While doing academic research throughout the semester, I have learned to use peer reviewed sources when trying to gather information. This helped me in my literature review to find information that related to each other and the topic.
When collecting sources for my research, I looked through articles that were relevant to my topic. While reading through the articles, I also looked if the writer of the article had relevant sources that backed up the information the writer is trying to convey.
Some challenges I have faced was gathering the right data for my research and putting them in the correct data tables. For example, during my quantitative section of my research, gathering the correct data in my tables was challenging. I overcame this challenge by looking through examples of research projects in peer reviewed articles. I also asked how to correctly format the tables in my project.
My attitudes towards doing research assignments have change significantly. I became more confident in how to interpret and analyze other articles. I also became more confident in finding qualitative and quantitative data and correctly analyzing the data.
I think to “think like a researcher” after doing this project means to have an open mind when doing a research. I say this because the results in the end can sometimes be surprising and unexpected. I also think it means that you have to interpret other researchers findings and information in different lenses.