This a blog for Mr. James Cook's eleventh grade honors English class at Gloucester (MA) High School. Remember what Northrup Frye writes in _Fearful Symmetry_, "No one can begin to think straight unless [she or] he has a passionate desire to think and an intense joy in thinking."

Friday, May 9, 2008

RESEARCH (THE PROCESS)

1. Narrate and evaluate your research process. (Where did you look for your sources? Internet? Databases? Personal interviews with people? Print sources at the GHS library? at the Sawyer Free library? in the city archives? at the Cape Ann Museum? How did finding one source lead to others? Where and when did you run into dead ends with research? How did you find a way out of the dead end? What went well? What didn't?

2. Where would you look if you had more time? What would you look for if you had more time? Why? What did you find but were unable to read because you ran out of time?

3. Offer some advise to future students researching your topic.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

**i couldn't remember your e-mail address and found this to be the only way of getting it to you. its only 4 sources but i figured it would be better to turn in some then none. ill turn in a hard copy on monday. also, i had to modify this so it would let me send it.**

The life and death of Herb Pomeroy
Pratt , Mark. "Jazz trumpeter Herb Pomeroy dies after battle with cancer ." Boston Globe 14 Aug 2007 1. 29 Apr 2008
This article is on the death of Herb Pomeroy. It talks about his fight with cancer as well as many important events throughout his life, like his performances with Charlie Mariano, Stan Kenton, Max Roach, and many other famous musicians. The source is a reliable news article. All the information is accurate about his life and death. It is directed to a general audience. This source is about nine months old, but that should not be a problem since it is about his death.
Haller , Mary. "Institute celebrates jazz legend Pomeroy on his 70th birthday." Techtalk 26 Apr 2000 1. 29 Apr 2008 Pomeroy’s contribution to MIT and the celebration they had for him on his 70th birthday. The article is reliable since the source comes straight from the office of the arts at MIT. The article is 8 years old. It’s directed toward a general audience. Pomeroy spent over 20 years working with the music program at MIT and as a thank you for what he had done they celebrated his 70th birthday.
"Herb Pomeroy." Telegraph 01 Oct 2007 1. 08 May 2008
This article talks about Herb Pomeroy’s early rise to fame. It then talks about his choice to teach instead of continuing his career as a performer. I have already found one minor mistake in the text and will look for more at a later time. This article also talks about his death. Some of the same information can be found in Mark Pratt’s article like people he has performed with and details on his death.
""The last goodbye":Composed by Vibist Ed Saindon in Honor of Herb Pomeroy." World Improvise Music 21 jan 2008 09 may 2008
This article talks about Ed Saindon’s latest lead track “the last goodbye.” The song was inspired by the death of Herb Pomeroy. Saindon and Pomeroy played a lot together. They were also fellow teachers at Berklee. The article was written off of an interview with Saindon. The information is relatively recent, and from an accurate source. It is clear and good for a general audience.

Hannah Benson said...

1) I did most of my researching on the internet, a few personal interviews, and one or two book entries. For the most part I just looked up information on Roman Catholicism, and then attempted to compare it to things that I found in the personal interviews or int he books. The online sources were not very helpful because they did not focus on the comparison of the two churches, and the books were pretty lame because they were all published in like the 1970's, so they did not have any information on Holy Family Parish because it didn't even exist. The personal interviews were great because the people were honest and told what they knew, and they couldn't sugarcoat it and didn't have numerous random facts that no one cared about like the online entries. I also liked that the responses were to the questions I asked so they were answers specifically for what I needed to know.

2) If I had more time I would try to find some more newspaper articles on the situation. I remember there being articles on closing the Catholic parishes or becoming Holy Family Parish, and Our Lady being left out, etc. However, the Library search engine only gave me one article and it was from the Boston Globe. I wish it was the times because they deal with a smaller community and cater to the needs of Gloucester specifically. I also wish I could have gotten in contact with the Reverends from both Parishes to see how they define Roman Catholicism compared with their congregation members and the information I got on the Internet.

3) Advise for next year is to just focus on the personal interviews because that is where all the necessary information comes from. You will get good background as well as fun facts that you have no clue about.

