Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal

What is a “knowledge front”? In any field, the knowledge front is the area where questions are asked. On one side of the front are facts, the kinds of things on which members of the field agree without dispute.* On the other side is the unknown, where we do not yet have the tools to investigate. We can define the front as the area between facts and the unknown; on the front, things are open to question and questions are capable of being answered.

In this first Unit Paper, you will locate a single scholarly text in your field that raises issues you think are worth exploring. Working from this text, you are going to inquire into the contours of a scholarly debate and consider your relation to the ongoing research in your field.

This paper serves two purposes: first, to define a knowledge front; second, to locate your own relation to it. Defining the knowledge front is important because inquiry is ongoing in all fields. Let’s say your field is biology,* and your area of inquiry is genetics. The basic double helical structure of DNA is a biological fact. Nobody conducts active research into facts — facts are by definition already settled. However, many questions still exist about the specific structure of DNA and much of its function in translating genetic “instructions” into biological structure. Only some questions are capable of being answered with the tools and knowledge currently available. A smaller subset is answerable by undergraduates — this is one reason why much undergraduate writing takes the form of rehearsals of facts. In Unit 2, you will conduct your own academic inquiry. In this paper, one of your main goals is to figure out your own relation to the field and evaluate your own interests in terms of what is known.

So, how will you find a text to examine? One way is to go to the library, locate a current scholarly journal in your field, and find an article in a recent issue. For this assignment, looking at a physical issue of a journal will have some significant benefits that we will discuss in class.* You could also work from the website of a scholarly journal in your field. We will begin the search for an appropriate article in class this week.

Once you find an interesting text to work with, you’ll want to consider a number of things. First, a few questions about the knowledge front: What does this text tell you about the kinds of things people in this field are concerned with? What does it assume? What kinds of arguments* does it make? What kinds of evidence does it use? In other words, from this text, what does this field or argumentative terrain look like? Second, a few questions about your relation to the front: Why did you choose this text? What drew you to it? What areas of dispute were immediately recognizable as such? What areas of dispute or disagreement seemed more obscure at first? Finally, what kinds of specific research questions would you like to answer, if you had the time and resources? Clearly, many other questions and lines of inquiry are open to you. These questions, however, should get you started.

This assignment is designed to advance your understanding of your discipline and the relation -between your discipline and your career path. A strong paper will show carefully conducted inquiry, a close reading of the text, careful attention to the audience* (me and your classmates), and careful reflection on your own knowledge and position with respect to the field. On a more pragmatic level, this assignment also sets you up for your Unit 2 research project.

In this paper, you will exercise a number of writing skills, among them:
• choosing style, voice, and level of detail appropriate to your audience
• formatting your paper in a way that best suits the task and your message
• organizing your paper in a way that enhances your overall message
• accurately representing ideas from all sources you use
• consistently using appropriate citation conventions.

We’ll discuss these tasks and the Key Terms in class this week and next.
Unit 1 Key Terms and Phrases
Argument
Close reading
Knowledge front
Professional
Scholarly
Audience
Journal
Persona
Purpose
thesis

 

 

 

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