Preface

Writing for Inquiry and Research brings together the expertise of its authors and editors while also compiling a wide range of additional OERs for students and instructors to use in the writing process. While it covers major writing projects for a research paper-based course, it is meant to give as much flexibility as possible to instructors and students, depending on the requirements of a specific course. There are some limits to the topics and writing issues addressed. The text does not offer extensive details about research methods, databases, plagiarism, and emerging writing technologies. New writing technologies, like AI-driven large language models, may have a place in the writing process in the future, but those resources will inevitably evolve with those technologies in the future. The editors and authors maintain that writing is a human-based activity, regardless of the technologies and tools employed. In addition, the editors and authors have decided not to include extensive examples of student writing assignments. We did not want instructors and students to feel beholden to specific iterations of these genres, nor did we want to allow a handful of examples to limit the range of possibilities for writing and teaching them.

Writing for Inquiry and Research is an open electronic resource (OER) designed by First-Year Writing faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This project was made possible by a grant from the University of Illinois at Chicago Libraries. Jeffrey Kessler, Mark Bennett, and Sarah Primeau proposed the project and served as editors. Virginia Costello wrote the Annotated Bibliography chapter. Jeffrey Kessler wrote the Proposal and Research Essay chapters. Charitianne Williams wrote the Literature Review chapter. Annie Armstrong wrote each of the Library Referral sections. Mark Schoeknecht and Jennifer Torres served as research assistants on the project and also compiled the appendices. The book was written and edited during the summer and fall of 2022. It was prepared in Pressbooks and benefited from feedback from instructors and students during spring 2023.

Writing for Inquiry and Research was a communal effort among the editors, authors, librarians, research assistants, faculty, and students who contributed and offered feedback. We would like to thank as many of them as possible: Ben Aldred, Amanda Bohne, Mark Brand, Peter Coviello, Paula Dempsey, Lisa Freeman, Jeff Gore, Glenda Insua, Jennifer Jackson, Noah Kaplan, Anna Kornbluh, Anna Kozlowska, Cathy Lantz, Teresa Helena Moreno, Nasser Mufti, Karen Leick, Amy Liu, Heather O’Leary, Kousuke Sasaki, Doug Sheldon, Janet Swatscheno, Daniel Tracy, Mary Ton, Catherine Vlahos, and Jeff Wheeler.