Sunday 23 September 2012
"The Literature"
For me, wading through "the literature" has often been the hardest part of my past research projects. The sheer amount of information available both in-print and online seems daunting and often leaves me with more questions than I had before I began researching. Chapter 5 of Luker's book proved to be quite interesting for this reason, particularly her section on "Harvarding" (93). Though it's a rookie mistake, I often find myself spending too much time on one book when I have many others to scan for relevant information, leaving me frustrated and feeling like a poor researcher. Luker's method of giving yourself 20 minutes to get as much as you can out of a specific book (95) may seem elementary, but I think timing myself would certainly improve my productivity and make the act of reading research materials all the more manageable. Luker's bedraggled daisy (81) is also an excellent tool for making connections about research interests, and attempting to create my own daisy has helped me see what kinds of things my particular area of interest relates to. This is good, as I have yet to come up with a specific research question! I do know that am interested in the digitization of library materials and how digital resources are affecting literacy levels and education amongst remote or impoverished communities. Reading Luker's fifth chapter could not have come at a better time for me, as I am at the point where consulting "the literature" is the only way I can begin to narrow my topic and devise a question from it. The task of sorting through the vast amount of information at my disposal seems less daunting with Luker's advice and suggested methods. For this reason, I found myself relating much more to her chapters than Knight's, at least for this week. I found Knight's chapter informative, but I just didn't connect with it the same way that I connected with Luker. So far, Knight has read as a textbook for me, whereas Luker has seemed more like a guide (if that makes any sense at all). Does anyone else feel this way?
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I, too, found myself relating much more to Luker's chapters Chapters 4 and 5 this week than to Knight's Chapter 2, although I have a feeling that this has more to do with how the content of these chapters match their presentation.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, Knight's book reads more like a textbook, which I imagine will be very useful once we get to the gritty details of research design and methodology. At this point in the course, however, we are still feeling out our topics and attempting to develop at least a preliminary research question based on our initial exposure to the literature. As both Knight (p.13) and Luker (p.77) observe, we will likely be returning to the literature more than once throughout the development of our research proposals.
It is at this point in our research that I feel a writing style such as Luker's is both apt and useful. Her advice on finding and developing a "frame" for the research, as well her general guidelines for conducting successful literature reviews... All of these teachings are presented in a very warm, welcoming and informal way: through prose and analogies, and through parables involving herself, her colleagues and her former students.
The Luker readings couldn't have come at a better time for me, either. I have been juggling a couple of potential research questions recently, and Chapter 5, in particular, is proving to be especially helpful in facilitating my explorations of the literature. The techniques that I found myself using most often throughout my undergrad were: 3) Find a synthetic article, 4) Find relevant journal articles or books, 5) Use your discoveries to track down key suspects, 6) Keep good records, and 7) "Harvard". Those four techniques pretty much summarize how I conducted the literature review for my Psychology thesis.
I suppose the reason I was able to avoid 1) finding a "nodal point", and 2) making friends with a research librarian, was because I, myself, have worked in the public library system for many years and am used to drawing upon primarily print and digital resources for conducting a search. I tend to consult others only when I have exhausted all other possibilities, so I find it interesting that the first two research techniques that Luker suggests approaching others for guidance and help.
typo: "... so I find it interesting that the first two research techniques that Luker suggests *involve* approaching others for guidance and help."
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