I’m pretty sure that the title of this blog is a Panic!At the Disco song, so shoutout to P!ATD for that. I am also similarly sure that the title of this blog is also part of a very well known Frodo Baggins quote from the Lord of the Rings series. Turns out, I’m right on both accounts.
Source: Giphy
But seriously, here we are at the end of all things. The last week of classes of my first year of college, and I am going to reflect the baggins out of this blog post. Here we are supposed to reflect upon our research process. How it was, how it changed, and what it is is like now – in addition to all the little things in between like Stuart Greene & his BEAM method and everything.
The Beginning of the End
So in the beginning, I talked about my research process like it was some unruly cat who came into my room, scattered my papers, and left me to pick up the pieces without knowing how the pieces fit together until finally at the last moment everything fell into place. Tabs were my best friend (still are, to an extent) and everything was kind of a hot mess that eventually worked out. Okay, so sometimes things are still like that, but aren’t they always?
In any case, while I describe the beginning/origin of my research process, I did have some key elements down – they just weren’t refined enough. Outlining, organizing my arguments and information, those were good starts, I just needed to learn how to polish them into something more. Also, I needed to learn how to more effectively gather my information, and make sure that my sources were credible.
The Between
Turns out, a lot of the methods we were taught in class really helpful in developing those initial research skills. The BEAM method, for example, which introduced a way to categorize sources as Background, Exhibits, Arguments, and Methods, was very helpful in allowing me to organize my information better. Though I could establish the general timeline of my papers, BEAM really enabled me to also organize the information I pulled from outside sources like academic articles. It also made it easier to keep track of the sources and the information that they were attempting to convey, which made my overall searching and then later synthesizing much easier.
Moving forward, though I’ve mentioned it a few times, the archival research skills that we’ve currently developed as a class are going to forever be useful to me. Tirabassi’s principle of closure is something I especially have to keep in mind, as I have a tendency to try and do everything, without much success. Likewise, Gaillet’s guiding questions on how to think about what I’m reading have also proved useful, making me think further about the source that I am using and its surrounding context.
There are a lot more skills, but I’ve discussed those in other posts, and frankly I don’t have enough room to write about them without this post turning into an essay.
The End
Okay, so here we are at the end. (See, I got it in there Frodo Baggins. I did it, and I didn’t have throw a cursed ring in a volcano to do it.) And so, how has my research process changed as a result of the research methods that I have learned? Well first, I’m more strict about learning about who my sources are, and how legitimate they are. Second, I’ve become more organized both with regards to my sources, how I use them, and the flow of my actual narrative. Then it comes to the actual act of researching, and that has definitely improved. Being taught how to use the databases, how to effectively search, has made my life so much easier, especially in this time of final papers, final projects, and final everything.
So yeah, it was a pretty productive, if stressful, year of researching. But if anything, learning these skills has had a very real and very welcome impact on how I write when I write, and what I say when I write.
Source: Giphy