The beginning of a research project can be intimmidating and overwhelming. It's tough sometimes to know where to start. The biggest message I took from Part 3 on research from the Thompson Handbook was about getting organized.
I liked the idea of making a list of keywords. I also liked the idea of looking a research topic up in a dictionary or encyclopedia to find topic-specific "hot" keywords. For someone who is really struggling to get a start, I think this strategy could provide a good jump-start.
It looked like there was a pattern between the structures of all the different types of research paper presented by TH, even though their specifics differed wildly in some cases. Generally, each structure started with an idea, moved into the research and/or data, and then finished with drawn and applied conclusions. I think the key thing here is that the research is usually presented before an overall message is derived from it. This makes sense chronologicaly. However, when you are putting together an argument, you usually present the "conclusion" at the beginning of your argument, and then follow it with your supporting research. For all the talk about the difficulties of staying unbiased, presenting research first before drawing conclusions might be a good approach to avoiding bias.
As a side note, there was one section about using information responsibly and ethically, in TH burring on page 339, which I found interesting. The web contains plenty of examples of information being weilded irresponsibility, most of the time through risky inferences made by those who are biased and/or have complete information. I think it's important to always consider how your writing might be misused, and avoid taking "leaps of faith" that you can't fully back up.
Researching Conclusions
I like how you mentioned starting research to find data to back up a conclusion that already exists in your mind. I have always thought this to be a flaw when most people do research. The purpose of research is to look at all the data and information, and draw conclusions from it, not the other way around. The easy way out is drawing a conclusion first, that way you only have to look at the half of the information that supports your claim. This method certainly is attractive. Let’s face it, teachers always say pick a topic you aren’t familiar with so you learn something, but how many of us actually do it. I know I am guilty, it’s easier to pick something you know about and find evidence to support it.
Open Mind R13
I know what you mean when you say “The easy way out is drawing a conclusion first, that way you only have to look at the half of the information that supports your claim.” However, I find it hard to come across a topic that I don’t draw conclusions on if I have to research it. I think it is human nature to assume the most logical outcome of any unknown situation. I think it’s easier to accept that you’re going to be drawing conclusions with just about anything and just keep an open mind when you come across information disproving what you thought would be correct.
Shane
Researching Conclusions
You are exactly right, but some people mistake a conclusion for a hypothesis. A hypothesis is something that is not known and needs to be tested. The point of research and data is to test a hypothesis. A conclusion is something that you know from all the data and research. You should absolutely have a hypothesis before doing research, otherwise you are left with nowhere to start. You are also right to keep an open mind, you need to analyze data and sources that disprove your point as much as the ones that prove it. This way in the end you know what you have done is right. I don’t mean to argue vocabulary and the meaning of words, that’s pointless, but like you said, keeping an open mind that you could be wrong is key.
Remember to include information about your research plan
You discuss the TH reading well in this post. You identify good points about organization and ethical use of sources, but please make sure to follow through with the full prompt for this week: "Use the reading response to identify the research you will need to conduct and to create a research plan." We are looking for some detail about what you plan to research in the context of this project as well as how the TH reading helps you accomplish that.
Research plan
At this point, it seems like my group's topic is going to get a make-over, if not major plastic surgery, so it's a little bit hard to be specific. That said, retooling our topic may be an opportunity to use some of the strategies from TH pertaining to beginning fresh research.
Initially, my research plan was basically to find information that I knew was out there already. Essentially the "research" was already done in my head, and I just needed to find the sources that said what I wanted (forgive me for thinking like an editorialist... I used to be one). Thinking back, this approach would have probably come back to bite me.
What I might be able to do now, since we are rethinking our topic, is to follow through with TH's strategy of looking up an overview of a general topic in an encyclopedia or other such source of information and figuring out what the key issues are, choosing key words from there, and then making a plan and carrying out the appropriate searches on various search engines and web-based information services.
Key+Words
Yeah I also thought that making a list of keywords would be very useful because most words have synonyms and they all will give different results. It is also unusual that most of the time if you search something and try to find it the next day you cannot because you did not use the same keywords. This might become very frustrating when doing research. When everyone talks about biases I never really know what they mean but I think you are right about how to avoid biased situations. Providing the research first will give the user enough to decide what side they should be on.
I also feel that using
I also feel that using keywords will be an efficient way to research our white paper topic. One of the main challenges we are going to face is researching and writing about competing technologies, maybe this keyword research will come in handy. As far as biases are concerned, it would seem it can unfortunately occur even when research is done. In the case of my prior knowledge on our subject I may not fully research certain aspects of our topic, due to the fact that I feel I have a sufficient knowledge. Because I now realize that my prior knowledge may be biased I will certainly try to avoid doing this.
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