Courtland Kelly said...

Courtland Kelly
E Block
Cape Ann's Artists, Artisans and Influence on Artists

1. My research started, as most of ours did, in the Gloucester High School Library. I first started by searching “Gloucester” in the Library database and came up with a list of books that I could have found by simply looking in the Gloucester section of the library. After I got some books and read through them, I decided to try to find some artists with a stronger connection to Cape Ann. By searching on the web, I found a website that listed almost all of the artists on Cape Ann. Among the list was the Cape Ann Artisans, a group that holds a self-guided tour that I went on with my mother last fall. I had already met some of these artists and I knew that they were generally personable, so I decided to start researching the history of the Cape Ann artisans and thought that I could possibly narrow my topic to this one group. This plan, however, proved unsuccessful because the only information available about the artisans on the web was exclusively advertising with only minimal background information. At this point I realized that I would have to go to the artisans themselves, and arranged several interviews. After learning from my first interviewee that the Artisans were really only a loosely organized support group, I took my interviews in a different direction and focused more on the affect of living in Cape Ann on these artists and their work. One of the first book sources that I researched also deals with this topic, but in a more historical way that could be the basis of comparison if I decide to pursue that idea.

2. If I had more time I would look in the Sawyer Free Library for information about more prominent Gloucester Artists. I would also look for information on the show that was held there, “Twenty Years of Cape Ann Artisans.” I would also try to get a copy of the original bylaws that were written when the Cape Ann Artisans were first established 25 years ago. Although this is not exactly what my thesis is about, it would still be really cool to read it. Having the document may also redirect my thesis to something more involved with the Cape Ann Artisans, which I began to stray away from when I realized that the group’s ties are relatively weak.

3. Something that I wish I had done that I did not was visit the Cape Ann Historical Society. I think that I could have gotten many good ideas, even though I do like the narrower topic that I ultimately went forward with.

MHodgkins said...

1. All my sources were from the internet. I like using web pages because they can fit large amounts of information in a small space. That way I know what to write down. One helpful page I found just by searching Davis' name on Google. It had a list of links to articles, some from magazines, some even from art galleries.

2. If I had more time, I would've looked in books and tried other sources. The internet is great but I'm sure a book based solely on Davis' life would've been of great use. Another thing I would've looked out for were something like past galleries or exhibits in or around Gloucester. I'm sure there's been a few. I could look for reviews or critiques of them.

3. A word of advice is to try and use more than one means of finding information. I only used the internet, and it progressively harder to find information you haven't already been across. If you are going to use the internet a good tip is to be specific when searching. When I used "Stuart Davis biography" I found a lot more than just "Stuart Davis."

Anonymous said...

Sarah Johnson
Halibut Point State Park

1. I started researching in the GHS library and spent approximately 6 days Googling random aspects of Gloucester culture that I hoped would interest me. This process proved unfruitful, until I finally decided on a topic. From there, the research was almost too easy. I found at least 4 websites which were centered around my topic, and 3 more that had significant information, or at least a different take on my topic. A copy of the Cape Ann Beacon from May 2nd literally dropped into my lap, which also led me to the Quarry tour last Saturday. I interviewed my dad for some personal insight, which was really fun. I also utilized the Gloucester Shelf and found a photographic journal including pictures of the park, and an historical account of the Cape Ann history. All of my sources were viable, if only slightly incorrect in a few facts.
2. If I had more time, I would like to investigate the Cape Ann Historical Museum and see what kind of art has been associated with the Park over time. I would also look for more information on the quarrying business, especially at Babson Quarry. I was really fascinated by Chester Brigham’s book Gloucester’s Bargain With the Sea, and I’d be interested in reading some more sections of the book, not just the ones involving my topic. With more time, I could become more comfortable with my topic all around.
3. For kids who do this project in the future, I would have to say that first of all, the key to success is: having a topic. That first week of research is killer if you have nothing to be looking for. Secondly, on the subject of research, it might be a good idea to pick a topic you know is likely to have a lot of information. It’s definitely hard to pull sources use scrutiny when you are dealing with sources. False information is useless.

