Scholarly method — or as it is more commonly called, scholarship — is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. In its broadest sense, scholarship can be taken to include the scientific method, which is the body of scholarly practice that governs the sciences. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena This article focuses on scholarship in the narrower sense, covering rational inquiry in areas that are mostly too complex to yet be treated by science. These include history as well as the creations of the human mind in the form of art, music, literature, religion, philosophy, and cultural beliefs. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic
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Scholars
At present, scholarship is largely the domain of professional specialists, most of whom work as academics in universities, research institutes, and museums; see Academia. A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing Research. A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the However, there are also scholars who support themselves by writing nonfiction books or other publishable material; for example, the historian Barbara Tuchman was such a scholar, as is Dava Sobel. See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Barbara Wertheim Tuchman ( January 30, 1912 &ndash February 6, 1989) was an American self-trained Historian and author Dava Sobel (born 1947 is a Writer of popular expositions of scientific topics The military historian John Keegan worked for many years as an academic but is now an independent scholar. Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE (born 15 May, 1934) is a British Military historian, lecturer and journalist Lastly, there are scholars who work at the highest level but are amateurs, supporting themselves with an independent fortune, with day jobs, or by the generosity of others. Such scholars played a far more important role prior to the twentieth century; for examples, see Charles Darwin, Heinrich Schliemann, and Karl Marx. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Heinrich Schliemann (ˈʃliːman ( January 6 1822 in Neubukow Mecklenburg-Schwerin - December 26 1890, Naples) was a German For more on amateur scholarship, see independent scholar. An independent scholar is anyone who works outside traditional Academia in the pursuit of truth and knowledge
Scholarship often attracts special personalities, particularly in those societies where it is not highly valued by the vernacular culture. Often, scholars are thought of as being cut off from their colloquial culture and intensely absorbed by their topic of study. Nevertheless, the impulse to become a scholar seems to be widespread. Those who teach in universities find that some of their students get "bitten by the bug" of scholarship, and feel impelled to pursue the scholarly impulse despite the dubious prospects for job security that a scholarly career affords.
Data gathering
Scholars value data that is directly connected to observation, for example, data taken from examining a composer's or author's manuscript, the proceedings of parliamentary debates, or diary entries. Observation is either an activity of a living being (such as a Human) which senses and assimilates the Knowledge of a Phenomenon, or the recording of data Such data are called primary sources. Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines In Historiography, a primary source (also called original source) is a Document, Recording Sources that synthesize and interpret information from primary sources are secondary sources, and works that depend on secondary sources are called tertiary sources. In Library and information science, Historiography and other areas of Scholarship, a secondary source is a Document or Recording Tertiary sources are not without value--sometimes a work of tertiary scholarship is acclaimed for its insight--but scholars trust facts better when they come from lower-level sources.
One "source" of data that scholars generally consider unreliable is a scholar's own memory. This form of data storage often transforms facts into pseudo-facts, which are perhaps more vivid and entertaining, or which fit better with the scholar's own world view; see Urban legend. An urban legend or urban myth is a form of modern Folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them The process of gradual transformation that occurs when material is stored in human memory, particularly when it is also transmitted by word of mouth, has been documented by scholars in folklore and cultural anthropology. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of Anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) as it developed in the United States.
To be sure, a scholar who can keep many facts in his or her head at once has a better chance of seizing upon an important new generalization, or of having a useful new idea. But a finished scholarly product is expected to be rechecked against primary and secondary sources.
Techniques in data gathering
Many scholars make use of technology to obtain data. For instance, special forms of lighting often serve to reveal otherwise-indecipherable writing on old manuscripts, particularly palimpsests. A palimpsest is a Manuscript page whether from scroll or Book that has been written on scraped off and used again X-rays and other scanning techniques can reveal paintings that were covered up by later work, or the stages by which a particular painting was created. X-radiation (composed of X-rays) is a form of Electromagnetic radiation.
