Research Questions
The first topic that interests me is crime and murder in Washington DC. This interests me because one would think that D.C. would be an extremely safe place, but there are always crimes going on in this area, such as auto theft, robberies, etc. William Cronon’s process for creating questions really helped me think outside of the box! Three questions I have about crime and murder in the DC area are, what are the rates/ percentages of crime compared to other places in the nation? What types of crime are most common and why could this be? What are ways to reduce crime in DC? Each year, does the crime rate increase, stay about the same, or decrease? I will look for this information in books in the library, and a lot of other library resources that they have to offer.
Another topic that interests me is the development of the monuments and the architecture in DC. If you’ve ever been to DC, you’ll find that the buildings have astonishing architecture. It’s truly amazing how beautiful every building is! The questions I have for this are do architects have a certain way of building these monuments and other buildings? What were the dates that the buildings were built? Could this have something to do with it? Are the buildings planned out and put in certain places for a reasons? Just like the other topic, I will use library resources to answer my questions and come up with a conclusion.
After reading William Cronon’s article, I found it helpful that he mentioned that we should look for correlations between questions. I think this is great because it could really tie together a research question.
2 Comments »
Filed under: Final Project
February 23rd, 2014 at 3:41 am
Elizabeth,
I made sure to read both of your posts because it seems like you got your three ideas in between the two of them. You do have two that overlap. One of them is the crime one, and I want to help guide you in case you select it. 2001 is not history yet, it is considered current events. If you want to study crime, and I think this is completely legitimate, then you’ll have to look at the 1970s and earlier. But there’s a lot to be found here! Race riots, for example, come up. I mean, you raise an interesting point – shouldn’t this city be safe if it’s where the president lives. What’s the disconnect?
I think your idea about doing architectural history is DC is great! You’ve asked some really good questions about the topic already that I think will lead you in the right direction for your research. Researching slavery in DC is equally important, but I think your most developed idea comes surrounding the monuments.
One thing you need to work on is developing a specific research plan. What specific databases will you use to find primary and secondary resources? Will you have to go to any specific locations physically to find resources? As you did with the monuments, keep thinking of the specific kinds of questions you have to ask.
– Claire