Becoming an Activist Note-taker

WRITING IN THE MIDDLE

Rather than merely collecting

information,

and S T U F F I N G it

into your research essay

TRANSFORMATION!
Engaging with the information you collect
as you are collecting it, reading and
taking notes. This is what Bruce Ballinger
calls writing in the middle, a practice
that enables you to transform the raw
materials of your
research into your
own thinking.

HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR SOURCES

Ask questions
Talk with, to, and even against what
you are reading.

HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH THE RESEARCH YOU READ:

WRITING IN THE MIDDLE

Become an Activist Note-Taker!

Take notes while reading.
Use fastwrites to interact with what you read.
Whats a fastwrite?
Try the Double-Entry Journal and/or
The Research Log

OPEN-ENDED, MESSY WRITING IN THE MIDDLE

Writing while reading can produce

surprising ideas, new ways of seeing and
saying things as you converse
with the authors of the
texts you read.

DOUBLE-ENTRY JOURNAL

Notes from Source

Collect direct quotations,
paraphrases, summaries of
key ideas from source.
Write down facts, passages,
and claims that surprise or
puzzle or generate some
emotional response from
you.
Record material from the
source accurately.
Include page numbers

Fastwrite Response
On this side, think through your
pen/keyboard. Think while
writing.
Try believing and doubting.
What are the strengths and
merits of the authors ideas,
assertions. Note questions
doubts, counterclaims.
What strikes me about this?
First thoughts when I consider
this?
What does this make me think of?
Remember?
What else that Ive read connects
to this?

ROTHENBERG, DAVID. HOW THE WEB DESTROYS THE QUALITY OF STUDENTS

RESEARCH PAPERS CHRONICLES OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 43(49), P.A44 15,
AUGUST 1997.

But too much of what

passes for information these
days [on the Web] is simply
advertising for information.
Screen after screen shows
you where you can find out
more, how you can connect
to this place or that. The acts
of linking and networking
and randomly jumping from
here to there become as
exciting or rewarding as
actually finding anything of
intellectual value (44).

(4 minutes into Ballingers

fastwrite:)
It strikes me that the real
virtue of the Web might be its
central weakness: because so
much of the Web is, as
Rothenberg claims, insubstantial
and unreliable, we have a
wonderful opportunity to get
students to consider that
distinction between information
and knowledge, between
legitimate and specious claims
to authority. Where
Rothenberg sees pitfalls, I see
opportunities, I guess.

FROM BALLINGERS ESSAY: A NET FULL OF NOTHING?

I dont think most of my students think that the Internet makes

research easier. It makes research more convenient, and thats
why students first instinct these days is to pull up a chair in
front of a monitor rather than to journey into the stacks. For the
foreseeable future, the campus library will remain the best
place to cast a net for term papers, but Im coming around to
seeing that the Web may be an even better place for students
to practice how to evaluate their catch. Can the Internets
weakness as a source of knowledge tutor students in the
opportunities for knowledge-making? Im not sure yet.

STRATEGY 2: THE RESEARCH LOG

TANNER, MARTY. AMERICAN CHOPPERS. NEW YORK TIMES, 20 FEB. 2005. WEB
4 APR. 2009.

What strikes me most?

A prosthodontist is a dentist that
specializes in making teeth look a
certain way. While many people are born
with smiles they are proud of, a
prosthodontist can take any smile and
modify it in any way. Unfortunately,
more and more people are falling into a
trap that there is only one perfect
smile, and they are asking for their own
mouths to be modified. This disgusts me
because I think there should be as many
smiles as there are people. Its
becoming like a nose job or a face lift.I
also think the prosthondist to the stars,
Dr. Levine, is really disingenuous in this
article. While his job depends on people
being unhappy with the way their teeth
look, he tries to play the good guy card
and say that peoples smiles are looking
too perfect, and that people need to
have a great set of choppers, but not
overly great. He seems to want to make
the polite statement that nobody has a

Source Notes
Within certain strict boundaries, Levine likes
to see some imperfection because it renders
the hand of the dentist invisible. This is his
art. Many famous people, like actors and
actresses, think of their smile as a sort of
symbol of their status that they can flash to
attract attention. Many of these smiles are
exactly the same, with the golden mean the
proportion of the length of their top six front
teeth, and with each individual tooth having a
width that is 80% of the length.

smiles are looking too much alike.

Source Reconsidered
When the article mentions Julia Roberts or the
iconic American smile I know exactly what it
means. In my mind, I truly have an image of
that smile, and I realize now thats because
every single starlet and commercial model
seems to have that smile. Yet, when I look at
my friends and all the people around me, there
are so many different smiles.Changing
somebodys smile sems to control and modify
the way they communicate a feeling, and that
is really bothersome. They are modifying
something far more personal than just their
appearance, they are changing the way they
emote. Thats freaky.

SOURCES
Texts
Ballinger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers. New York: Longman, 2009.
Rothenberg, David.How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students Research Papers Chronicles of
Higher Education. 43(49), p.A44 15, August 1997.
Images
How to Apply. Photograph. Australia Awards. Web. 12 April 2014.
Overstuffed Library Home. Photograph. Frambles. Web. 12 April 2014.
Packing OverStuffed Suitcase. Photograph. Supershuttle. Web. 12 April 2014.
Research. Photograph. MSMBABLOGS. Mar. 2010. Web. 12 April 2014.
Transformations. Photograph. Businesschicks.com. Web. 12 April 2014.