Oh The Work Of a Research Paper

This page is directly dedicated to my research paper that I am in the process of writing for Sandy Jensen's WR-122 class at Lane Community College.  On this page you will see the evolving process of how and what is needed to be done in order to complete a research paper.




10/25/2012-

And here comes the proposal.....

Topic: Technology
Research Question: Has technology, more specifically gaming, made it easier to have less person to person interaction, socially

1. What is my tentative answer to the question?

2. What personal interest or stake to I have in the issue?
1. What are the consequences for me if my argument succeeds or does not succeed?

Well this paper is just to help me understand my husband more, and maybe open

his eyes as well.

2. How does the issue affect me?

This is a very personal issue. The outcome can very well affect my relationship

and even how my children will be raised.

3. Why do I care about it?

I care about this issue because people who I love and care about can possibly be

affected by it and not know it.

3. Why is this a controversial issue?
1. Is there sufficient or insufficient evidence to resolve the issue?
2. Are there any definitions in dispute?

Yes, what is a gamer? By definition, or to what degree of a gamer is the type

getting affected and becoming socially inept?

3. Is my initial evidence ambiguous or contradictory?

My initial evidence is ambiguous. which is why I am excited to continue

researching.

4. Who seems to be the parties involved?

I feel that there are many parties involved. Mainly the loved ones of the said

gamer. There is the gamer, who doesn't feel that gaming has done anything to

harm them; then there is the loved ones, the ones who see that the gamer is only

comfortable either behind a screen, or talking to other gamers.

5. Do the parties disagree about the basic values. assumptions or beliefs?

For the most part the parties disagree completely about the assumptions.

4. Who is the audience I need to persuade?

The audience that I would need to persuade would be the gamers, or pro-gaming groups.

5. What is my plan of action? How do I feel we should resolve the issue?
6. Works cited

Why I chose gaming, and the problems it has caused with people being socially awkward in face to face situations.
I chose this controversial problem mainly because my husband is a huge gamer. It is always a tense and awkward subject in my home. I struggle with the fact that he games so often, and that he is more accepting of strangers via the internet, and talks with them freely, but in a social setting he is much less talkative and somewhat shy.  His best friend on the other hand, is even more of a “hard core” gamer and is completely socially inept. My goal for this paper is to not only find evidence that agrees with my thesis, but also to open my eyes to the other side’s point of view. I plan on possibly showing my husband, gamers, my audience, that gaming is okay but keys to being successful in life are being able to have a conversation with someone, and it not involving gaming, consoles, computer equipment, and the internet.  

11/01/2012

This is exactly how I felt after class on Thursday....

So today in class we were discussing what our "thesis statement" was, and our oh so fabulous teacher, Sandy, had us each write ours on the white board. (Mine is higher up in this post, at the beginning of my prospectus) We had an open discussion of what we each could do to change it to be either more broad, or narrow. As we went through some of my peer's thesis statements, I realized that this is extremely helpful and was so eager to hear what people had to say about mine. I worked so hard on mine, and was still struggling with the verbiage I was even more so dying to know what others had to say about it.  As we got to mine, of course inside I was dying with anxiety (no one could tell by my calm and cool attitude- NOT!) and as soon as the discussion of my topic was opened to the classroom I felt like I was defending my topic more and more to my peers and Sandy. As I listened to others' ideas, I realized that I was being a complete judgmental person, and stereotyping the "gamer". I was so distraught at the thought of knowing that I was doing the exact thing that I never would want to be associated with, I felt that I needed to come up with a new topic that was pleasing to others, and interesting to myself. 

No joke, it consumed me ALL NIGHT!! (Makes for a great night with the hubby) Welll, here is what I came up with....

Even though it may not be the most politically correct  or fair judgment, I am going to go ahead and continue with my same topic. Not just because I have done a fair share of research on the topic, but because I feel that because I still feel the same way, I know I am an asshole, but I would love for me to find research to prove me wrong while I am trying to write a paper arguing that my stance is correct.  Who knows what I will find, and I might even open my eyes and save a whole lot of arguments with Aaron.  

I am so passionate about this subject that I am completely open to new knowledge and findings proving me wrong.  

