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How do you do research? |
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realdw1 
Immortal Guard 
Spammer Joined: 26-Oct-2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0 |
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 Topic: How do you do research?Posted: 26-Oct-2008 at 14:14 |
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Is this discussion just for research or placing a content over this topic?
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Parnell
Suspended 
Suspended Joined: 04-Apr-2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1409 |
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Posted: 25-Sep-2008 at 19:39 |
Goodness, don't know how I overlooked this for so long.
I was joking about that. The last think I would reccomend for someone is to read and cite the horrible history books for an essay. Looks like the cross-atlantic humour differences are stark indeed!
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Guests
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Posted: 22-Sep-2008 at 19:32 |
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I just began doing research for my MA dissertation and was finally compelled to visit the archives. They are still the only places that offer the widest range of primary sources - going through all that stuff is, however, rather tedious and time-consuming work. Yet, as one of my professors used to say, the study of history is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. |
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capcartoonist
Knight 
Joined: 09-Dec-2004 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 50 |
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Posted: 11-Sep-2008 at 07:54 |
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I remember books.
Yeah, that's pretty much the way I do it. Although, I find now that I will surf the Internet for information, too. Books tend to go into greater detail.
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Cap
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Parnell
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Suspended Joined: 04-Apr-2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1409 |
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Posted: 24-Feb-2008 at 14:57 |
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What I usually do is get a book, scan it and write down the jists of a passage in a copybook with the page number added.
It really helps with writing essays by being able to add references so easily.
Ordinarily, when I'm not reading for an essay I'll just read the damn book normally!
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Posted: 20-Feb-2008 at 23:51 |
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Books, Books and more books. Depending on what I'm studying, I'll sometimes use primary sources (Journals etc.) if they are accessible.
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Posted: 08-Jan-2008 at 00:20 |
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My undergrad history courses often gets us to write a summary of our topic and what we hope to achieve etc. Then compile an annotated bibliography of at least 10 sources including monographs, journal articles and primary sources. This bibliography obviously changes and grows during the research process, but it helps set up a plan and direction for your research.
Also, instead of researching and then writing, see it as an integrated process. As you write you will see areas that need further research and you'll find new connections so start writing as early as possible. |
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Aster Thrax Eupator
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Suspended Joined: 18-Jul-2006 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1929 |
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Posted: 21-Sep-2007 at 05:08 |
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I think we all generally agree on how to research - I think the three main factors are raw intelliegence (How much you can make out of the sources), Good sources (Not reading rubbish to get your results) and fundamentally, dedication.
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South
Immortal Guard
Joined: 03-Sep-2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0 |
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Posted: 03-Sep-2007 at 13:10 |
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I have a different method for my research.
If studying the history of eg pre WWII Greenland or Napolean's field marshalls or Bank IndoSuez,...
first I try to get a map of the area, if applicable.
Next, I try to get a different map of the area, if applicable
A tour guide to the area, if applicable, is valuable. After the section on =restaurants= and =useful phrases= there's the tourist attractions. This allows for immediate focus. I look for memorial monuments. A plaque on a monument is faster to read than a book- even if reading from a picture.
I augment all above by doing some initial cemetery research, if applicable.
After all the above, I get the books.
Before reading, I try to talk to people who know about the subject matter.
Next, I check if there's any applicable historical societies focused to the subject matter.
What I do not do is keep my material organized. I have many accordian file folders loaded with material. To date, never got completely organized, eg do I keep my maps with the subject, eg Greenland or in a seperate map section of my study? I use a combination method, which is a lose, lose method.
KEEP THE STUFF ORGANIZED and cross-referenced.
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Caoimhe
Samurai 
Joined: 09-Aug-2007 Location: Ireland Online Status: Offline Posts: 102 |
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Posted: 31-Aug-2007 at 14:02 |
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1)read an overview book on the period. make not of any biases I may have.
2) Read more indepth specialized book, essays and articles as well as any primary sources available. 3)read up on the historiography of the period. make not of any conflicting theories, opinions etc. Find out what books articles essays were influential to the development of historical understanding of the period. 4) read those books that were influential(if not already done so) 5) write essay. 6)edit and type essay. That was my methods for university 2,3,4 were interchangeable depending on the period I was studying. I find that research methods are very personalized things, what works for one might not work for another and that coming up with your own method is usually half the fun! |
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During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
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Aster Thrax Eupator
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Suspended Joined: 18-Jul-2006 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1929 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 12:21 |
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Yeah, they were great...for kids who want a fun overview of a period in history. Don't use them now for contempary research for AE because they contain cliches and general impressions that are frankly, wrong. Yes, they were fun, but frankly, not the kind of material that I would expect most people on AE to be reading.
