Early in the Research

From “The Craft of Research” by

Wayne C. Booth

Gregory G. Colomb

Joseph M. Williams

What are you worried about? How to look for a research topic? Where to find relevant information? How to organise the information?

There is no reason to worry Even experienced researchers

feel a bit anxious when they have to undertake a new

research project.

What are the differences between the experienced researchers and you then?

They know what lies ahead - hard work. The kinds of material they will need. How to find them. How to use them.

Are there any similarity?

They too may not know precisely what they are looking for at the beginning.

Should you start writing once start assembling the materials?

No.

What to do then?

plan a product of a certain kind and certain shape.– to express your deliberate intention to achieve a

particular end.

Do researchers let their plan box them in? No, good researchers are ready to

change their plan if..– they run into a problem.– or suddenly understand their project better.– or discover some by-way a more interesting

objective that requires a new direction.

When do they start writing? Once the plans start execution. From the beginning of the project to its

end. Do not wait until the end of the process.

Why to write? To remember what they find.

– Listing sources, assembling research summaries, keeping lab notes.

To understand and to see more clearly the relationships among the ideas– arranging and rearranging the results in new ways, outlines, diagrams of how facts relate, summaries – to see connections and contrasts, complications and implications.

To gain perspective– to improve the thinking– to see the ideas in a clearer light

Your writing for others will Reflect judgements you have made

about your readers knowledge and understanding.

Include, what you want them to recognise as significant in your research.

Writing for others You need help to see your ideas for what

they are rather than for what you want them to be.

You invariably understand your ideas better when you write to make them accessible to others.

To justify the value of your research.

You will loose the credibility that every writer needs to hold

If you misjudge how much background they need.

If you offer your findings in a way that does not speak to their interests.

then

Understanding your readers Prefer writing that impose as little unnecessary

difficulty as possible. Eager to understand the point of your writing

and how you reached it. Want to know how you think your research will

change their thinking and beliefs. Are you to offer a solution to a problem that

they have long felt needed solving, or are you trying to sell a solution which is not at all of their interest.

Significance of a research problem If you can find a problem that you alone want

the solution, you have achieved something substantial.

If you can find a solution that changes only what you thing about a good many things, you have achieved something more significant.

If you can pose a problem that the others recognise not just as your problem, but as their problem as well, a problem whose solution will change their thinking in ways they think significant then it is excellent.

Planning your project No single formula can guide everyone’s

research: you will spend time searching and reading just to discover where you

are and where are you going.

You will spend time in blind narrow alleys; and you will learn more than you thesis

requires, in the end the extra work will pay off, not just in a good thesis, but in you

ability to deal with new problems.

First steps to take in planning Must settle on a topic specific enough to let you

master a reasonable amount of information.– Not “the history of scientific writing,”

– but “essays in the proceedings of the royal society (1800-1900) as a precursor to the scientific article”

Out of the topic, develop questions that will guide your research and point you toward a problem that you intend to solve.

Gather data relevant to answering your question– as collect, sort, and assemble your information, plan to

do lots of writing to remember and understand, may not in the neat order

Finding topics and questions

If you are free to pursue any research topic that interests you, that freedom may be frustrating - so many choices,

so little time.

Finding a topic, is only the first step, does not mean that once you have a

topic, you need only to search for information, and report what you find.

What else to do then

You have to find a reason for devoting your time to pursue it and then for asking readers to spend time reading about it.

Determine the significance of the topic

– for the researcher

– to others - to the supervisor, colleagues, entire community of researchers

Researcher must view his/her task differently Aim not just answering a question, but at

posing and solving a problem the others also should recognise as worth solving.– Do not feel dismayed if at first you cannot

find something as above, but at least something you might find worth solving (genuinely)

Research interest and topic Interest

– a general area of inquiry that we like to explore (e.g., society and language, textual coherence and cognition, ethics and

research)

topic– an interest specific enough to support research that

one might plausibly report on a book or article that help others to advance their thinking and understanding.

(e.g., “Linguistic signals of social change in Elizabethan England”, “the role of mental scenarios in the reader’s creation of coherence” “ the degree to which the current research is motivated by under-the-counter payments”)

Setting the topic from interests

Start with what interests you most deeply.

List four or five areas that you would like to learn more about.

Pick one with the best potential for yielding a topic that is specific and that might lead to good sources of data.

Some guidance Look at the matters of interest in your

field of study. Looking in a recent text book. Talking to another student. Consulting your teacher/supervisor. Or from another course. Even from a general bibliographical

resource in the library

Warning

Ensure that the topic you have selected is rich in literature.

If you pick your topic first and after considerable searching discover that the

sources are thin, you will have to start over

Narrowing down a broad topic A topic is probably too broad if you can

state it in fewer than four or five words. e.g., Free will and historical inevitability in Tolstoy’s War and Peace

The conflict of free will and historical inevitability in Tolstoy’s description of three battles in War and Peace

The contribution of the military to the development of DC-3 in the early years of commercial aviation

The history of commercial aviation

Narrow down topics using nouns derived from verbs

Advantage of a specific topic Easy to recognise gaps, inconsistencies

and puzzles that you can question, which help turning your topic into research question

Caution You narrow your topic too severely when

you cannot easily find sources

The history of commercial aviation

Military support for development of the DC-3 in the early years of commercial aviation

The decision to lengthen the wing tips on the DC-3 prototype as a result of the military desire to use the DC-3 as a cargo

carrier

From a narrowed topic to questions Once you have a topic to research, you should find in

it questions to answer– they are crucial, because the starting point of good

research is always what you do not know or understand but feel you must

– ask the standard who, what, when and where questions. Record your questions, but don’t stop for their answers.

Four perspectives to organise questions What are the parts of your topic and what larger whole is

it a part of? What is its history and what larger history is it a part of? What kinds of categories can you find in it and to what

larger categories of things does it belong? What good is it? What can you use it for?

Further questions on topic Identify questions that begin with Who, What, When or Where.

– They only about matters of fact Emphasise on questions that begin with How and Why Concentrate questions that need more than one- or two word

answer. Decide which questions stop you for a moment, challenge

you, spark some special interest.

From a question to its significance You need to decide how significant your research might

be not just to yourself but to others– a simple guideline Step 1 (Naming your topic)

• attempt to describe your work in a sentence like I am studying the repair process for cooling systems I am working on the motivation of President Bushe’s early speeches

From a question to its significance - a simple guideline Step 2 (suggesting and defining the topic and the reason)

• describe your work more exactly by adding to that sentence an indirect question that specifies something about your topic that you do not know or fully understand.

I am studying X because I want to find out who/ what/ when/ where/ whether/ why/ how __________

fill in the blank with a subject and a verb:

From a question to its significance - a simple guideline Step 3 (motivating the question)

• add an element that explains why you are asking your question what you intend to get out of its answer

1. I am studying repair process for cooling systems, 2. Because, I want to find out how experts repairers analyse failures 3. In order to understand how to design a computerised system that could diagnose and prevent failures

Thank You