Tree/Forest analogy and Narrowing a Research Topic

We have to remember that conducting a research project is a
tree, not the forest. In fact, it should be even more tightly focused as the
bark on the north side of the tree to have an excellent research focus. And in
all honesty, this is how we are expected to conduct research.

However, when we review and analyze research, we are
stepping into the forest and looking at several species of trees - say all the
oaks and if they have found the same results as the research on the north side.
We can also expand it to the entire bark of the tree.

So to break it down a bit, when we conduct our own primary
research we are not in the forest, we are looking at the bark on the north side
of one tree. When evaluating and synthesizing our research or that of others,
then we expand and acknowledge other research (this is the lit review process!)

Long time no post...

I really need to get back into the blogger mode, so here goes. I've been teaching several research courses lately and I've found that many students don't understand the differences between types of research. Of course, we have primary, in which we conduct the research, such as creating and administering a survey, performing an observation, creating a case study. In college primary research is rarely done at the undergrad level (unless in a senior capstone project for example). Most research conducted at the undergrad level is looking for an answer to who, what, when, where and sometimes why. At the graduate level where we normally begin to conduct primary research, as well as answer the tougher how and why questions of a topic.

Any type of research requires us to start with a question - Who were the Founding Fathers and what was their individual contributions to the Declaration of Independence? Or what is the best practices in preparing a lesson plan for a elementary science class? Notice that these questions are quite specific. It is vital the we have extremely specific questions before we even conduct our research.

At the graduate level, our questions dig a bit deeper and require even more critical thinking - How does embedding interactive quizzes into the electronic textbook aid in student learning? Why do obesive individuals look for quick fixes to weight loss on television versus going to the physician?

In many cases, coming up with the question is the most difficult part of research. But once we have it, we can then use some of the wording within the question to help us with keywords to begin our research.

Conducting research in 2011

Many of us depend on Google or Bing (or a combination of the two which can be done using bingle.nu), yet there are literally millions of invisible ways of searching the web. Here's a list of a few academic sites to check out and try in the new year:

http://www.libraryspot.com/ - like having a community library on your computer.

http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/special-collections/iil.htm - a nice listing of electronic sources available from around the world

http://www.doaj.org/ - one of my personal favorites, a list of all kinds of academic journals that available for free online!

http://www2.guidestar.org/ - Database of nonprofits - great when determining credibility of sources

http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/allsites.dtl - not all are free, but there are some great links here to a variety of journals.