Research Practice

E9　—　Only when written does it become scholarship

You may make an interesting discovery, but unless you write it, it reaches no one.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~8 min + textbook ~70 min = ~78 min　／　Beyond the text: 11 exercises · 1 coins · 10 readings · 1 references

What this course teaches you to do

• You can choose the entry point for finding prior work according to your purpose.
• You can carry out the procedure for verifying that "no one has said it yet."
• You can judge, in your own writing, where quotation, summary and plagiarism divide.
• You can explain what it means to write down the range you searched.
• Can compare conflicting explanations not by which is more compelling, but by what could be verified to settle the matter.
• Can apply the practice of explicitly stating 'what was not included' to one's own writing.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. Choose the entry point by your purposeChoose the entry by your purpose: type, object, find, or debate. Do not write down numbers that move.
2. Verifying that "no one has said it yet"Exhaustiveness is impossible, so write down the range you searched. Stating the range is not modesty but defence.
3. Where quotation, summary and plagiarism divideThere are only two axes: are the words the original's, and did you show the source? Rewording without a source is still plagiarism.
4. Naming, and what cannot be verifiedA name makes debate easier and, at the same time, stops the content from being questioned. If you name it, define it too.
5. Anatomy of a Controversy — Three Hundred Years of Debate Over PricesA strong debate leaves behind the question of 'what must be verified to settle the matter?'. Rather than focusing on winning or losing, one should examine the verification methods that remain.
6. The Art of Disclosure — The Surplus Shown, the Blank Space UnseenPublication is a revolutionary practice. But a publication that does not state what it has omitted becomes a machine for printing illusions.
7. The Archaeology of Names — Gresham and TulipsBoth the law's name and the bubble's story were recast later. Investigate the dates of the name and the substance separately.
8. The art of opposition — Frame it in the form of a strong opponent.A good dissenting opinion presents the opponent's argument in its strongest form, clearly states its own criteria, and leaves a verifiable prediction.

Case studies — applied in the materials (10)

• Gresham and the recoinage　Britain　1560–1858　London, and a study of a later age
  §4. A case where the name and the law do not match. Read the sequel to "a twist of history" in the original.
• "The Crime of 1873"　United States　the 1870s　America, the West and the South
  §4. The scene where naming becomes politics. Both the claim and the rebuttal are written.
• Newton's Great Recoinage　Britain　1696　The mint in the Tower of London
  The great recoinage. Material for seeing how the record of a controversy survived.
• The changing of the reserve currency　Britain　1944　The conference hall at Bretton Woods
  Bretton Woods. The record of a delegate who put forward a plan against his own country's interest.
• The century of silver and the price revolution　France　1566–1568　A study in the Parlement of Paris
  Section 5. Please read this while considering the seeds of the quantity theory of money, including the reservation that "Bodin was not the first."
• Louis XVI and the reformers　France　1781　The printing houses and bookshops of Paris
  Section 6. The missing column is the most eloquent—a cautionary tale regarding the practice of public disclosure.
• The anchor groans　United States　1960　Washington, the Congress
  Section 8. A warning, voiced in parliament, about a flaw written into the system's very blueprint.
• We are bankrupt　Greece　December 1893　The rostrum of the Chamber
  The famous quote, "Unfortunately, we are bankrupt," is found neither in parliamentary records nor in contemporary newspapers. This section traces the verification process that revealed its sole source to be a single memoir.
• Paper money without paper　China　from 2014　The room where the research began
  When writing about an ongoing event, where does one draw the line? Research began in 2014, trials between 2019 and 2020—this is a passage where the decision was made to write only the verifiable years.
• Chop mark　Mexico　17th–19th centuries　The global flow of silver
  Some studies suggest around one-third, while some researchers believe it exceeds 40%. This is a practical example of how the direction of silver flow can be stated with certainty, even when a wide range remains in the figures.

Assessment

11 exercises in this course (7 check, 0 compare, 4 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• ANS Digital Library — American Numismatic Society　An open-access repository of numismatic dissertations, auction catalogues, and e-books. 150 years of publications available to read for free.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.