Research proposal

Last time we spoke about creating an interest inventory as a helpful method in choosing a topic. Today we are going to take the ideas from last time and generate a research question, this should be a question that summaries what you intend to write about, influencing the way you read your sources and how you approach your first draft.

The way we can do this is through creating a research proposal. This will outline your research plan and should include the follow:

1.     Inquiry/research question

2.     There are two main purposes of the research question, namely:

Explore - what are additional questions that most interest you and might help you discover the answer to your research question?

Argue - what theory or hypothesis about your topic are you testing? What is your tentative main claim or thesis?

3.     What, if any, prior beliefs, assumptions, preconceptions, ideas, or prejudices do you bring to this project? What personal experiences may have shaped the way you feel? Before you began developing working knowledge on the topic, what were you thinking about it? What are you think about it now?

Keeping to my previous example of depression, I will demonstrate how to create a research proposal.

Research Proposal

1.     What is the relationship between depression and the death of a loved one (grief)?

2.     Explore:

·      What are the effects of grief?

·      What is the percentage of adolescence that suffers with depression?

·      What is depression?

·      Is depression curable?

·      How do people deal with grief?

·      Who suffers with depression?

·      What is the medical science behind depression?

            Argue:

I am testing whether or not grief, particularly the death of a loved one, has a direct influence on causing depression in all people, with a partial focus on the effect of adolescences verses adults.

3.     Personally this is a topic of great interest to me because I have dealt with death of a loved one before and the effects that came along with it, namely depression. The toll it took on my family was significant and being able to do a research paper on this might help bring insight and clarity of grief and depression, in return, hopefully allowing me to help others who are going through similar problems. My views on depression, before I learnt it first hand, were that only the weak-minded suffered with it and it was a sign of weakness. However, now I know this is a wrong perception as depression is a serious issue that can affect anyone, weak or strong, rich or poor, old or young.

Research proposals are a great way to question yourself and help steer your paper in a successful and meaningful direction. I hope that my example brought you insight on how to create you own research proposal.

Love, Serve, Repeat

Building an Interest Inventory

Have you ever had struggles with finding a topic that interests you?

Often selecting a topic is a struggle, we don’t want to become repetitive by always writing about the same things over and over but at the same time finding something that interests us can be a challenge.

The key is to find something that challenges the way you think as well as questions your reasons and perspectives. A great way we can find something that interests us is by building an interest inventory.

I am going to demonstrate this technique by creating my own interest inventory. There are four general topics, under each topic, I brainstormed a list of words/phrases that came to mind when I thought about what I know and what I would want to know.

Places

1.     South Africa

2.     USA

3.     Beach

4.     My Home

5.     Work

6.     Nature

7.     Soccer Field

8.     Mall

9.     Church

10. School / College

Habits

1.     Fingernail biting

2.     Cursing

3.     Cracking knuckles

4.     Girls playing with their hair

5.     Using words “uhm” and “like” a lot

6.     Talking while eating

7.     Always checking your phone

8.     Rolling eyes when angry or in disagreement

9.     Brushing your teeth

10. Taking a shower

Technologies

1.     Cellphone

2.     Laptop

3.     Motor Vehicles

4.     Internet

5.     Social Networks

6.     Apple

7.     TV

8.     Satellite

9.     Airplane

Controversies

1.     Apartheid

2.     The Civil War

3.     The affects of sport on youth

4.     Christianity vs. religion

5.     Homosexuality

6.     Abortion

7.     Obesity

8.     Illegal immigration

9.     Depression

10.  Racism

Now that you have a list, look for a single item in any coulomb that seems promising while asking yourself these questions. Is there something that raises questions that researches can help answer? Are they potentially interesting questions? Does this item get at something I have always wondered about? Might it open doors to knowledge I think is important, fascinating or relevant to my life?

After I personally did this I discovered that depression was the one that caught my attention hence I selected it.

The next and final part is to create a list of questions, based on the topic you have selected. Since I selected depression, these are the questions I came up with.

1.     What are the causes of depression?

2.     Who does depression affect?

3.     Is there a correlation between depression and other emotion like anger?

4.     What are ways in which people cope with depression?

5.     Do Christians battle with depression?

6.     Can God use depression?

7.     Does depression lead to crimes like those of violence

8.     Can sport help reduce depression

9.     What percentages of Americans suffer with a form of depression?

10. What are the signs of depression?

11. Are there medicines for depression?

12. What are the affects of depression?

AND that is how you build a interest inventory. Now that you have a list of topics and a set of questions, you have a good foundation going forward in your research paper.

I hope you found this blog helpful in sparking creativity and imagination by creating a list of possible research topics as well as questions on a specific topic that challenge the way in which you think, giving you a head start with strong foundation for a research paper.

Love, Serve, Repeat

Rethinking the Research Paper

Have you ever struggled with writing an essay? Then this blog is here to help you! The book ‘ The Curious Researcher’ written by author Bruce Ballenger is a great guide on how to write research papers.

The first topic the book challenges us with is ‘Rethinking the Research Paper’

There is a great way to challenge the way we thinking about the research papers we write . We can use a technique called ‘fastwritting’.  Fastwriting is basically writing down what ever comes to mind, not worrying about whether you’re being eloquent, grammatically correct, or even smart.

I am going to apply the fastwritting technique with two statements.

The first statement is:  “ You’re writing mostly for the instructor.”

Is this statement true or false? (Applying fastwritting)

In my opinion this statement is false. This is an area a lot of us struggle in, it is so easy to write an essay just to please our teacher/ instructor, and often we do this without even thinking.  Our writing should be aimed at a certain target audience, based on certain information such as the topic of my paper, if responding to an argument, who the topic is applicable to etc. If we write for the main objection of pleasing our instructor, where would my voice be in the paper? Who would my paper impact? How would my paper be beneficial to others or even myself? I think its pretty clear that when we write a paper that we need to have a purpose for writing and this purpose includes a certain target audience. For example if you write a paper on obesity crises in the youth, the way you write the paper would be affected on whether your audience is parents, fast food restaurants or even the youth itself. The target audience influences your language, your voice and even the set up of your paper.

The second statement is: “ There is a big difference between facts and opinions”

I agree with this statement. There certainly is a difference between facts and opinions however they often go hand in hand.  Fact is absolute truth about something where as opinion is ones point of view about something, hence there is defiantly a clear and distinct difference between facts and opinions. However they are often linked, most of the time we have opinions on facts, this is seen in arguments and conversations. For example, it is fact that the Bible says the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-40) but we have different opinions on how to carry out this commandment.

Most of us were taught to think before we write however fastwritting is a great technique that teaches us to think through our writing. This technique has been beneficial to me and I hope it helps you to improve the way you think about you research paper.  

Love, Serve, Repeat.