There’s more to research than just reading and copying. I know right! I bet you were thinking, “Who copies sources and calls it research?”
Well, for one, I am someone who used to copy as a form of research. I admit it. In middle school and a good portion of high school, I definitely spent time in the library “doing research.” What I didn’t know is I was doing research wrong.
According to Michael Klein and his article, What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One—and How Can we Get Students To Join Us?, something students largely overlook while researching is we do not search, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, select, and reject sources while researching.
“I knew they were writing research papers because they were not writing at all–just copying” – Michael Klein
It hit me pretty hard to think that we are doing something so fundamental to our academic years wrong. To solve these problems, Klein proposes two types of methods to get us back on the right track when researching.
- Hunting — going into the world with purpose and direction while employing strategies
- Gathering — observing fortuitously with a wide and open lens, and utilizing all aspects to their bitter foundations
Think back to the primitive times of when humans had to find their food in the environment. The use of “hunter” and “gatherer” in both primitive times and research are the same. Basically what Klein is saying, is that a researcher can be either the hunter-type, gatherer-type, or both. Ideally, however, it would be beneficial for one to be both hunter and gatherer to get the best of both worlds.
In my own research, I find that I am a hunter. In fact, I know that I am a hunter because of the very way I conduct my research. My research consists of proposing a question(s), seeking to find the answer, and then starting the cycle over again until I am satisfied with the amount of content I have.
In my own experiences, on the other hand, I find myself still utilizing what I find after asking a question. Rather than a primarily hunter mindset, I find myself using whatever information I find through my hunter method. In other words, I identify what I need (hunter method) but utilize all the information I acquire (gatherer method). It’s an odd way to conduct my research which probably yields very select results.
To put it in different words, I believe my research consists of me hunting for resources, stripping it of all information, and then picking at the data that I need, but I also pick up possible relevant scraps here and there. The difference between this and hunting is that a hunter looks just for what he wants, whereas I do pick up some of the smaller bits that may prove useful. On the other hand, my method is different from a gatherer because I start my research with a very select scope. If I had to categorize myself, I would say I am a hunter that transforms into a gatherer once finding the resource.
One drawback from my method is that I have a narrow scope to work within. Theoretically my scope could widen if I asked more questions, but most of the time, I just stick to what I know I need to find. I do not find any bizarre or random information that I could work with, dive deeper into, or become intrigued by. I guess it’s okay, but still I have much to learn regarding how to research.