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Part 1
Engaging in
the research
process
Part 1 is divided into ten themes and is designed to take you on a reflective
journey through the process of doing your first piece of research from
start to completion. But don’t forget that the journey is yours and how you
navigate it (for example, from Theme 1 to Theme 10 in sequence, or in
a different order according to your learning and development needs) is
entirely up to you. Taking some time to complete the reflective activities will
ensure that you think through each step along the way.
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Theme 1
Journal
writing
This section will:
•help you to understand what a research journal looks like;
•enable you to understand more about the importance of journal writing;
•help you to make the link between writing and understanding;
•help you to start writing reflectively in relation to your research;
•introduce you to a model for reflective writing.
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Theme 1.1
What does a
research journal
look like?
On the surface this sounds like a simple
enough question but delve a little deeper and
it’s not necessarily as easy as it appears. A
quick internet search shows that people do
not necessarily agree on what a research
journal should look like, and indeed there are
views that appear to be at opposite extremes:
there are those who see it as a place to take
brief notes, primarily in relation to sources
(for example, books, journal articles) and
others who advocate keeping a record of
everything! Most support the idea of writing
in it regularly but are much less clear on what
to write. The words ‘journal’, ‘diary’ and ‘log’
are sometimes used interchangeably, which
can also be confusing. In general, these three
terms tend to mean different things:
• Journal – this often means a place
for free-flow writing. Some people keep
a personal journal where they write about
their everyday lives; others keep a journal
for a specific purpose, for example for
a project or during their travels. In
everyday life, a journal can often take the
form of a nice quality notebook where
you can write freely about whatever you
have decided to focus on. A journal can
also be used as a place to keep other
things, such as photographs, diagrams
and lists. Initially most of the pages will
probably be blank.
• Diary – this tends to be calendar-driven
with specific dates listed, and there are a
variety of options to choose from (for
example, a week to view on each page
or a week spread across two pages); it
will often include planners for the month
or year. There will also be space to write,
but this can restrict your writing to the
amount of space given.
• Log – this is a basic record of events, often
kept in date order. It is generally factual –
a list of what you did and when.
So, what will be the most useful as you start
your first piece of independent research? It
is likely that there will be aspects of each of
these kinds of records that you will want to
capitalise on in order to make it work for you.
Free-flow writing in a journal will help your
ideas and understanding to develop (see
Theme 1.3). This could be prompted by things
like reading texts that you feel are key to your
research, discussions with your supervisor,
things you discover as you gather your data,
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among others. Diary aspects will
be particularly helpful for planning (see
Theme 3.1), which will help you to keep
on track and not lose sight of what you
need to do and when. A log will ensure
that you can find things quickly and easily
(see Table 3 on page 57), such as those
all-important references. This book is designed
to help you to do all of these things, so feel
free to use it in the way it helps you most.
Notes
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Theme 1.2
The importance
of journal
writing
Many people in universities are beginning to
see the value of journal writing and recognise
that it can help students in various areas of their
academic and personal development. Here are
some of the reasons for this, and you may be
able