Anonymous said...

Sarah Johnson
Halibut Point State Park

1. I started researching in the GHS library and spent approximately 6 days Googling random aspects of Gloucester culture that I hoped would interest me. This process proved unfruitful, until I finally decided on a topic. From there, the research was almost too easy. I found at least 4 websites which were centered around my topic, and 3 more that had significant information, or at least a different take on my topic. A copy of the Cape Ann Beacon from May 2nd literally dropped into my lap, which also led me to the Quarry tour last Saturday. I interviewed my dad for some personal insight, which was really fun. I also utilized the Gloucester Shelf and found a photographic journal including pictures of the park, and an historical account of the Cape Ann history. All of my sources were viable, if only slightly incorrect in a few facts.
2. If I had more time, I would like to investigate the Cape Ann Historical Museum and see what kind of art has been associated with the Park over time. I would also look for more information on the quarrying business, especially at Babson Quarry. I was really fascinated by Chester Brigham’s book Gloucester’s Bargain With the Sea, and I’d be interested in reading some more sections of the book, not just the ones involving my topic. With more time, I could become more comfortable with my topic all around.
3. For kids who do this project in the future, I would have to say that first of all, the key to success is: having a topic. That first week of research is killer if you have nothing to be looking for. Secondly, on the subject of research, it might be a good idea to pick a topic you know is likely to have a lot of information. It’s definitely hard to pull sources use scrutiny when you are dealing with sources. False information is useless.

leah palazola said...

1)First I looked for sources on the internet. I figured this would be a good way to start off because all you have to do is search the topic and something will come up. This was helpful in the beginning because I could find more basic information to just get an overall idea of my topic. This is then where I ran into a dead end sort of. After a while everything I was finding online was stuff I had already found; everything started to just be repeats. Then I moved onto books and personal interviews. I used books at the school library and the Sawyer Free library. I did two personal interviews. One was of a friend of mine (Hannah) who is not Italian but participates in the Fiesta activities. The other interview was of my Grandfather; he has been to every single Fiesta sine the first one in 1927.

2) If I had more time I would go back to the Sawyer Free library and read more parts, if not the rest, of a book I was told of written by an anthropologist about the "Italian-American festival". This book was so interesting and different that I didnt want to put it down. It was completely different from all of my other sources and I wish that I could have taken more time to really get some good information out of it.

3)Some advise would be to not just look online for everything even though it might be easier. There is a lot of information out there in books, newspapers, and magazines and a lot of the time you don't find it until the end when your time is up.

Lucy Fox said...

I began my research on the computer. I tried to use newspaper and magazine databases, but found them not very helpful. Mostly I used web documents about specific artists. I went to the Sawyer Free Library and found a few books that were helpful in expanding my topic. I used a book, Artists of Cape Ann, to find artists that were painting the scenes I was interested in. Two more books, on specific artists I found in the aforementioned book, were helpful in giving more in depth descriptions of the art and artists. I also used a book on the schooners of Cape Ann, which was helpful in focusing less on the artist aspect of the topic and more the importance of the scenes being painted. If I had had more time, I would have conducted an interview with the author of the book on Schooners. I wasn’t aware that he was a source I could use, and didn’t know to take advantage of it. If I had more time, I would also read full books on the artists that I was researching, instead of briefer biographies. Some advice is to look further than the internet, as it isn't always as helpful as one would like to believe. Paper resources: newspapers magazines, etc, are underrated.

alison r said...

The internet is a great thing. On every research paper I start off on the internet and from there I branch out into books. Alot of my important information is comming from books that I found in the GHS library, in the Sawyer Free library and even books that my family owns. I ran into a lot of dead ends when I was trying to research specific schooners, because all the books and internet sites said basically the same thing: height of the masts, width of the ship, tonnage and so on. I found quite of bit of information on how auxiliary engines have changed schooners and everything around it, which makes my paper writing so much easier. For future researchers: I would recommend looking at a bigger picture of the topic then going in and picking out a smaller topic from that. For instance, for my case: fishing -leads to- boat building -leads to- schooners.

Michael said...

