Applying My Research Tools

In a previous blog, I had written of my need to make changes in my research method. Wendy Bishop's The Research Writer at Work; or, Managing Your Data Before it Manages (to Overwhelm) You has resonated in my mind ever since I read it. In particular, it is her second emphasis on how to not let your research overwhelm you that has stuck in my head. After staying up til 4 A.M. to finish my Annotated Bib, I knew changes had to be made. That was the Annotated Bib; if I follow the same trajectory, the Research Paper would surely be the end of me. It's about time I utilize the invitations that Bishop extends throughout her article.

The first invitation was to "give up buying something this week", and utilize the money towards "materials that will help you organize your writing life" (100). Without a doubt, I need folders. I have about 20 articles, and they are starting to jump out of the paper clips I currently have them in. With folders I will be able to organize them into categories, or perhaps with one large binder I will organize them into sections. Also, the interview section is fast approaching, and I need a legal pad where I can have all my notes in one place. With my research organized, perhaps I won't feel that it is taking over my life.

The second invitation was to "take a personal inventory" (105), specifically of the physical location that you are writing in. Currently, I am tapping away on the keys of the library computer, but at the time of reading Bishop's article I was sprawled on the couch, snacking away, with the TV blaring in front of me, and the iPod sounds drifting in from the bedroom. All this and more contrasts with the environment Bishop invites her readers to create. Ironically, I don't need to purchase any of the furniture Bishop advises; I just have to get my lazy butt over to my office corner and clean my own desk up.
  

Contents of my desk: everything but my research material.


Yes, the picture shows the absolute mess that was my desk. In all its glory, that is a my blow dryer, cold medicine, 1-month-old newspaper, air filter and every other loose end of my life on predominate display. No where will you find research material, computer or any other "desk" material that should be there. My task today was then to clean it up and fulfill Bishop's invitation. And so I did. It only took 20 minutes, which just goes to show how lazy I was being, and now I have the area I should have been working in the past month.

Now only to keep it this way.


Bishop's last invitation is to ask other writers how they write. I will probably accomplish this task throughout the week, as I really am interested in finding out how others are going about their research paper. She specifies to ask on "space and physical layout" (106), areas that I have had issues on, and hopefully their advice will gear me towards the right way.

I had been thinking on writing this blog for weeks now, ever since that first reading of Researching Writer at Work, but it was our last class session that inspired me to do so. It was a mini-therapy session for most of us, as we all exclaimed the highs and lows of our current research project. Most of us have had the same issues I have written about here, and it made me realize I am not alone, and I really should change before my research manages, in the words of Bishop, to overwhelm me.