Research Is Fun

This blog is going to be a little shorter than the rest, as I have a research project I should be working on… :)

Research is the devil. I’ve never been good at it—but how do you get good at research, exactly, anyway? Somewhere between my AP English (which I took in part because I could opt out of speech class) classes in high school and my college writing 101 course, there was an assumption that research is something I am already proficient at. Last semester, in my Digital Rhetorics class with the lovely Michelle Miley, I was briefed on how to research a paper in less than five minutes. Those five minutes were so beneficial to me! What made that so crazy to me is the fact that it took until my senior year of college for someone to take those five minutes to explain how to conduct research. Crazy. Maybe that is why I have always gravitated toward creative writing (in part). That other writing stuff always terrified me. So here I stand, at the pinnacle of maturity (haha), choosing to write a research paper instead of a creative piece (something that I am much better and much happier doing). The decision to go with a research project was a big one considering how much more brain power and time it is taking; I just hope I benefit from this project. But even if this 30 pager is a flop, I think I’m going to win in the end.

So how am I researching? I’ll admit, my form of researching is unorthodox, but it seems to be working…ish. Basically, I read a ton of stuff, highlight a ton of stuff and type it all up under relevant categories and “brain blurb” if I can’t find a home for it just yet. So, stuff and things and typing is my method. That may sound chaotic, but honestly, I thrive in chaos. You should see my bedroom! When my life isn’t chaotic or stressful, I seem to invent chaos and stress. Don’t ask me why. I just know that it helps me stay driven. Anyway, my researching is a process that comes and goes. Sometimes I’m on a roll and read article after article, and sometimes I just don’t.

One of the snags I have come across in my researching thus far is the lack of information on my topic of Digital/Media Literacy Learning. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t much out there, as I am saying that there is a lot out there on the same topic…branches of the topic don’t extend out too far. So, I’ve read a lot about the same thing. I guess that’s good, though, if this is what I end up specializing in in the future—pioneering the way is always more fun! Another snag, but great learning opportunity, is that I have come to find that there are multiple names for media literacy, i.e. digital literacy, information literacy, to name a few. So that’s fun…

~Grace