Early in the Research

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Early in the Research

• From The Craft of Research by
• Wayne C. Booth
• Gregory G. Colomb
• Joseph M. Williams

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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.
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Are there any similarity?

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

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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.

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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

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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 pose a problem that the others
  recognize 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.
• http//www.racematters.org/devahpager.htm

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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

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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 and does
  not mean that once you have a topic, you need
  only to search for information and report what
  you find.

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Researcher must view their task differently

• Aim not just answering a question, but at posing
  and solving a problem the others also should
  recognize 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)

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Questions

• Asking the right questions is key to successful
  research
• Start with who, what, where, when (facts), but
  move on to how and why (analysis)
• Question your topic from as many angles as you
  can think of questions give your research
  purpose and direction
• Listening to other peoples questions might help
  you formulate your own
• There are some questions that have no answers

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From a question to its significance three
useful steps a) Name your topic I am
working on/studying b) Suggest a
question I am working on/studying ...
because I want to find out how/why ...
c) Motivate the question/find a rationale I am
working on/studying because I want to
find out how/why in order to understand
how/why (Cf Booth et al, pp. 42-5)
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The ultimate question is So what?
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Problem

• Your questions should help you solve a research
  problem
• A problem is something you do not yet know or
  understand
• Ask yourself why are you asking certain questions
• A problem might be the origin of your research
• but you may not be able to formulate your
  problem fully at the outset

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Structure

• Any thesis needs a clear focus and a mode of
  argument
• Your chapter outline ideally reflects both
• Possible foci author/s, text/s, generic
  groupings, historical issues, theoretical issues,
  
• Possible modes of argument revalue a reputation,
  analyse an aspect of style, relate text/film to
  historical/literary/aesthetic context/s,
  describe/interpret a text/film, take sides in an
  ongoing critical argument, exemplify critical
  theories/approaches with reference to a
  particular text/film,

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Evidence

• All answers must be based on evidence
• What is your evidence?
• Always ask yourself what is it in the text
  and/or context that makes me think this is the
  right answer?
• Always explain what is self-evident to you might
  not be self-evident to others
• Always avoid generalizations

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Topical Examples

• Here are some titles of MA theses from
  2006-07Timelessness in Homers OdysseyForms
  of Vengeance in Ancient Greek and Shakespearean
  TheatreMrs Dalloway A Postmodern PasticheThe
  History Behind the American Gangster Film The
  Beast Within A Study of Victorian GothicFrom
  Albatross to Automaton Depictions of Femininity
  in Baudelaire Titles raise expectations but
  they dont say anything about the success of the
  thesis

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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 unauthorized
  immigration in shaping the American right wing
  the degree to which the current research is
  motivated by under-the-counter payments)

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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.

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Some guidance Ask! Ask Ask!!

• 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

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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

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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
Tolstoys War and Peace
The conflict of free will and historical
inevitability in Tolstoys 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
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Advantage of a specific topic

• Easy to recognise gaps, inconsistencies and
  puzzles that you can question, which help turning
  your topic into research question

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What Makes a Question/Topic Researchable?

• Not too big or too small
• Question focuses on something that has been
  discussed
• Its interesting and it matters
• Its in some way answerable
• There is a method to answering the question
• It raises more questions
• From, Ballenger, The Curious Researcher, 4th
  Edition

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Remember

• Keep asking, so what?
• Articulate what you are doing
• Im trying to learn about ______
• Make it a question
• Im trying to learn about _____ because I want to
  know _________
• Now, motivate your question
• Im trying to learn about __ in order to know
  _____ so that I might help my reader understand
  ________
• Booth, Colomb, Williams p. 51

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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
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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?

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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.

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Research problem Practice

• 1. Topic I am studying .
• 2. Question because I want to find out
  what/why/how .
• 3. Significance in order to help my
  reader understand .
• Source Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams,
  J. M. (1995). The craft of research.
• Chicago, IL University of Chicago Press, p. 56

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Research problem Practice

• I am studying the role of nurses in hospitals
  because I want to find out why students who study
  nursing at this college move to other cities
  rather than pursue jobs here in order to help my
  reader understand the advantages of developing
  strong relationships between hospitals and
  college nursing programs.
• Practice only do not use this informal
  formatting in your paper or proposal.

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Research problem Practice

• I am studying leadership styles because I want to
  find out how leadership actions of project
  managers who display introvert characteristics
  differ from those who display extrovert
  characteristics in order to help my reader
  understand the importance of diverse ways of
  interacting among leaders and employees in the
  workplace.
• Practice only do not use this informal
  formatting in your paper or proposal.

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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
  Bushes early speeches

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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

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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

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Thank You