Activate Your Observations

Yesterday after our visit to the LC, one of your classmates asked me to clarify a phrase in an email message I sent. Here is part of what I wrote in response:

You always ask great questions. Obviously, I need to clarify what I mean by "activate your observations." Looking closely at the phrase for the first time, I like its concision. Each word carries meaning. In some ways, it's the core of academic discourse. Lots of times book history is prone to a reliance on narrative (telling stories) and a reluctance to draw out larger ideas from these observations.  This is what I mean by activation. What do your observations lead you to think or believe? Don't just catalogue your observations, but "activate" them by trying to make sense of their congruities and incongruities. The word in the middle of the phrase--your--is perhaps the most important. It's the hinge between the observation and the activation, and it's YOUR thinking that should drive your ideas and your paper forward. 

In other words, don't just tell a story (however colorful and fascinating), but also get to why the story matters. It sounds kind of like a smart-ass response, but see to it that your paper addresses the question, "So what?"