Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

so what?

Every so often, when I've spent too much time with my own thoughts and research, I think of making more of an effort to take in the vast panopoly of lectures, seminars, colloquia, etc that the U offers.

Invariably, such experiences disappoint: shoddy research methodology; lack of thinking about audience expectations; vague, canned facile responses to big questions; a smorgasbord of theory, uncritically offered; no consideration whatsoever of the "So what?" question.

The last of these is the biggest flaw, I think. I am using The Craft of Researchby Booth, Colomb and Williams, to guide me in making sure that MY research foregrounds the so-what question. Otherwise, it's just a big bunch of data in search of a reason for being.