A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

I expected the first mythic stories of the Alamo to originate in Texas, but they didn't. They originated in . . .That tentative hypothesis suggests that the Alamo myth began as a national, not a regional,phenomenon—a modest, but promising start.If you can't find a hypothesis in your notes, look for a pattern of ideas that might lead youto one. If you gathered data with a vague question, you probably sorted them underpredictable keywords. For masks, the categories might be their origins (African, Indian,Japanese . . .), uses (drama, religion, carnival . . .), materials (gold, feather, wood, . . .), andso on. For example:Egyptians—mummy masks of gold for nobility, wood for others.Aztecs—masks from gold and jade buried only in the graves of the nobility.New Guinea tribes—masks for the dead from feathers from rare birds.Those facts could support a general statement such as, Mask-making cultures create religiousmasks from the most valuable material available, especially for the dead.Once you can generate two or three such statements, try to formulate a still largergeneralization that might include them all:Many cultures invest great material and human resources in creating masks that represent their deepestvalues. generalizationEgyptians, Aztecs, and Oceanic cultures all created religious masks out of the rarest and mostvaluable materials. Although in Oceanic cultures most males participate in mask-making, both the Egyptians andAztecs set aside some of their most talented artists and craftsmen for mask-making.If you think that some readers might plausibly disagree with that generalization, you might beable to offer it as a claim that corrects their misunderstanding.4.5.2 Invent the QuestionNow comes a tricky part. It's like reverse engineering: you've found the answer to a questionthat you haven't yet asked, so you have to reason backward to invent the question that yournew generalization answers. In this case, it might be What signs indicate the significance ofmasks in the societies of those who make and use them? As paradoxical as it may seem,experienced researchers often discover their question after they answer it, the problem theyshould have posed after they solve it.4.5.3 Re-sort Your NotesIf none of that helps, try re-sorting your notes. When you first selected keywords for yournotes, you identified general concepts that could organize not just your evidence but yourthinking. If you chose keywords representing those concepts carefully, you can re-sort yournotes in different ways to get a new slant on your material. If your keywords no longer seemrelevant, review your notes to create new ones and reshuffle again.