Steps in a controversy analysis

Step 0:  Determine what's going on and your role in this happening

• overview of class
• What is a controversy?
• What is a controversy analysis?
• check out the report criteria and other writing techniques
• see also how to organize your paper  
• more on how to organize your paper and how to make references

Step 1:  Find a point of entry; figure out how to begin

• Possible points of entry into your study 
• TED Talks (videos that spur curiosity or functions as data)  also, visit http://www.ted.com/  Tip:  Ted talks can not only be controversial but also generate controversies (e.g., in the comments section)
  
• list of possible topics of interest 
• a list of controversial topics,
• Things to avoid in finding your point of entry 
• If you are stuck, consider the problem solving page
• Use these question-oriented posts to help you ask a question and/or identify questions that debaters are asking and answering (or calling into question):  question basics, questions that sociologists ask, what is a sociological question--all of which can be found on the questions page

Step 2:  Search google for relevant terms that will allow you to access your data

• Some possibly useful search terms 
• Tip:  glean terms (to include or to exclude) from your irrelevant and semi-relevant search results

Step 3:  Search google for a data set/data (i.e., a controversy/debate/disagreement)

• How does google work? 
• How to search google more effectively

Step 4:  Just observe and describe the data using the techniques/protocol of controversy analysis

• follow the 7 Commandments of controversy analysis 
• use the observation questions to help you observe your controversy
• Common features to look for in a controversy 
• use the describing controversies post to determine "Which perspectives to represent or give visibility to in your 2pgs?" and "What data to review?" (i.e., scientific and/or non-scientific talk) and "Which visual to include?" (i.e., a disagreement tree)--see the comment at the bottom
• a bubble graph is a good way to keep track of the chaos and simultaneously make a disagreement tree visual
• Some of the same questions to ask controversies and some new ones
• Some more in-depth texts on controversy analysis 

Step 5:  Find analytic ideas that are useful for producing observations and descriptions

•  What are the different types of ideas that you can use?
• What are some examples of describing data with the use of (shorthand/ingredient) analytic ideas?: Bronies example, mental illness example