Water Rites
Research Sample (Humanities)
Plan A - Six Weeks
Step Five: Assessing What I Don't Know
One of the first things I need to do after I begin to gather my research materials and go through them is to make sure that they are relevant to my subject. Sometimes they look relevant in the library, but have very little useful material once I start to get into it. Or it's too technical, or not technical enough. Some things to think about:
- Are holes in my research obvious after I assess my materials? Do I need to broaden or narrow my focus?
- Do I have way too much on one aspect of a subject, but not enough of others?
- What materials have I found in the bibliographies that I need to see if I can find at the library?
- Is my research pulling me into a particular direction? Be open minded, as you get into the material you may find that you are drawn in a different direction than you initially planned. If this happens to you, what new material might you need to find to fill in the shifted subject?
- Is this new direction worth changing horses in mid-stream? Where am I in terms of my original project, do I have time for it?
- Has my original project plan dead-ended for some reason? Did I pick a subject that is too hard to get material for?