Research Methodology

A. Teaching goals
The goal and purpose of this course is to analyze the difficulties that we will be facing during the process of conducting scholarly research, and to provide the solution to the problems regarding research. Thus, we expected this course to be of extreme help to expand our experience and mental horizon in conducting scholarly research, to make up the ability in doing scholarly research and to grasp all kinds of approach needed for the scholarly research,

B. Course content
  a. Selection of the scope and direction of research.
    1. The clarification on the system of academics.
    2. The grasping on the trend of research.
    3. The understanding of one’s interests in research
  b. The category of research material:
    1. Books and reference material.
    2. Non-book material (including material that are machine-read and the products of the Chinese culture).
  c. The collection of research materials:
    1. The category and characteristics of reference books (introducing 1200 reference books that belong to ten categories).
    2. The important knowledge needed in the collecting of research material.
      (1) Catalogues
      (2) Editions
      (3) Gathering of rare and scattered writings or books.
    3. The important institutions for the reservation of classics.
    4. The networks of academic resources.
  d. The employment of the material:
    1. The mutual identification between reference materials and cultural relic material.
    2. Fundamental efforts skills in employing the material
      (1) To distinguish the fake material (Bian Wei).
      (2) To try to verify a point (Gao Cheng).
      (3) To collate (Chiao Kang).
  e. The correct and appropriate manners and taboos for the conduction of research.
  f. The standard for writing papers:
    1. Chapters.
    2. Main contention.
    3. Quotations.
    4. Annotations.
    5. References.
    6. Appendices.

C. The principle for grading
  a. One term paper.
  b. Degree of participation in the class