Extracts is a collaborative site run by the students of Enlgish 201, a course dedicated to research and writing. Each week contributors will post their insights and observations about research, writing, and the triumphs of finding the perfect resource.
Rationale
The word extracts was carefully chosen as the title of our combined research efforts. As a noun, an extract is defined as one of two things, either a passage taken from a text or the preparation of an active ingredient. This single word combines the two important subjects of this class, research and food, language and ingredient.
As an action, to extract can mean to obtain, to select, or to derive: through the special methods of academic research we obtain information about our subject; from what is obtained we select important passages; and from those passages we derive new ideas and the evidence necessary to prove them. To obtain, to select, and to derive -- a complete process of extraction -- this will be our work as researchers and writers.
Method
The kind of research and writing published on this site will change from week-to-week. At first the nature of the resources, and thus the writing here, will be general. We will be extracting general information from general resources. As our work takes shape, as we each begin to understand our subject matter, the research will become specific, our responses critical and incisive. Information about specific assignment requirements will be announced on the English 201 website.
