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.

The Writing Process

Many students don't realize that writing is a process and as such they need a strategy. Many of us (yes, sometimes crazy English teachers) often sit down and just write what comes to mind. This is perfectly okay as a strategy -- it's called free-writing. In my physical classes I like to use a sheet of words I call trigger words. Why not try such a strategy with your own research paper topic?

For example, say your research paper is about the addictive qualities of online gaming. Yet you are having a hard time starting your paper. Put together a list of keywords and vocabulary words you have found in the documents you have reviewed on the topic -- online gaming, virtual reality, gender differences, clinical disorder, computer, Internet, 3D graphics, characters, etc. I suggest starting with about 20-25 words in your list. Let the list sit for a few hours and when you come back to the list, just start writing trying to use all your words writing a couple of paragraphs. It should help you get a start on your first rough draft.

Here's a key to this exercise, though -- set a time limit, 10 minutes is a good start. Don't stop writing until the 10 minutes is up. It doesn't matter if it is nonsense, just keep writing. We can always go back and fix anything we write; the important thing is to just "git 'r' dun!"