Essay Developing your Public Motive

The following questions can help you reflect on the research you’ve done in your “On Going

Down the Rabbit Hole” Practice Session, and develop a public motive for writing about it.

With your group, take turns talking through your answers to these questions with your group.

When it’s your turn to talk, I invite you to record yourself on your phone responses. When it’s

your turn to listen, your job is to ask questions to get clarification and share your own questions

and beliefs about the topic.

1.

Where did your Inquiry Journey start?

What is the common belief, assumption, or

practice that you started with? Explain your experience with this idea/behavior before

research. When did you first hear/see it? Was it taught to you explicitly? Implicitly?

Where do you see this assumption/belief playing out in your experience? Where do you

see it playing out in our culture?

2.

What are your Biases?

Before research, why did you have doubts about this common

belief or practice? What evidence do others base their beliefs on? Why is this not

enough evidence for you? Does it contradict your own experiences or beliefs? What

problems does this common belief or assumption create? What other questions did you

have before research?

3.

Did you make Schulz and Freire proud (and actively combat your biases or question

things society, or a group of people in our society, finds normal)?

What evidence did

you find in support of the belief you started with? And more important, what

counterevidence did you find that challenges this belief? What evidence, idea, or source

did you find most surprising or extraordinary? Why is this surprising or extraordinary?

4.

What Questions do you still have?

After going down the rabbit hole, what questions do

you still have? What would you want to learn more about? Did you search out evidence

and counterevidence out equally? What research strategies haven’t you tried that could

turn up new and surprising information?

5.

What is your potential Public Motive for writing?

How did your thinking shift after

going down the rabbit hole? Or, if your personal thinking didn’t shift, how does the

counterevidence you found require you (or others) to shift your/their thinking? Why

might this shift in thinking be important to solve a problem? Why does this shift matter?

WHO particularly needs to pay attention to this evidence and why?

6.

What’s your Public Motive in a nutshell (your thesis)?

In one sentence, summarize

how you want your reader’s thinking to shift after reading about your research. Use a

contrast word (but, although, however) to help show the contrast between what people

think now and what you want them to realize. (You can also phrase your thesis as a

personal shift. What did you used to believe, and how did your research persuade you to

change your mind?)