In this second post on building your effectiveness as a researcher I want to share three key questions that can help you choose and refine a research project:
- What research do you enjoy?
- What research do you think is important?
- What research conversation do you want to join?
Let’s take them one by one.
1. What research do you enjoy?
Obvious, but true: you are going to spend many hours each week working on your chosen research topic. If you find yourself in an area you don’t enjoy, that’s a lot of time to devote to something that leaves you flat. Researchers in the arts and humanities frequently work alone and are predominantly self-motivated, so it’s hard to knuckle down to work in the morning if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing. Make sure that, right from the beginning, you pick a research topic that you find interesting and enjoyable.
2. What research do you think is important?
Enjoyment alone isn’t enough though. If pleasure is your only reason for taking on a research project then your motivation is likely to ebb away when the going gets tough. You also need to pick an area you think is important. But be careful here: “important” doesn’t just mean world-changing, TV news headline-grabbing, or relevant to the bloke down the pub. A research area might be important because it provides fresh angles or a new way of looking at the world; it could challenge something we think we know about an issue, author or field; it could unearth something that has been unduly neglected, or it could draw links or show important relations that have previously gone unnoticed.
3. What research conversation do you want to join?
So far we have seen that you need to find a sweet-spot between something you enjoy and something that’s important. But you’re not done yet. The third question is just as key: what conversation do you want to join? I’m so glad I was asked this question early in my research career. Here is how it was explained to me:
Imagine academia as a great hall with people gathered in groups, each group holding a lively conversation. Some people circulate between conversations, but by and large the groups are stable. You enter the room… what are you going to do? If you wanted, you could just stride to the middle of the room and start shouting, but chances are no-one would pay you any attention or at best you would attract the odd raised eyebrow. Politeness dictates that you join one of the existing groups, listen to the conversation and try to contribute something relevant and interesting. Over time you might be able to change the subject, but not at the beginning. The same goes for research: however inherently fascinating or important your topic is, you will have a hard time getting anyone to pay attention to you if you don’t make it relevant to one of the conversations currently taking place in your field.
Sad but true: academics have very little time to check something out simply because it is inherently interesting or important. People read work that they think can help them with questions they are already asking, and if you don’t address any of those questions you’re failing to give people a good reason to read your work.
So if you don’t want to come over like the partygoer who rudely cuts across the conversation to talk about your pet subject, make sure that your research contributes to one of the conversations in the secondary literature around your research area. You don’t have to agree with the assumptions or the content of the ongoing conversations, but even if you are critiquing them you need to start where the conversation currently is and show how it is misguided before people will pay attention to your alternative.
This third point is particularly important if you are planning to work on a lesser-known or obscure figure or idea. Give people a reason to care by tying your obscure topic into a theme or question that people already care about. If you aren’t sure what the live topics are in your area, that’s where your supervisor should be able to point you in the right direction.
If your proposal can satisfactorily answer these three key questions, you are well on your way to having a robust and sustainable project.
What questions did you ask when choosing your last research project? Leave a comment below.
CC Image courtesy of Tiffany Terry on Flickr