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Parnell
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Suspended Joined: 04-Apr-2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1409 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 10:13 |
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Wha? The Horrible Histories were great craic! I read them all when I was younger! (They are hardly great academic works, written for kids to get them an interest in history)
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Aster Thrax Eupator
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Suspended Joined: 18-Jul-2006 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1929 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 10:08 |
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...Actually (And I know I'm being ridiculously pedantic) much of it is based on common conceptions that aren't true.
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Parnell
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 10:02 |
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Parnell
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 09:48 |
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Those Horrible History books can be useful. |
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Dolphin
Arch Duke 
Suspended Joined: 06-Feb-2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1551 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 05:58 |
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Immerse myself in 10 times more of an information base than I need and choose the information that is most salient, or at least most fitting to the chosen angle of my research. Reduce, never reuse, and only recycle at the very end..
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Aster Thrax Eupator
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Suspended Joined: 18-Jul-2006 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1929 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 05:44 |
...STOP...now - change that - don't rely on wikipedia as your primary method for research. It's unreliable, you don't know who wrote it and frankly, there's better stuff out there to research from. In many of the articles, the conclusions are immature and hastily done - use wikipedia for cementing your final draft and just getting some dates and names in - but even then cross-reference them with more reliable sources of information.
...What I usually do is firstly, read all around the subject as much as I can- usually 2-4 opposing views by modern acedemics and 1-2 origional sources to draw my own conclusions from.
...Then I find a question that interests me from my research, think of the variables for that question
...Compile a basic theory of mine in a short paragraph
...Expand this theory and use sources/evidence to back it up
...Write the article
...Proof-read
I often use university libraries and reference libraries - if you've got a laptop, just take some paper and that and sit in there all afternoon - that's how I get so much done. It's slightly different to do "in the field" - when you are actually at archeological and historical sites - I just write down my impressions with a little history mashed in (read my Lycian journals in the Ancient med section!)
...I like your methodology, Jubelu - good way of doing it! Certainly more organised than me!
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Jubelu
Immortal Guard
Joined: 08-Jun-2007 Location: Syrian Arab Republic Online Status: Offline Posts: 2 |
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Posted: 14-Aug-2007 at 02:36 |
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1/ Building up at the outset a firm vocabulary of related topic
2/ Jot down the body of the paper, what should be included
3/ Predicting biases to adjust my view
4/ Based (1), find keywords in a general textbook first
5/ Find and read more extensive books, try to exploit as many views as I can to avoid injudicious judgement
6/ Form my own bias and beliefs
7/ Decide to filter information
8/ Sketching the papers and divide into sections with healights if neccessary
9/ Start writting my papers
10/ List Sources
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Guests
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Posted: 11-Aug-2007 at 02:29 |
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1. Read any applicable Wikipedia articles t get a basic grasp of the situation.
2. Take a list of the sources used in said Wikipedia articles, check out the internet sites and try to verify their reliability, if not possible throw them out.
3. Check my personal library, my parents' personal libraries.
4. Use Ebsco and related internet sources to pull up any available articles.
5. Visit my high school's library (very extensive for a secondary school).
6. Visit local (Chicago) university libraries I have access to (Loyola University, Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago).
7. Take notes and compile bibliography.
8. Write paper.
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Aster Thrax Eupator
Suspended
Suspended Joined: 18-Jul-2006 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1929 |
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Posted: 01-Aug-2007 at 17:28 |
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1> Read as much as I can about the subject to give me an overall picture of the issue at hand
2> Move your reading onto the second level- concentrate on one period within your overall reading of that era/civ/nation
3>Move your reading onto the third level and find issue- find the issue that you want to discuss and from your previous two layers of reading, you should have enough background to find more ambiguities and interesting points from the sources than someone who has just picked up the two sources
4>compare
5>write!
...Please not that im' not a student at uni yet, so if this method is a little shabby, please excuse me any perhaps recommend a better method.
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