Thursday, October 10, 2013

Introducing Your Research

Dear All,

Believe it or not, doing research can be fun - provided you pick a topic you want to learn something about. If you have identified a topic that really interests you, do NOT go to google to find information about it. Instead, start doing some brainstorming and/or free writing. This will help you narrow down your topic to something manageable as well as to identify a useful research question. Since everybody's brain is unique, thinking about the topic will help you find your own individual associations and ideas. This is the first step on your way to producing truly original research!

If you go straight to the internet, your brain will follow the paths that other people's brains have created. So it'll be harder for you to get off that given track and come up with your own ideas.

Remember: it's easy to come up with great original ideas if you look inside your own mind first :)



For more details about how you can proceed, please check out the following two handouts:


1) Steps in Writing an Academic Essay:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxndWRydW5kcmVoZXJ8Z3g6NzJkYWIyZDNhMjkxY2UyNg

2) Academic Writing and Research:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxndWRydW5kcmVoZXJ8Z3g6NTk1ZDcyNzJiODhkMTlkYg

Suggested Topics for Your Own Research:


  1. Dreams
  2. Mirrors and Masks
  3. Creativity
  4. Civil Disobedience
  5. Vibrations
  6. Extraterrestrial Life
  7. Colours
  8. Atlantis
  9. Artificial Intelligence
  10. A Shift in Paradigm
  11. Alternative Healing
  12. Our Responsibility as Humans
  13. Metaphors as Doors to the Unknown
  14. Animal Rights
  15. Individuality
  16. Other Dimensions
  17. Time
  18. The Elements
  19. Going Vegan
  20. Relationships
  21. The Power of Music
  22. Crystals
  23. Poetry
  24. Leadership
  25. Sacred Geometry
  26. Magic
  27. Language
  28. In the Beginning
  29. Innovations
  30. Interconnectedness

Please pick one of these topics and play with it until you have found a good research question. Then start doing some research about it.  Post your research question - and what you have found out about it so far - as a comment! Please feel also free to discuss what you have read about your topic so far - but remember to cite all your sources properly :)

Thank you!

Gudrun


2 comments:

  1. My research topic is about color therapy; Chromotherapy, which I find it really interesting. It is basically a therapy using colors. Patients with mental or physical illness is exposed to a certain wavelength (different colors) as their treatment. One of the examples of chromotherapy that is found in every day life is changing of a room color. It is very interesting therapy but then I thought, is this real? Is this a trustworthy treatment? so I researched if the color therapy is valid and how.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is a really interesting topic, Michelle! Thanks for sharing!

      Delete