Alexander Diaz
Journal 2
1: IDEA/ Research Question: Based on your initial introduction to your Community Partner and their public texts, What might be a feasible Action Research Question for you? (include 2) What idea helped you determine these as meaningful questions, either to you or the community partner? As you decide on your questions, consider how posing them might lead you to unearth a deeper story or report that will support the needs and goals of your organization.
I think a feasible action research question for me would be out of the people who came to Lexington, which ones actually died here in the city? Along with this I would do research on how specifically they died, whether it be suicide or by other doings. Well I think these are valuable questions because it helps consolidate the numerous amounts of names my partner probably has and it will also shorten the locations we would have to visit for our project. I feel like the historic society can really benefit from this because not only will they have bricks that commemorate different people that passed through, they could also have plaques or bricks somewhere that can turn into a virtual ghost tour. People can follow the bricks at night and step by step go along this road where people are rumored to haunt various places. Imagine reading the story of a man who hung himself on a bridge at night as the sounds of the forest creepily crickle and creak around you. It will be like reading a horror story while also physically being in the environment that you read it in. The sense of excitement and horror will bring countless people in. Normal people will go by day while the adventurous and brave will go by night.
- RESOURCES: What secondary resources will you want to explore (list 1 example), and what kinds of primary research or informants (expert, local citizens) will you wish to interview to develop perspective on your question? Note that you need to do at least 2 interviews, or 1 interview and analysis of a primary document or event as informative resources, on top of articles and secondary source searches).
Some secondary sources might be some paranormal websites that already have information on what goes on at these haunted locations after night. Maybe some background stories and real life accounts of people who have experienced weird things in these locations. Some personal interviews with either the owners of this haunted property or the people who might have experienced such an event would be useful.
- METHODS: When and how are you going to do your action research? Will this “action research”require some extended time, and when will you schedule that time? As a service-learning course, part of your method must be spent interacting with members of the organization / and or events surrounding their efforts. You are expected to log at least 1 hour a week meeting or connecting with your Community Partner Contacts (Weeks 6-14), and we will make some class time available on Tues and Thurs for those meetings. To help me understand your plan, Sketch out a basic work calendar based on our course calendar from now until the end of the term. Include time for research, meeting with your CP at least three times during the semester, drafting, etc.
The research will probably be done during free times during the week or on weekends. We would need permits to go see some locations at night, and we might need to stay overnight in a few if we can. Partner meetings can be held at Macado’s, or any other eating establishment, and can be done during the week after SRC.
NOTE: Please review ACTION RESEARCH ROLES and EXPECTATIONS under PAGES.
- WRITING GENRE and FORMAT for FINAL PROJECT: Are you imagining your final writing project as a deep story, series of journalistic articles, word press multimedia site, interpretative signage, a blog for FOTC or Lexington Tourism Bureau, or the VMI site, a google app that offers a virtual tour of your historic or environmental research? Who will your audience be?
I think something like a tourism bureau would do us best because I would like to mirror what Staunton has with its ghost tours and bring some of that excitement and tourism to lexington opening up some more business for the city that can be really beneficial. Our audience will not only be ghost hunters, the towns folk, but also anyone who is really fascinated by this idea of otherworldly entities connecting with our world.