Share, in a thoughtful and detailed manner, what you currently know — and even what you think you know (your current “hunches”) — about the group or gathering place (the “site”) that you intend to research and write about for your Research-Based Essay.
Your Starting Point Essay is a place for discussing the people, events, trends, and issues that you believe probably play an important role in the life of the site or culture you wish to focus on throughout the semester.
This essay is, most of all, a place for examining the questions and uncertainties that you currently hold about your site or culture. (You need not have all the answers to do a good job with this paper, but you do need to come up with some significant ideas and questions and be willing to wrestle with them.) I am especially interested in learning what some of your main research questions are: that is, what are you hoping to learn about your group or site? Good research questions are an essential part of this essay. Try hard to go beyond simple yes or no/factual questions; dig deeper into questions that involve why and how.
