In Sallybrass’s article “Against Thinking”, he states that “you are not, nor should you be, the origin of your own thoughts (anymore than you are the origin of your own voice)”. To me this means that like we are taught how to speak, we are also taught how and what to think. Without the knowledge that has been passed down to us and the culture with which one has been brought up in one would not be able to form thoughts. This statement means to say that our thoughts are only possible because of the influences and lessons we have learned throughout our lives. This is relevant to writing a research project because the thoughts and facts you state are only possible because of the information that you have read and researched. Without researching a topic, one would not be able to write a paper on it just like without learn what speech is, one would not be able to speak, but instead make incomprehensible noises that no one would understand much like a paper written about a topic that the writer did not research would not make sense.

The relevance between this statement and our own research project is its reference to the research itself. What the quotation is trying to convey is that we are not just a evolution of our own individual thoughts, but rather a production of all the things we’ve experienced, heard, seen, ect throughout our lives and then complied together to form our own conclusions. This same assessment applies to research. We do not simply form conclusions without any prior knowledge or without building off the previous assessments of others. Instead, research is based off of a plethora of ideas and previous thought from which we use to then make our own individual alteration to.

What Stallybrass is saying is that an individual should not be the source of their own inspiration. This implies that Stallybrass believes that each person’s thoughts or creativity is in fact derived from others. Our thoughts do not source from ourselves, but in fact generate from others around us through interaction and interpretation of what they have said or done in the past. In essence, we rely on our past and we build from it to create and establish who we are today. This relates to research in that we take from around us to form our own opinions through what we read and experience from others. This is research.

In saying that the individual should not be the origin or his or her thoughts is dealing with inspiration.  An idea is something that is passed onto an individual, and the individual will process it and come up his or her own convictions.  This will later be passed to others who will build upon it.  It was never an original thought, it just is considered by different people in different ways.

This is very much what research deals with.  Each topic that is chosen for research is one that has already been considered and reserached.  It is the researcher’s obligation to find what has already been ‘thought’ and learn about the ideas that are already presented.  Once the reseracher understands these, different ideas should be inspired from them.

This statement means that anything that you are thinking, or anything that is on your mind, is there because someone or something did or said something to put such a thought there in the first place.  A thought cannot and does not appear suddenly or without reason, and is never something comepletely new/alien.

Like this idea on the origin of thoughts, a research project is not something you write out of nowhere just because you had an inspiration to.  Writing a research paper can require vast amounts of research, and even after all that research you are only basing and building onto a certain topic, already filled with tons of information alien to your own, with a little bit of your own carefully formed opinion.

Stallybrass tells us that we must rely on what has come before us to base our thoughts and realizations on. He believes that there is so much great information around you that you must draw from. He actually takes this point even further then this. Stallybrass means to say from, “you are not, nor should you be, the origin of your own thoughts,” that are own thoughts and voices are completely shaped by what others have said and say around us. Our own “selves” and the accompanying thoughts are shaped by what is around us. He tells us we must learn to follow the easiest method of thinking by not thinking and working to find what other people think and then drawing conclusions from that.

This relates to any research project very simply. When researching, we are not digging in our brains to find information, facts, or opinions. We must look outside in the world, specifically, the field of research that is of pertinence to gather information on the subject. We should write about the information we have gathered. This is the way a research project must be addressed.

I think that Stallybrass means that all knowledge builds on itself. I think he means that our thoughts should be compilations of what we have learned from other people, or taking what we have learned from others and thinking about it in a new way. Also, he points out good ideas don’t spontaneously appear in our heads, they are formed from actively researching a topic. One can spend hours thinking in circles, but come to no conclusions if they don’t have a base to work off of and a process to go about it. I think he means that in order to have a “new idea” one has to organize bits and pieces of many peoples knowledge in a clear way

This statement is meant to mean that there is no such thing as “originality”. All thoughts and ideas are derived from other people and other experiences.

In terms of relating that statement to the research project, you should not be striving to come up with some supremely “original” idea that can be applied to your topic, as that is impossible. Allow what is said about the  research aid you in formulating your thoughts, and, in turn, formulating your paper.

In Stallybrass’s quote, he is really discussing exactly what research should be. Research is about learning about a topic and expanding upon it. You are not researching if you are relying on your own thoughts, but making a hypothesis. To truly understand a topic, you must read and learn as much as you can about it before making your own assumptions (educated assumptions, mind you) about it. To this research project, it speaks to how we must know our topic as much as we can before formulating opinions on our subjects. He also goes further to state that we are unable to think something about a topic unless we learn about it, because the ability to think about it means we must know something about the subject. Research is not truly about originality, but learning something someone else already may know and applying it to your own life.

I somewhat agree with what Stallybrass says about thoughts and where they come from. On the one hand, others do significantly influence our thoughts and behaviors. Our friends, siblings, and parents all play a part in our upbringing and development. Yet, if our thoughts aren’t our own, then who’s are they? People from Aristotle to Thomas Edison came up with their own ideas of how things operated, and in most cases proved them to be true. For instance, when Edison came up with the invention of the light bulb, who’s idea was that? Surely not his friend’s or his father’s. It may have come from years of education, but the invention itself was his.