Michael McGovern
B Block

1. I started my research by first googleing Dogtown. I then searched each of those sites for useful information. I also used a pamphlet from the Gloucester box in the GHS library. I also used online newspapers about Dogtown to find further information. I ran into dead ends when I needed to find information that wasn't about The Babson Boulders. I overcame these dead ends by digging deeper into Dogtown and widening my search to include more topics.

2. If I had more time i would have went to the Sawyer Free Library. I am sure that they had many books written about Dogtown that would have helped me gain more information. I found many books online that would have helped me in my research but do to the fact that I didn't have time to read 3 or 4 books I couldn't use them as sources.

3. Some advice to future students would be to have a good topic. If you have a weak topic it severly hinders your search. It becomes very difficult to find information and results in you having weak facts and having a very bad experiance with the project.

Paul Russo said...

1. I found the majority of my sources online since today's technology has allowed us to put thousands of photos on the internet. However, I did find a good deal of books that were on Cape Ann photography. After finding about 7 sources that included both websites and books, I ended up at a road block, so I look for sites that explained landscape photography in general. I found many tips about landscape photography, and then tried to see if any photographers applied them to their pictures.

2.If I had more time, I would probably research famous photographers, and what made them "tick". I would want to see what techniques they used in order to make the photo spectacular. I would also like to pick out some famous photographs and research them a bit more.

3. If I was to give some advice to a student doing this topic in the future, I would probably suggest them to pick a photographer like Charles A. Lowe instead, only because I believe landscape photography may be too broad of a topic.

Alyssa D'Antonio said...

The first place I looked for information on Charles Olson was obviously the well stocked Gloucester shelf of the GHS library. There I found a total of 4 books, two of which were basically the same book with a different cover. The book I found to be most helpful was the copy of "The Maximus Poems", as it is Olson's work most relevant to Gloucester. Next I went to the most reliable internet source out there, Wikipedia, and followed the citation links after the article and actually found some useful information. The sources I found to be the most interesting were the personal interviews conducted with Olson and the memories of Olson as told by his sister-in-law. All of these interviews and memories were found on internet databases of literary magazines, and a very helpful journal called "The Minutes of The Charles Olson Society" although this source must be used sparingly as not all of the articles are relevant. Before finding these helpful tidbits of the person that was Charles Olson I had run into a plethora of stiff articles only painting Olson as a writer of poetry and a pioneer of poetic form, not as a real man who had real ideals.
If I had more time, I would definitely explore a few more personal interviews, perhaps with people around town who knew Olson, and of course, ones already in print, whether it be on paper or online. I think these first hand accounts are infinitely important in understanding Olson's work, because in order to understand what he is talking about you have to understand what was important to him.
Some advice to future students would be to not dive straight into Olson's poetry without first learning at least a little about Olson as a man first, because his poetry can be very confusing and frustrating at first, especially if you aren't aware of the underlying themes of it.

Paul Russo said...

1. I found basically two types of sources, websites and books. The books that I found were just big collections of photos that little captions and descriptions under them while the websites were mainly just photo albums. I found the books to be a little more helpful since they seemed to be a little more purposeful than random websites where an amateur photographer would put all of his/her pictures into one album. I also found out that the websites that I found on Cape Ann landscape photography had no description whatsoever.

2. I believe that this particular topic was extremely hard to find significant information on. I discovered that they are not a lot of sources that explain and describe landscape photography that is specifically pointed towards Cape Ann. My strategy was to find websites that are on landscape photography and the techniques of it.

3. I had trouble coming up with an adequate answer for this question because photography is tough to depict when it comes to different perspectives. I suppose you could compare different qualities of photos taken of the same location, which would enable one to look at that location during different times of the day or weather changes.

BHand13 said...

Brian Hand

My research process so far has been mostly unsuccessful. My research began in the GHS Library where i squandered my time by reading film reviews and looking at unrelated movies on sites such as imdb.com. When i finally got down to business i found that in order to do my topic, i would have to actually watch the films and analyze them. So from there my research will take place in my basement where i will watch and think about movies. It was unsettling when it hit me that most of my sources on my annotated bibliography exist simply to take up space and probably won't help me that much.