Text corpora also involve special methods. In the pre-computer era, many scholars created concordances to important texts, such as the works of Shakespeare. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Use in linguistics Concordances are frequently used as a tool in Linguistics that can be used for the study of a text such as comparing different usages William Shakespeare ( baptised In a concordance, one may look up a particular word and find all the locations where it occurs in the corpus. Concordances are now rendered largely obsolete by computers, which permit a large corpus of text to be searched very rapidly, and also allow for much more flexible searching methods than a concordance would. A number of important on-line text corpora currently exist and are still being expanded, such as the Gutenberg Project and the Perseus Project. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works The Perseus Project is a Digital library project of Tufts University that assembles digital collections of Humanities resources
Interpreting primary data
Often, obtaining data from primary sources involves the scholar in issues of interpretation. For example, older English literature dates from a time when spelling was not yet standardized, and sometimes it is not easy to determine what an author meant. The pronunciation of words long ago was often different, making it hard to infer the correct scansion of lines of poetry. In Poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. In such cases, careful study of parallel material from the same historical period can often shed light on the question. For older pronunciations, consultation of the oldest dictionaries and use of the comparative method can help. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically The comparative method (in Comparative linguistics) is a technique used by linguists to demonstrate genetic relationships between Languages It aims to prove
Many older texts, such as the Bible or classical literature, were originally transmitted only in hand-copied form. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. Special methods have been developed for systematic comparison of the oldest copies, which can help in determining which sources are earliest and in locating interpolations and scribal error; see philology. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology"
Scholarly procedure
Scholarly communities use a number of methods to promulgate scholarship and to verify and improve its quality. For more on this topic, see Academia.
Publication
Works of scholarship are often published in scholarly journals. Academic publishing describes the subfield of Publishing which distributes academic Research and Scholarship. Academic publishing describes the subfield of Publishing which distributes academic Research and Scholarship. Like magazines, journals are periodical publications, but they differ in important ways. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally First, they are typically open to submissions from any person (though submissions from individuals plainly lacking knowledge of the field are usually promptly rejected). Second, the mission of the journal is taken to be the dissemination of scholarly findings, rather than the entertainment or personal edification of its readers. (It is not unknown, of course, for one scholar to find another's work to be enjoyable, but this is not the main purpose of publication. ) Third, all quality journals carry out peer review, in which a submitted article is sent for examination by (what the editor hopes will be) competent and impartial referees. Ideally, articles that lack scholarly quality will receive negative evaluations from the referees, and the editor of the journal will reject the submission or ask for changes before it is resubmitted (possibly with another round of review). For a detailed account of this process, see Peer review. Peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work research or Ideas to the scrutiny of others who are
The procedures of peer review are also followed, at least to some extent, when a scholar seeks to publish his or her findings in the form of a book, as a chapter in a jointly-authored book, or in a Web-based electronic journal. A Book is a set or collection of written printed illustrated or blank sheets made of Paper, Parchment, or other material usually fastened together
Citation
Contributions to scholarly venues are expected to provide bibliographic citations to earlier work in the same area. A citation is a reference to a source (not always the original source published or unpublished(citation needed This permits readers to put the claims to a better test by consulting the earlier work. Authors often engage earlier work directly, explaining why they agree or differ from earlier views. Ideally, sources are primary (firsthand), recent, with good ethos, credentials, and citations. Ethos (ˈiːθɒs (grc ἦθος ἔθος plurals ethe (ἤθη ethea (ἤθεα is a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed
In principle, citation implies that there is a community of scholars, working together to expand and improve the scholarly edifice. To be sure, academia contains a number of scholars who pursue their own line, citing others little or not at all. Such scholars work at their own risk: they are often (though not always) considered to be cranks or to have lost the skill or knowledge needed to participate in scholarly debate. "Crank" is a Pejorative term for a person who either holds some belief which the vast majority of his contemporaries would consider false is eccentric (especially
Some have questioned the authority assumed or conferred by citation, considering it endlessly recursive, the authority of a work resting on its citations, the authority of which in turn rely on their citations.
Personnel
Agencies that employ scholars (most notably universities) often attempt to replicate the scholarly process in their personnel evaluations. A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Thus, in promotion or tenure cases, the scholarly work of the candidate is sent out for additional peer review from other scholars, often anonymous to the candidate. Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior Academic 's Contractual right not to have their position terminated The goal of such procedures is to retain only scholars of proven ability and accomplishment in professional positions, and to reward the better scholars through promotion. See professor. The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies
See also
- Academia
- Academic authorship
- Academic publishing
- Historical revisionism
- Manual of style
- Professor
- Rigour
- Urtext edition
- open access
- self archiving
Dictionary
scholarly method
-noun
- The body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public.
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