You are a student who wants to pad the resume with extracurricular activities – maybe thinking of a career in healthcare. What could you do? You’ve always heard of your “brainy” friends getting into research. But is it for you….
Faith’s post “Research Behind Research” from yesterday gives us a glimpse into how research may be less of a scary thing than most people think. Go have a quick read and come back.
Ok, why the pocket protector? Because it’s a start. “Fake it until you become it” as states Amy Cuddy from Harvard University in her awesome TED Talk (Cuddy TED talk)
So here is what I suggest to get started on your new research persona:
1- Buy, borrow, or make a pocket protector. Maybe get a shirt with a pocket too.
2- Set aside one hour a week to wear your shirt and pocket protector.
3- Find somewhere quiet but inviting with as few distractions as possible for your new activity.
4- Listen to John James “I wanna know” to get you motivated (I Wanna Know).
Now for the interesting part – how do I do research?
Research is a structured approach to discovery. You need to organize your thoughts and your methods – always. Use your time to figure out what methods work best for you. What are your preferred search engines? Do you always use Google? Do you Bing every now and again? How do you record your ideas, findings, links, articles… etc. How often are you successful at finding the answer? Do you keep track of what you did when you were?
Though being organized will take you a long way, the most important component of research is the question that you are asking. Not as easy as you may think. As the well respected French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss suggested: “The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he’s one who asks the right questions.”
Start thinking of and asking questions – all the time. Take the time to answer some of them during your research hour. Do you find the way your question is structured helps in finding an answer? How about if your question is answerable by a yes/no? A number (average height for expl)? Any easier than if your question starts with “What are…”?
Stay tuned as we will address all of these interesting challenges in this blog…