[Private] HUMA 2400 - Approaches to Humanities in China Studies: Strategies & Techniques

These strategies are not "do it once in this order & be done". Instead, they are recommendations for approaches that are often done several times  at different points in your research .

1. Start with what you have been given
   1. Ideas, information, data,  themes, methods of analysis from  lectures
   2. Ideas, information, data, themes, arguments, from readings
2. Look for clues in your readings (syllabus)
   1. Main argument, findings  (in abstract? in conclusion?)
   2. Keywords, special terms?
   3. Important authors?
   4. References to other articles, books, statistics  in assigned readings (for your follow-up)  = Classic Scholarly Method
3. Use References from things you  research & find  = The Classic Scholarly Method)
   1. When you do research, you will find things cited in papers & books you read. You can then look those up and read them.
4. Think about the arguments & evidence from the readings and lectures and other info
   1. See if/how they apply to your topic
   2. What questions do they give you?   Start to search for answers or evidence that might lead you to your answer, your theory, your argument.
5. Search for more answers or evidence (or questions!)  in recommended  in PowerSearch or other search tools
6. Use  links in the "Details" part of the PowerSearch records to find useful related items
7. Pay attention to call numbers (classification numbers). For this course, you will most often use classes:
   1.   DS700's (China & Chinese history)
   2. GNs and GTs (anthropology)
   3. HMs and HQs (Socioliogy which often has overlap with anthropology)
   4. PLs (Chinese linguistics and literature)