As I watched George Veletsianos’s presentation, two things stood out for me. First, I was inspired when he shared that his research topics have many years of thinking behind them. In my experience, when ideas resurface and become patterns, they catch your attention and you begin to question them. Now at the very beginning of my research career, I find myself revisiting the patterns I have uncovered in my work to date. These are the ideas that I’m passionate about exploring, with the goal of uncovering tangible answers to anecdotal evidence collected from personal observations.
The second piece that stood out for me was Dr. Veletsiano’s description of breaking down a big idea to tease out what you are really working to answer. A key takeaway for me was the value of researching the work of others with similar questions to your own. By exploring the research published to date, you collect insights that work to strengthen and refine your original question. Moving forward, I plan to be mindful in recognizing, reflecting upon (and perhaps developing a system to map?) the connections and patterns I uncover, regardless if they align with or contrast my topic of interest.
References
Veletsianos, G. (Author). (2017, August 10). George Veletsianos on Research [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from
Andrea,
I like the way you have synthesized George’s key points about generating a research question. These strategies have worked for me as well.