Week Two: three a day keeps procrastination away

  This week hasn’t been as productive as last week. I did a little research to make myself comfortable with the idea of researching, and began collecting scholarly articles on the combined subject of education and photography.

Back to the book

  Last summer I took a Research Methods course. It basically prepares you for the ultimate end of a grad program: the thesis.  Rather than doing a tradition thesis, it’s encouraged we Journalism Educators opt for the master’s project instead. In a nutshell, this is a combination of a project and a research paper.

   Monday I pulled out the Communication Research: Asking Questions, Find Answers textbook that was required for the Research Methods course. It covers everything from qualitative/quantitative research to how to write a research report.       

   Reviewing the textbook definitely helps, though it’s still a little mindboggling. Take this equation I did for one of my homework assignments:

Yes, I did this myself!

Say what? Honestly, that’s just too mathematical for me, so I won’t be collecting the kind of data that requires math.

   That kind of cerebral thinking is what separates the researchers (thinkers) from the taskmasters (doing). I am a taskmaster.

3 a day

  As I stated last week, I’m supposed to cite up to 30 scholarly articles in the project proposal paper. This is part of the literature review, a formal portion of any thesis. Problem is some of these articles and research papers are more than 20 pages long! It’s time consuming and a bit of a sleeping aid. To help manage my limited time in the mornings (I have kids to care for in the morning and I work at night), I’ve committed to finding and reading three articles a day until I reach 30. But I’m already having a hard time following through this week. Yesterday I found my three articles, but only read half of one. And today, well, I've yet to even search. Sigh.

   But to be fair to myself, I’m a bit distracted right now. I bought a new RV (a 2013 Forest River Sunseeker) and we pick it up at the dealership today. But I vow to get back on track next week.

   I also have the survey/IRB packet ready to send snail mail to my committee members. In fact, I think I will do that today so I can say I’ve done something productive.