My original process for academic research started with coming up with my research topic. If I was able to pick my own research topic, I would pick something that I found interesting or a topic that I was passionate about. I would look for academic journals on EBSCOhost or Google Scholar, and most of the time I would choose EBSCOhost. I would filter through the sources that had a PDF file available. I would read the abstract and the conclusion to make sure the journal fit my research question. When I was writing a paper for the final paper for SOCL 345, I did just that. When the conclusion and abstract looked to be answering my research question, I would go to the methods and the findings section so I could make sure I had the right information for my paper.
If I chose to not use a source, it was because it was hard for me to read. If I cannot make out what an academic journal said, I would not use it because I did not want to put the wrong information in my paper. I would determine if the article was trying to find if race or socioeconomic status had an effect on family involvement or if it was just mentioned for a paragraph. I tend to find my sources before I write so I can avoid writing the wrong information. If I do not feel like an academic journal is not the right fit for my paper, I won’t use it.
I have never done an actual research project before my Fall 2022 semester. It was different, I had always done research papers. Finding the appropriate sources for this project was difficult because my major is Criminal Justice, and I couldn’t figure out what I was really looking for. When I figured out what subtopics I was looking for, it was easier. I decided that I was going to use race and socioeconomic status in my literature review. When in my Criminological Theory class, the theories that related to race and socioeconomic status interested me and I felt like it would be easier for me to research something that previously interested me. The hardest part for me was to find subtopics to research for sociology so I tried to research something that I found interesting in my major classes.
I was very nervous about doing this research project. I had never done a research project; I had never come up with survey questions or thought about what a good survey question was. I was scared that I would not do well in this class, then realize that my major was not for me, and I wouldn’t be passionate about it anymore. That obviously did not happen. I really enjoyed entering data and seeing which activity the respondents liked the best. I could pick up on entering data fairly quickly and I enjoyed seeing the numbers come together. I feel a lot more confident about my ability to enter data and interpret it before this project. It helped when there was no relationship between some data, and I thought I put something in wrong but not finding relationships between some sets of data is normal, especially with the small data set we had.
“Thinking like a Researcher” means thinking critically and working with what you were given during your research. If you cannot think critically during research, then your data is just numbers or words on open-ended questions. Thinking like a researcher can also involve altering surveys or questions to fit your audience, questions cannot be too long or difficult to understand. You need to be able to think about how some questions will be interpreted by your audience and if you could get a good response rate to that question.