Who me - a researcher?

On Wednesday 11 Sept, Jair, Radford and myself had an informal, meandering but interesting conversation about what it means to do research and become a researcher. We were reflection on our reading of the chapter 'Thinking in Print' in the book - The craft of research (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2008). The chapter attempts to introduce students to the field and activity of academic or scientific research. The chapter gently invites students to join the community. Like in the chapter we all acknowledged that we have already undertaken many 'research' activities in our daily lives, from searching for a new car, TV or smart phone.

But we also tried to tease out what makes academic and scientific research, like the type masters students are expected to undertaken, different. Some of the pillar of scientific research outlined in the chapter includes; being trustworthy, tested, evidence-based (not only opinions), published (thus written), follows processes and procedures that validate and verify information gathered and the critical disposition taken on the topic.

Going Forward

We agreed that the focus of our discussions and activities in the MICT Writers' Circle over the next four weeks would be on the WRITING the RESEARCH PROPOSAL. Below is an outline of the session topics for the remaining weeks of this semester:

Sept 25 - What is a research proposal? 

• Share different formats, discuss what information to include, short demonstration on using Mendeley

Oct 2    - Working through the elements of the proposal

• Topic, problem statement, research objectives

Oct 16  - Working through the elements of the proposal

• Research Design / Research Methodology
• Constructing Research Questions

Oct 23  - Creating coherence in your proposal

• Fine-tuning the writing, language and style