Arguing is something that I am NOT good at, trust me, I get too emotional and flabbergasted, which results in horrible points. My goal is to present my case as unbiased as possible and once done I hope to change others view, if in the long run I don't  then maybe my conclusion will be a NEW thesis.. but that might be a new paper for another class.. 

11/12/2012- 

Annotated Bibliography!

      Welcome to Annotated Bibliography entry. This is my annotated Bibliography so far. (I might change it later). If you are unsure of what an annotated bibliography is, well it is just a basic Works' Cited page that gives a description of what it is, what use it will have in my paper, and where I anticipate it going in my paper.  My topic is about how gaming has affected the social scene and made it easier to have less person to person interaction. 

These are the questions I answered on each of them .

1.Broad overview of the item. Is it a book? A web site? What of?
2.Closer up view of the item. What section do you think you might use in your paper? This might be a chapter, a section of a long paper, an article on a large web site, etc.

3.Zoomed in view of the item. Where will this item appear in your paper? What question do you think it will answer?

Confused? My Easy Bib Entry  Works Cited Page, and Annotated Bibliography, which are all the same thing, are located here->https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EOEJwWf9BH1LdVUMGdvWs-JDvIRnVZXRe2_cvhdZ1Ks/edit


11/15/2012-

Like any argument, there is a counter argument. As I have been researching more and more about the psychological and social effects that come with being a gamer, I found more than I think that I could chew. At first I knew that I would find some articles that would argue against my stance, but I NEVER thought that they could possibly get me to think twice about what I previously felt. My main argument is that gaming encourages social isolation. Prior to researching I thought that everyone felt this way, or at least would see how it could. Well, there are two main arguments that might prove my thoughts to be wrong.

When we think of teenaged video gamers, we think of socially inept, introverts who seldom leave home, right? A conducted survey of 1,100 young adults ages ranging from 12 to 17, states that 65 percent of teenage gamers utilize their free time playing games with multiple people in the same room. The survey also observes the link between gaming and possible new game based social networks (Bailey). This survey shows the social effects of gaming in the teenage world, yet neglects to speak of the times when games are played alone.

 Hundreds of PC's setup for gaming & LAN party in the Seattle Convention Center August 2009

Those that argue that today’s modern “gaming” encourage little to no face to face interaction, unlike games in the past (board games, card games), causing social isolation may not realize that gamers in this day in age play and hold competitions with each other more than those in the past (Bliven et al). The bulk of people playing video games are playing MMOGs or massively multiplayer online games that bring an opportunity for social interaction. In the past, with online gaming, there would often be LAN parties that may have been held at convention centers, or  even the convenience of your own hometown high school auditorium (Greitemeyer et al). It would bring out many different types of people who enjoyed playing games and that have never meet; therefore, more social.

Works Cited

Bailey, Ronald. "Halo Health: Fit, Happy Gamers." Reason 1 Jan. 2009: 14. Print.

1. This is an article from the magazine Reason.
2. The article talks about the impact of video games to teenage gamers in the U.S.
3. This is a counterclaim to my argument. It shows that there are some misconceptions on what gaming does to the lives of video gamers.  I plan on using this information in my counterclaim section.

Bliven, Brooke, and Marin Abernethy. "Is Gaming Social Isolation?" FYSM-126: Game Changers. N.p., 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. <http://fysm-126.wp.trincoll.edu/2010/10/19/is-gaming-social-isolation/>.

1. This is another article that I found online. It was published in 2010.
2. This article is about how gaming does not encourage social isolation and goes into detail on past games to online gaming today.
3. This is a prime example of my counterclaim. I will use it in the sections of counterclaims.

Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Silvia Osswald. "Playing Prosocial Video Games Increases the Accessibility of Prosocial Thoughts." The Journal of Social Psychology 151.2 (2011): 121-28. Print.

1. This is also an article from The Journal of Social Psychology.
2. This article talks about how past research has provided how playing video games has increased anti social tendencies. But in contrast, evidence on possible positive effects of video game exposure on pr social tendencies has been sparse. This article is proving gaming to be beneficial to prosocial behavior.
3. This is yet another example of my counterclaim. I will be using this in my paper, not quite sure yet, but it will be helping with making a decision on what would be the best solution.

Note: To comment on this post please comment here (click!)