After getting through this week’s assigned readings, I have a little bit of a clearer insight of what it takes to affectively research, and how exactly I’ll apply research methods to our White Paper project. A key point that was made in the Thompson Handbook reading regarding researching is that you (the researcher) need to have some type of fundamental interest in the topic in question. Or, at the very least, understand the importance of the topic and see a reason for others to be more informed on the subject. Research takes time; in many cases it takes a lot of time. Spending this time acquainting yourself with a subject you have no interest in will likely prove to be time wasted.
I believe our group did a good job of applying this concept when deciding upon a topic for our white paper project. None of us had any desire to spend the next several weeks working hard on a topic that bored us. We ultimately decided on a project regarding solutions to America’s oil dependence, including alternative energy sources and smart grid technologies. While these topics may not necessarily be the most exciting, it is very easy to see their importance, given today’s climate of sustainability and environmental concerns. Information on this subject is contemporary and abundant. Locating credible and relevant information should prove to be an easy task, as many magazines and newspapers cover this subject intently. There are also many examples of foreign implementations of both alternative energies and smart grid technologies. Including nuclear power in France, and smart grid applications in Canada. Analyzing case studies about the successes and failures of these applications will aid to our project.
I personally am very interested in the political and environmental ramifications of American oil dependence (particularly foreign oil). I plan on using Internet database searches to find articles regarding this topic. It may be challenging to find unbiased publications, as a lot of the concerns expressed on this topic are subjective in nature, such as political problems with empowering foreign governments with oil-money.
Unbiased Information
I also feel as though finding unbiased information may be one of the hardest parts about this project, especially for your topic. My group is planning to research different wireless routers, and I'm speculating that there will be relatively unbiased benchmark reports available on the internet somewhere. Oil, however, is a heavily debated topic. Not only are politics a factor, but people in the business tend to favor the power source that they work with the most. During my freshman year I took an 'Introduction to Nuclear Energy" class, and it was unbelievable how biased the professor was toward his field. To make it more difficult, TH also notes that, as writers, we have an ethical responsibility to summarize information accurately. So be careful, because once we find reliable sources (which is a daunting task in and of itself), we have to make sure that we convey that information to the audience in the manner that it was meant to be presented.
Off-topic rant
I think that this is one of the biggest things that is holding people back from switching to alternative energy sources. They favor the sources they use the most. While yes wind farms, and solar fields and the like are being installed, only 7% of the energy the US consumes comes from renewable energy sources (source). People (especially those in the oil industry) have it in there best interest (meaning money coming in their wallet) to not use renewable energy. I mean why spend the money to install a wind farm when we can just keep using the coal burning power plant, right? And why grow plants for biomass when we can just keep drilling? Yes, BP and the likes do have renewable energy projects/departments/sources but it just isn't enough. Part of it is cost. It is probably cheaper per MW to keep using the coal power plant than to install renewable options but what's the price tag on a new planet? Oh wait...
Andy
Waste of time
I agree with you that one of the biggest points that I took from the Thomson Handbook reading was the statement that, “research projects typically involve posing problems and answering questions about a subject that you want to learn about or that you think others should understand better.” That sentence pretty much sums up why some people hate to do research. If you do not have any interest at all in the subject then obviously you are not going to want to waste your time doing research on it. In my eyes, spending time on something that you are not interested in is just a waste of your time. Hopefully the other groups in this class picked topics that they are interested in like mine has.