Throughout my college career, I’ve had to write numerous research papers. I’m currently even taking a course on social research methods. Conducting or studying research can be somewhat of a burden after countless hours of reading and writing on issues that I don’t even really care about in the first place. Because research has become so customary to my courses, I’ve passed the ideals of research off as another stressor to my life. I’ve never really appreciated research for what it’s worth until the topic came up in our rhetoric and civic life class. Research surprisingly has a lot of parallels to the public rhetoric and arguments that we’ve been discussing all semester. Our text mentions research as a social action. Through research, we are able to consolidate society and base our opinions off of evidence founded by research that addresses our societal ideals. Just as arguments and debate in our society builds off of opinions and justifications, research allows people to form those opinions and uphold their justifications through evidentiary support. Research builds off of existing theories, either supporting or disproving them. In public discourse, we gravitate toward other individuals who hold opinions that support our own, and argue against people who disprove our opinions. Ethical considerations of research also must be taken into consideration. A civil discourse necessitates individuals to share opinions with an open mind, listen to others’ views, and share our faults in forming or supporting our opinions. These considerations can be considered “ethical” in the sense of breeding a civil society. In research, ethical dimensions take a strong importance. While conducting research, I’ve learned that it is necessary to state both sides of an issue, using a literature review to help provide the background for such sides, just as we share and listen to others’ opinions with an open mind. In research, we must respect our sources and the larger society, just as we must respect others’ opinions in a public discourse setting. Most importantly, after conducting research, it is necessary to state whether there are any shortcomings, drawbacks, or unsupported hypotheses, just as we should share the shortcomings of our opinions during a debate. Research and public rhetoric share many commonplaces and parallel each other when considering the larger perspective of society. In addition, they lend themselves to each other: research allows us to support our opinions while engaging in public discourse, while public discourse creates the theories and hypotheses we test while conducting research.Take a look at this article summarizing the benefits of undergraduate research:
"Undergraduate Research as a High-Impact Student Experience"
Photo courtesy of http://www.patmoslibrary.michlibrary.org/eshelf-research
I would say this argument about the relationship between science and society. A lot of people believe that these two areas are independent of each other but your post proves the opposite. Research does not exist in a vacuum and often the topics of research are dependent on the public discourse of the time. For instance, there probably won't be a great public outcry for increased funding for developing a better spaceship so it isn't likely willing be seeing a revolutionary rocket anytime soon. However, there is interest in developing green, renewable energy so there is a greater chance that we will see increased spending in terms of alternative sources of energy.
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