three things:
1. Include a short introduction that defines or identifies the general topic, issue, or area of
concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature (this is called
establishing a territory).
2. Synthesize other people’s research on the topic, explaining what is known about it.
3. Conclude by stating what is missing, what is controversial, what is not yet known, or
what needs to be resolved in the discussion. This will provide the transition later to your
own study and your research questions (this is called establishing a niche).
In addition, a good paper will:
• Be driven by and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing.
• Include only sources related to your topic, and discuss only relevant points from those
sources.
• Identify areas of controversy or discrepancy, if those are relevant to your study.
• Group sources according to common denominators such as conclusions of authors,
findings, etc.
• Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or as little detail as each merits
according to its comparative importance in the literature, remembering that space (length)
denotes significance.
Line of Inquiry Paper
20% of Final Grade