Response to The Forest

I.               What is the research question Barrett is asking?

I think a research question in a research paper of certain discipline is the main idea in a literary writing, and what Barrett is trying to ask is the main idea she wants to convey in this fiction. Unlike academic writing that includes 4 steps—identifying topic, defining key terms, discussing arguments and examples, fiction uses stories that do not follow the rules of academic writing. In fiction, there is no way to find clear arguments, supporting evidences or other sources. Instead, the language is descriptive and narrative, and the author develops the story by presenting scenes, plots, characters and dialogues through out the text, and the main idea is conveyed as a whole.

II.             What data does she collect?

I think that the most important data for a fiction is the primary thoughts that the author has, which can include the intended ideas or motives, author’s range of knowledge involving experiences, and overall frame of a story like what the time, place, characters and plots are in the story. Then, the author can organize and write her story using the above data. After that, I find that other data are needed to improve the authenticity and polish the whole story, and Barrett might collect some background information of scientific field and scientific knowledge that is frequently mentioned in the story. Also, the author’s experience, motives and even imagination can greatly help generate the structural storyline.

III.           How does she collect data?

I think the same question here is that how does she prepare for writing a fiction, and the data of this fiction may include the writer’s inspirations, existing knowledge, experience, imagination and research in scientific knowledge.

IV.           How does she interpret data?

In fiction, I think the interpretation of data is the way Barrett narrates the story by presenting story components like plots, characters, dialogues and so on. The author interprets each character by describing their outlook, conveying inner thoughts and dialogues with other characters. Further questions can be how and why the author sets the dialogue and psychological activities in such ways or why certain characters decide something. In this fiction, Barrett shows many dialogues and reactions of characters to interpret what is happening in the story so as to convey the author’s real idea like science becomes competitive place for money and priority and the hope to escape from the scientific world in reality and find the original pursuit of science.