RESEARCH & EXPLORATION
As a curious person, research fulfils my desire to explore and thus, create. I always had a passion for exploring my surroundings and observing nature and human behaviours. Since I was a child, I started exploring through hands-on tinkering and discovering the inner workings of each and everything around me: from toys and cars to home machines & electronics. I sought to comprehend how things work by watching how people interact with them.
We all learn and research in our daily activities, in my opinion, whilst responding to our basic needs and daily challenges, even if the process is innate and occurs unconsciously. And I’ve always believed that planning is half the battle when it comes to getting somewhere, but I’ve never considered it in the context of reading or research.
In The Craft of Research book, I liked how the introduction focused on planning from various perspectives, including not only planning the research topic, but also and most importantly planning the approach and the anticipation; starting from the research and asking the right question, so that it can serve as a guide throughout the process, to drafting the second plan and the standard forms that researchers use to assist them in writing, to the importance of the research ethics and the dishonest research among students as well as professionals.
In fact, that helped me frame what I hope to accomplish through research, what contribution I hope to make to society and the community, and the need or urge that should drive the research and motivate me to make a positive and valuable impact. The process and the planning should help throughout the research, and although the guide or forms are used by anyone, each researcher can come up with a unique idea and contribution and print their work with their own unique stamp.
Furthermore, I completely agree with the impact of planning on the readers as well as the research process. And as a reader of the book now, I can see how this introduction enticed me to decide to read the entire book and use it as a guide. The authors utterly anticipated what we were looking for! They simply touched on what I seek or feel as a beginner to kick start my journey, whether the accompanying fears or the feeling of getting lost and they simply provided direct and to-the-point answers. That in itself is inspiring!
References
The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition. 2016. 4th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
