Making Research Work for You

NOTE: More babbling for my FDENG 101 students.

In the book of Acts, we hear the tale of some “vagabond Jewish exorcists” who decide, seeing the success of Paul, to try to cast out spirits in the name of Jesus Christ: “We adjure you,” they told the evil spirits, “by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.”

But the evil spirit responded: “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?”

Then we read in verse 16 of Acts, Chapter 19: “And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

We can laugh a little at the story, which sends the message: If we’re declaring something, we’ve got to have the proper authority. The same goes as we write research papers. We have to show that what we’re saying is backed up by recognizable, credible authority, or those who are critical of what we say are going to prevail against us.

The exorcists through citing authority was enough – and the spirits certainly recognized the authority the exorcists mentioned. You have to do that in your papers. It’s good to say, for example, that lowering the US income tax rate on corporations would make the US more attractive to direct investment, resulting in new jobs primarily in the faltering manufacturing sector. But, your critics will ask, who are you? This example is taken from one of your papers, and is offered just like that: With no more authority than the author of the paper offers.

Now, I’m sure the author found research that supports this theory – but there aren’t any names, any titles, there is no evidence offered to suggest that this statement comes from a credible authority.

Here’s how to fix it. Give me a name and a title:

Ben Stein, professor of economics from the University of Chicago, says that lowering the US income tax rate on corporations would make the US more attractive to direct investment, resulting in new jobs primarily in the faltering manufacturing sector.

Now I know from where the statement comes.

Next, take it to the next level. Like the exorcists, we’ve got the authority. But they still got in trouble. Now you get to step in.

In this instance, this is where more direct research is called for. So Ben Stein says that lowering the income tax rate on corporations would be better for the US. Can researcher and author find evidence of this in action? Certainly, at least on some level.

Look what a Google search titled “California businesses flee taxes” finds:

After 15 years in Monterey Country, Calif., Feel Golf relocated its headquarters to Florida earlier this year after it acquired Pro Line Sports, which was based in the Sunshine State.

"The whole state is a bureaucratic Santa Claus," said Lee Miller, chief executive of the golf equipment company, of his former home. "There's a very high cost of doing business."

In Florida, he found a better work pool, lower operating costs and no personal income taxes.

"Overall, it's just a better environment," he said.

PayPal opened a new customer services and operations center in Chandler, Ariz., in February, bringing 2,000 jobs to the area. The San Jose, Calif.-based tech firm, along with its parent eBay, also added 1,000 jobs in Austin, Texas, and expanded operations in Utah.

"They have business-friendly environments," said Kathy Chui, a spokeswoman for eBay.

Ah-ha! This is you flexing your muscle, using your research strengths and your ability to find correlations to show your own authority, while relying on expert opinion. See what this does:

Ben Stein, professor of economics from the University of Chicago, says that lowering the US income tax rate on corporations would make the US more attractive to direct investment, resulting in new jobs primarily in the faltering manufacturing sector.

Tami Luhy, writing for CNNMoney, finds this true on a smaller scale as businesses flee California, citing high income tax rates as one reason they’re either leaving the state entirely or setting up divisions in more “business-friendly” states.

Luhy found, for example, that PayPal opened a new customer service and operations center in Arizona – bringing in 2,000 jobs – because Arizona is more friendly to business.

But we’re not done yet (and neither was Tami Luhy, though she didn’t continue. Shame on her). How friendly is, say, Arizona compared to California? Another Google search, “Arizona versus california income tax rates” finds this gem.

Add this to the proposal:

Arizona, across the board, has lower taxes than California, adding to its business friendliness. The highest individual income tax rate in Arizona, according to locateinarizona.com, is 4.54 percent, compared to California’s 9.3 percent. Corporate income tax rates are closer together, but still Arizona’s is lower, at 6.97 percent compared to California’s 8.84 percent. For a company like PayPal and eBay, such a small difference is significant. Looking at its net income of $475.9 million in the first quarter of 2011, the companies would have paid $33.1 million in taxes had all that revenue been earned in Arizona, compared to $41.9 million in taxes had all that revenue been earned in California.

If such differences in business-friendly policy works in Arizona’s and PayPal’s favor, imagine what it could do on the scale of a national economy if Prof. Stein’s advice were taken and the nation’s corporate income tax rates were cut.

(So I cheated. I did another Google search on “paypal profits 2011” and found this. I’ve probably figured corporate income taxes wrong – but math is not my long suit. What I’m pushing here isn’t my math ability, but the ability to expand on one thought to show, not tell, how a proposed solution works.)

So now, starting off with Professor Ben Stein’s statement of theory, I, exercising my research skills and cognitive powers, have found concrete evidence to support what Prof. Stein says. And I’ve bolstered by proposed solution in the process.

I’m not focusing on this one economic-centered paper because it’s the worst of the bunch – I’m just offering examples of what can happen when you decide to cite authority, and then use the authority cited to show your research ability and your ability to make connections to bolster your expert’s opinion with fact. This extra work makes for better papers, no matter the topic.

That’s the difference of making a proposal go from this:

To this: