Blog Post 1-Jennifer Schrauth

Research was always something my mother was good at and I was (and still am) not. Like me, my mother likes to know things, but whereas I am lazy and limit my intake of knowledge to what I can absorb through stumbling through books, attending classes, and performing basic web searches, my mother searches until she finds the exact answer she's looking for, wherever that search may take her.

Of course I had to do research in my undergraduate, though most of it was more scientific than literary. Like Robert, I did a good deal of my research online through online databases and ebooks. Typically I would play around with different combinations of subjects, key words, and boolean phrases until I found enough articles. If I was unable to glean sufficient data from home, I would go to the campus library and ask a research librarian to help me find more information in print. If I didn't do a citation immediately after finding the article, I would typically end up with the hard copy I had printed out with no idea of which database I had found it through or how to find it again to properly cite it. To avoid this headache, I, like Jess, plan to take Towheed's advise on "recording the research route."

For my research this year, I expect that I will begin about where I usually do, through using broad subject search vehicles like Google Scholar, Wikipedia, websites, and databases to gain general knowledge and help key in on a specific subject before moving on to search spots with more specific information. I expect that as I get further into my research I will go to the library more than once and will inevitably enlist the help of a research librarian, because they are glorious people who know a lot more about research and the ins and outs of the library than I ever will.