Research Questions
I should start this by mentioning that I am a procrastinator. More than once, I have left a project undone until the very last minute. I think college is finally the time to overcome this bad habit, and I am hoping this project will be me placing a good food forward in terms of my productivity and effort in research and presentation.
I have never had to do a research project on this level before, so I am a bit worried about the process. Maybe it is just because the library is huge or because the word "scholarly" is intimidating, or both, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of doing research. For those of you that have started, how is it? Are you mostly reading books, articles, or some other form of media? My biggest fear is that all the sources are huge novels that I won't have the time or energy to read effectively.
My other concern is the idea in which I present. I am thinking about doing the conflict in Bosnia that is described in the story. It seems like a broad enough topic with enough to talk about that I won't get left with nothing to say. All of this being said, I am sure once I actually set my mind to it and begin the research it will be easy. I think the hardest part of any project is finding the motivation to start it and finding a good starting place. If you have any tips for doing this kind of project I'd appreciate any strategies you use to overcome the intimidation that comes with it.
Hey Jalen! I have been having those same worries. I personally, have never had to do this type of research before and everything just seems so daunting. I haven't quite started my research yet, but I am hoping that in the end, once I get a hang of things, everything will be much easier to navigate. If I where to have any tips, one before starting, is that I would put aside a good chunk of time to just start and figure out how the whole process works out best for you. I think, at least this first time, that everything will be hard to figure out but we'll get the hang of it. That isn't much of a tip, but that is where I am going to end up starting. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way, Jalen! It seems like its still Week 0, so this research project is a bit scary already! I haven't started my research yet, but I will likely start doing things over the weekend. I think just delving into it is a good way to start because you never know where it's going to take you. I think that's what I am going to do because I'm not yet set on a research topic, so I want to see what interests me the most and what I can find information on. Not sure if you would want to do this too, but be free to try! I'm excited to see what you end up choosing and what you create!
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen! I agree that this is a little daunting, but we will all get through it together! Although I'm not sure if it was quite on this level, but I did a large research project my junior year of high school and I found that something that helped me was being very open and flexible to changing my question or focus as my research/interests developed. You got this!
ReplyDeleteHey Jalen, two tips that I will at least use is, one, to not be scared to switch your topic and, two, to use control F if you're trying to find good evidence in a scholarly source online. Being stubborn on your topic will almost never yield good results because the amount of time you put into the topic researching will never be worth it relative to if you switched to a safer and more known topic. Using control F is something that saved me a lot of time when researching online. For example, if I was doing research on the conflict in Bosnia, I would use control F to search for Bosnia in the entire scholarly paper/book, which would considerably lower the time I spent researching on each source.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a relatable feeling Jalen! Even though I'm excited to use our library's resources, I will admit it does seem intimidating because of the many different resources to turn to! I haven't started research yet, so I don't know how helpful this comment will be, but I do recommend limiting yourself to researching like an hour a day. That way, you don't seem too overwhelmed or that you're staying too long on a particular topic. I'm also sure that as the more you progress with your research and (hopefully) find it interesting, that you'll find be automatically more motivated.
ReplyDeleteJalen, I empathize with your nerves about finding a good place to begin your research process. Especially since the library seems massive! Honestly, I also feel like it will be hard to choose where to start. While I haven't yet begun, I'm planning to just slowly ease myself into the databases through the website Michelle navigated in the Camino micro-lectures. Let me know if you find any hacks or tools that make research easier! You've got this!
ReplyDeleteI honestly also feel overwhelmed by this whole process. Whenever I have had to write about a book for English class it has aways been an essay that did something along the lines of proving a theme or answering a question. Research is not something I've done except for in freshman year history class back in High School, and something tells me the bar has been raised since then. What does bring me some comfort, however, is that Michelle is very open to helping us during drop in sessions or one on one meetings. So I think that as long as we take advantage of that opportunity early and thoroughly, we'll be okay.
ReplyDeleteHi Jalen! I'm also super intimidated by the library. Everything is so much bigger and more official than my high school library, and I've been having a lot of trouble navigating it. The online database can get overwhelming at times too. We're super lucky that we have so many amazing librarians willing to help us find everything we need!
ReplyDeleteSo much good advice in this thread, and thanks for putting this concern out there, Jalen. Don't forget that this is a small research project rather than a big one, and it's designed to help you take risks and learn. Dive in, give it a try, and make an appointment with me if you'd like some help!
ReplyDeleteProcrastinating on a project that isn't due for a while is a very relatable thing. There never really feels like an exactly right time to work on it unless there are set due dates. I'm a little worried about that myself, but hopefully it goes well for everyone.
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