This has revelance to a research topic because everyone comes up with their own ideas for a paper. They originate in us, not in our roommates or the guy down the hall.

Stallybrass means that one’s thoughts should be reactions to the thoughts of (or facts presented by) others. What we believe and all that we think is a reflection of the world we live in; whether it be real life, reading or some other influence, our thoughts stem from experience.

The relevance of this idea to our research is essentially that our research question should not merely be something we dream up on our own (and it seems impossible for this to be the case), but rather a reflection of and reaction to all we have learned about a subject. Our research questions and the way they are shaped will depend upon how we interpret, understand, and believe in the ideas of others. The origin of a research question is not just the researcher him/herself, but instead is derived from external influences which have interested or shaped a questioner in some way.

I think that Stallybrass is saying that no thoughts are original. All thoughts originate from a collective force or consciousness, in much the way that words do. You are not the originator of the words you say; you are merely borrowing them from a “linguistic warehouse”, of sorts, in an effort to communicate with others.

In the same way, Stallybrass is saying that you borrow thoughts to communicate ideas. However, with thoughts the media in which you express these “borrowed” thoughts are much more varried than that of words. For instance, in a research paper, a medium of written form in this case, you borrow thoughts from various sources and compile them into an organized paper for the purpose of communicating these thoughts themselves to other people.

What I think Stallybrass is saying in “you are not, nor should you be, the origin of your own thoughts,” is that all of your life experiences and everything you have heard in the news or books shape the way you think and alter you thoughts. When a mother tells their child that wathcing to much tv is going to make them lazy and fat isn’t really her idea. Most likely she has heard about studies that show how consistatly watching televison makes a person lazy. This is relevant to our paper because we really are not making a point of our own, but rather are taking claims and evidence of others to back and support the argument that we are trying to make. Also, it is bad to take ideas and evidence that you know someone else has made, and call it your own, which is plagerism.

      Stallybrass seems to be saying that you didn’t know that those words were the correct ones to use inherently, but that you were taught that they are correct. The same goes for research. Any thoughts you have about a subject are not original and you can’t possibly know something about a topic without having been told it. This relates to a research project because it stresses the need to cite cite cite your work. Also, if you have a thought about a subject that you seem to think is your own and not ever asserted before, just look for it somewhere in the scholarship, and you are bound to find it. At the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice awards Will Smith said that you should never stop reading, because any problem you have, someone out there has had the same problem and written about it. No realm of study in this world has gone without consideration nor has it been neglected, so there is information out there about everything.

This is saying that you should use other answers and other ideas to support your thoughts and have reasoning behind them and not just pull them out of thin air. Just like you don’t say things without having things to support what you are saying. Also at this point in time most thoughts are not original many have thought the things we are thinking now before and that we would not be the first thinking it. Therefor no one really truly is an original thinker, originality occurs when you do not realize that someone else had thought of it before you.

It’s relavent to the research project because it lets us know that other people have thought of the same ideas before us and wanted to learn about it. So there will be previous sources of information on the topic. Also, that’s why our work is cited to show that someone supports our “origininal” idea.

When Stallybrass said “you are not, nor should you be, the origin of your own thoughts (any more than you are the origin of your own voice)” I think he was referring to the way our thoughts are influenced by the things around us.  The thoughts we have are inspired by things we see or hear.  When it comes to research projects, this is important because we have to look at the opinions and facts found by others in forming our “own” thoughts.  Our thoughts on a topic can’t be based on our thinking alone – there needs to be evidence and this evience often comes through other people.

The subject I’m interested in researching is gun control; first, the legal and ethical justifications for laws restricting ownership of firearms, and second, the effectiveness of such laws in reducing the rate of violent crime. I want to research this because gun control has been an important and controversial topic for many years, and one that may impact me personally in the future. The topic is important because implementing the correct conclusion could well have an effect on crime rates, which would have a huge effect on the lives of many people.

While there is no widespread consensus in the gun control debate, two common assertions are that gun control is Constitutionally supported, and lowers the rate of violent crime; fewer guns = fewer shootings. My assertion is that gun control is Constitutionally prohibited by the Second Amendment, and in addition fails to accomplish it’s stated purpose; gun control laws do not take weapons out of the hands of criminals, and may in fact LESSEN the ability of honest citizens to protect themselves.

I am interested in researching differing cultural relationships because I want to find how people can better understand each other and this is important because it could pave the way for an end of racial discrimination.

How does discrimination effect people?

How do differing cultures view different people?

Where does discrimination come from?

I am interested in researching about Stem Cell Research because I want to find out why there are so much negative opinions and this is important because it could help treat some diseases.

Three Questions:
1. What is involved in the process of Stem Cell research?
2. Why is Stem Cell research considered to be an act of religious offense?
3. What are the two opposing views presented on the topic of Stem Cell Research?

I am interesting in researching the topic of nature versus nurture…

Because I want to find out how we have come to be who we are today…

And this is important because in order to examine and analyze our surroundings and how they came to exist, we, as humans, must understand how we have come to develop into our current forms, whether it be by a natural process or other peoples’ influences.

Questions:

1) Define exactly what nature and nurture are, being specific with each concept.

2) What specific case studies or examples can be used best to support the research topic?

3) Is there a definite answer and conclusion to the various studies researched?