If i had more time i would probably try to reconstruct my topic. I feel that somehow all my research is leading up to a very boring and obscure project. I think this is largely due to my reliance on speculation, that is, having to rely on my own interpretations of scenery in the films rather than finding an article titled "Analyzing the varying uses of Cape Ann's landscape in Film" I also fear that my topic is something that is only interesting to me and would seem forced to those who haven't analyzed the films to the extent that i have. I feel a wider analysis of the genre would probably have been a better choice.

To anyone in the future thinking of doing my topic--don't. But seriously, my best advice is to only do a topic like this is if you really have an interest in it. It will bore you to death if you don't actually like what you are doing. To anyone doing the project in general my best advice would be to take the annotated bibliography seriously. Don't just use resources so you can have 10, but actually think about them and come up with 10 sources that are practical and applicable to your topic.

Kaylie McTiernan said...

1.) I found most of my sources online and in the GHS library. One source would lead to another. Some sources would have sources that I could look into. Also, each source would give new information for me to search. I ran into dead ends on specific facts relating to Cape Ann. My way out was to find information on the Northeastern woodland Native Americans and make my search broader. Also, I could find info about the tribes that lived here.

2.) With more time I would look for more sources throughout Cape Ann. I would go to the museum and look through the archives for any more information. I could also look in the libraries of other towns in Cape Ann.

3.) I would tell future students to make sure they plan ahead in finding information because it is somewhat difficult. I would also tell them that the topic is interesting and not to give up because there is good information out there.

MegHan said...

Meghan Ciaramitaro

All of my sources were found on the internet. It may have not been the best idea because I ran into many dead ends. Researching photography led me to finding many galleries, but finding resourceful information was not easy. Internet research had some good points too. I was able to jump from page to page to find what I was looking for. It takes much less time to flip through a web page than hundreds of pages in a book Although I prefer internet research, for this project, if I had more time then I would have looked at other sources. I would have like to email or to have gotten in contact with some of the photographers to ask a few questions about their work and motivation. This would have given me the chance to have a primary source and get to know the artists. Future students just need to know, get their work done on time. Or they could get a head start on the citations because it will make it easier for themselves, especially if they get stuck.

Emily Castro said...

1.) I did most of my research in the Library at school, the sawyer free library, and my house. I found a lot of useful soureces on the interent, and reading one thing in one source lead to to look for a nother source about that specific thing. Most everything went well, there is a lot of information concering my topic circulating in Gloucester because Charlres Olson was such an influential figure. It was not too dificult to find the information I was looking for.

2.)If I had more time I think I would schedule interviews with people that were close with Charles Olson, and I would also read more of his work in completeion, rather than just reading excerpts.

3. FOr future researchers of Charles Olson, I advise you, first, to watch the movie Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place, because it is a movie about Charles Olson and how Glouceter fit into his life and why. I would also suggest to look in the GHS library because it really does have a lo of information available about Charles Olson.

olivia said...

Olivia Brown
Rocky Neck

Just as everyone else had written, I spent my first two or three days in the library going back and forth between a million different topics, and coming up with nothing that interested me enough to research. After about a week of having different tentative topics I finally settled with one. It wasn’t as easy a topic to research as I thought it would have been, there wasn’t much information on the internet for me to use and the school library didn’t have too many books on my topic. To further my research I ended up at Sawyer Free Library one day during school to see if their Gloucester shelf would be a bit more helpful, it was. There is a Rocky Neck Art Colony book written by Judith Curtis and it is only available in bookstores, so I decided to make a trip there to read up it. Now that I have started my research and realized that it is not as easy to find information on as I had expected, I think if I were allotted more time I probably would have narrowed my topic down a little. Maybe have chosen a specific artist in Rocky Neck and how they affected Gloucester, or I could have gone down and interviewed artists and walked around the galleries. For anyone who does this project in the future I would say that having a topic right from the start and not changing it is a good way to go. I changed mine at least 3 times and thinking about it now, I should have stuck with my first decision. Also make sure that you have picked a topic that you know there is enough information available for you to be able to do the project successfully.

