After having looked for resources in books in the library, in the periodicals sectiona and in electronic journals, the next step is to run research on the internet. Internet offers a wide range of information, and it is sometimes very hard to find what are exactly looking for. Because it is most of the time free, people have the possibility to write whatever they like without referring to peer review. This might make the research process difficult because good and bad quality information are mixed and require from us the effort of untangling them. This is why the skill of evaluation is necessary to be successful while dealing with internet resources. Personally, my research on the net has been more or less fruitful. Of course, the majority of websites were either unreliable, irrelevant, or simply touristic and commercial offers concerning Turkey. However, I had the opportunity to identify ideas that would fit in my paper.
I think the internet search is helpful since it enables to have a lot of ideas in a shorter time. It offers a lot of details, and I would have needed to read every single page in the books to find more or less the same details. It is not that I deny the importance of books, but the issue of time is very important. Now I realize how hard writing a research paper was before the invention of the internet. People had to spend a lot of time to read books, take notes effectively because they might not have the opportunity to find those books again, and ultimately combine pieces of information. We are very lucky to have the Ctrl F function to help us go directly to the paragraph where the idea we are looking for is dicussed. But we are faced with another challenge which comes along with technology which is that of evaluation and a sense of criticism.

This entry will be a reflection about the blog experience so far. Although I like writing entries in this blog, I reckon conducting research in order to write a research paper is not an easy task. I think it is quite difficult to run a research while being attached to the classmates' topics. The first constraint is that we all had to work on culture; the second is that ther must be a relationship between the research interests of members of the same group. These things said, I still believe writing a research paper is a good thing because it's like an exercise for the future, and blogging is very interesting as well as very fun.
I am still very excited about the activity of writing in a blog.

The first thing I would like to say is that I had a new idea concerning what my research paper will be about: maybe that I can explore dervishism in Ottoman Islamic society as an aspect of the impact of religion on culture.The good thing is that I actually have a book that deals about this topic, and I won't be not dependent on EBSCO :)
Today's entry will be about one of the sources I have collected. I will start with the book about Architecture. The book analyzes arts and arts in the early Ottoman era as well as after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The book states that the Ottoman architecture was inspired by the byzantine model, namely the masterpiece Hagia Sophia.
The book also gives the description of the major Ottoman monuments, most of which are in Istanbul. It also gives the utility and the functions of some parts of palaces and mosques. For example, it describes how the emperial family disposes of the parts of the palace, and the protocol behind the way it disposes of it.
From another perspective, the book also deals with other arts including tapestry making. It gives its history and origins and how interactions between the Ottoman culture and other cultures such as the Iranian has given birth to novel aspects of arts.
Other arts, including ceramics and calligraphy, are discussed in this book.

The French proverb says:" Ce n'est pas toujours Dimanche". Well, I've just had my first deception in the process of data collection. One of the sources I thought I would rely on to write my research paper and which I was very happy to find turns out to be of no help for me. Indeed, the article I found on EBSCO "Subjects of the Sultan:Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire" is just a book review with no helpful information. Now, I have to go back and search for other sources as one of the themes I want my research paper to focus on is precisely the daily life and the traditions of people in the Ottoman Empire.
Hopefully, EBSCO won't play a trick on me next time!!!

The process of data collection is ongoing. After we learned how to look for books in the library of Congress of the university, yesterday a staff of the library animated a workshop the purpose of which was to help us use the electronic resources and the different databases provided. Now I think I am able to use EBSCO (Elton B. Stephens COmpany) database to look for journals and aricles. I found two interesting results which I emailed to my inbox. Both articles appeared in the Journal of Islamic Studies. The first one is entiltled " Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire", which I believe would be of great help for me to trace the behavior, the customs and traditions, and the everyday life of people in the Ottoman era. The second is "The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire" deals more with building aspects and architectural traits.

My data collection has been very fruitful so far, be it in terms of books or articles from the databases. Still, the most important thing in yesterday's step is that we had to look for information in authoritative sources and peer-reviewed journals.

Now that I have a topic for my research paper, it is great time to start thinking about how to narrow it and find sub-topics. This step is not that easy. In fact, the Islamic culture in the Ottoman era is a very vague, and I am a bit confused about what to include. I am still not able to decide about the parts or the themes that my research paper will be about. I hope this period of confusion and puzzlement won't last very long. Nevertheless, I quite sure I want to talk about the Ottoman architecture as a part of the Islamic Culture. I would like to analyze the architecture of some historical monuments in Istanbul including the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar,...and perhaps compare them with the Byzantine buildings to see the influence of the Christian Byzantine style on the Islamic Ottoman one. Another aspect of culture I would like to include is the behavior of Ottoman people at that time, their traditions, their celebrations...
Today, we went to the library to try to find some resources related to our research topic. This was of great help for me because it enabled me to know about the resources available for my topic. Now I have a realistic view about my topic. I found a book which I think is interesting entitled The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey. That's all for today :)

One of the requirements of the Information and Literacy skills course SSK 1212 is to write a research paper by the end of the semester. In order to keep track of the brainstorming of ideas, the data collection, the analysis and all the different phases they have gone through, students were asked to create a Research Blog.
The general theme that our class agreed on is Culture. My teammates and I have decided to look at Culture from the perspective of religions. We want to explore the influence of religions on traditions, arts, lifestyles,...Personally, I will work on the Islamic culture under the Ottoman Empire, while my teammates will focus on the other Abrahamic religions (Judaism and Christianity)
Why did I choose the Ottoman Empire as an illustration of the Islamic culture and not the Umayyad or Abbassid ones? Perhaps it is a subjective choice. Indeed, I have a great admiration for arts and the architecture of the Ottoman Era, and Istanbul has certainly something to do with it.
But most important, I think it is tremendously important to study the Ottoman culture since it lays between two different worlds: the Eastern Islamic and the Western Christian world. What is more, it is well known that under the reign of Ottoman Emperors, the three religions have coexisted. The contact between them has certainly led to an uncomparable diversity.
Throughout the research process, I will try to explore aspects of the Ottoman culture including architecture, tapestry making, language, social life and behavior..., but I will also try to understand its interaction with and the influence of other neighboring cultures.