Mercedes Lane said...

1.) I spent most of my time researching on the internet in the Gloucester High School library. Immediately after typing in the artist’s name, a variety of sources were available to me. There were websites with lists of Gloucester artists and accounts of their artwork. I found encyclopedia entries, as well as art websites that offered information about his artwork. Along with my internet sources, I was able to locate two books about Fitz Henry Lane in the Gloucester High School library. One was an account of Lane’s life, and the other was an account of his artwork. Some of the internet sources I found had links to other websites that led me to further investigate Fitz Henry Lane. I never really experienced a dead end with my research. All of the websites I looked at gave me a good amount of information.


2.) If I had more time to put into my research outside of school, I would have liked to use the city archives as one of my sources. I feel as if they would have a lot of information about Lane that many other sources wouldn’t. Also, a tour of the Cape Ann Museum could be a beneficial resource, because many of Lane’s paintings hang in the building. The Gloucester section at the Sawyer Free Library could also be another resource with further information about Lane.


3.) If a future student plans on researching Fitz Henry Lane, I definitely recommend researching beyond the sources at the GHS library. Personal accounts such as visiting Lane’s home on Harbor Loop, and going to the Cape Ann Historical Museum could help with getting more information about the artist, as well as a better understanding of Lane’s personal experiences.

isabel said...

1.) Ihave based most of this project on personal interviews. I used internet resorces, and book timelines to help as well. I mainly liked the interviews best. I feel they helped me out by letting me know more than enough for what i need to know. Internet did not help me out to much. The time lines helped meout with events that occured but really just listed them did not really give me to much detail on the subjects.
2.) IF i had more time i would research all the gloucester daily times from that year of 1976.
3.) IF i could give future students advice it would be to manage and plot your time out for each topic in your project.

alees said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alees said...

1. I started out in the GHS library researching Theatre in the Pines. I soon realized that I would have a difficult time coming up with enough sources for my annotated bibliography. I then went through using the topics Israel Horovitz and Anne Babson Carter in quick succesion. I finally settled on Hammond about three days in. The next three days I spent looking up simple biographical information. I then read the beginning half of a biography of Hammond by John Dandola. The creativity, inventiveness, and eccentricness of Hammond has always facinated me and this book sharpened my interest. I then composed a thesis and contacted John Pettibone for a personal interview. Once I did the interview, I had all the information I needed to write a solid paper.

2. If I had more time, I would have like to see some of Hammond's personal diaries to learn more about how he thought. John Pettibone said that he would be going through them this summer and attempting to restore them. John gave me a short book that was about 50 pages that he said was very reliable but I didn't have time to read it. If I had more time, I might have incorporated that book into my work.

3. For anyone that wants to write a well rounded and introspective paper on Hammond, I would strongly recommend setting up an interview with John Pettibone. He is very easy to reach, a very interesting interviewee, and has volumes of knowledge on Hammond.

Unknown said...

I know this says jen, but its alicia.

Alicia Unis
Judith Sargent Murray

1. I think my sources were adequate but not great. I wished for more extensive accounts of her life, with more interesting information. Most of the sources were one paragraph of generic information. Sometimes I had come across one random fact that was intersting and different from the rest. My sources were entirely found on the internet. I searched for a book about her in the GHS library but couldn't find one. I didn't really hit dead ends, because I wasn't exactly on a trail. It was very choppy, I went from one to the other and rarely did the sources connect to eachother. Getting a basic account of her life was easy and went well. I had a hard time finding anything deeper and more meaningful than that.

2. If I had more time I would try and find a book about her. I think a book would contain much more information, especially personal, because they are usually much longer. I think a book would be comprehensive and more enjoyable. By the end of the time, I was actually struggling to scramble together a few more relevant sources, so there really wasn't anything I could have read but didn't have time.

3. My advice to any future students
doing this project to secure a good topic ahead of time and begin researching because it will be so much easier. I was lucky to like my topic, so I recommend choosing a topic that you find interesting, if not you'll be stuck reading endless material about something you don't care about. And don't spend too much time on a source that you think is unreliable or irrelevant.