Reflections on the Research Paper
This was my first time ever writing an academic paper. I did write up a fairly big project for my degree but it didn't involve research. This one was not really a research paper in the normal sense of the word, it was more an exercise in academic writing. I found it useful because I'd never done that type of writing before.
I kept a reflection diary of sorts whilst going through the process of writing this paper.
Thursday 1st December – working on research paper.
This paper is really causing me grief! I am reflecting not so much on the course but on the choices I made in deciding to do it.
In retrospect, it might not have been a good decision…
I decided quite quickly after coming across it on the web, while still in Ethiopia, that I should apply for it.
Now I feel that maybe I have put too much on myself all at once – I came back from 2 years in Ethiopia, decided to completely change my mode of working and living (here in Ireland, I mean – of course it had changed while in Ethiopia) compared to what it was before I went away. Dealt with moving back into my house, looking for jobs, took on a part-time lecturing job and started this MSc…all in the space of a couple of months.
I think it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't dealing with some kind of post-return phase. But then, it seems to come on mostly when I'm stressing over this research paper.
Thursday 8th December – submitted research paper last Sunday
While I was working on the paper – I did most of the work in the week running up to the submission date – it felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done (that’s harder than living in Ethiopia for 2 years, harder than a 2 week trek in the Danakil Desert, the hottest place on earth, harder than…). I worried about it, I got upset over it and I felt relief after I’d submitted it.
On reflection, I did learn from it. I should have got into reading papers sooner than I did. But I felt I couldn’t do that because I hadn’t really got a firm idea and Macu had said to us in class that it was better to narrow down to a very specific idea before starting into the reading. I also wasn’t organizing my time very well – preparing for my own teaching at night (as I do it part-time and I only get paid for the teaching hours), working during the day and fitting in college work too.
My topic was distance education in developing countries. I found it really hard to come up with an original, specific idea. Many people have written about education in developing countries and about technology in them, but fewer from the point of view of ICT in education. I felt also that I focused more on ICT and less on learning theories. In fact, I didn’t really include a learning theory at all in my writing. My experience in education is quite limited so far, to my time teaching in Ethiopia and my part-time teaching here since I came back. I suppose I do have more experience if I count my time being a student and that I’ve been learning things all along.
On the positive side, I did learn about APA-style referencing and how to use EndNote to do it. I also had to discern peer-reviewed sources from those that were not. That was kind of restricting – maybe because my area of interest is something that is not focused on by many academics.
There were times when I felt I should try to find a new topic but then it was getting closer to the deadline and I thought that to start over again would set me back and the reading I’d already done would have mostly been wasted. For example, I could have looked into the teaching of web development and/or database (which I have taught and enjoy teaching) and how ICT could be more innovatively used to teach them.
But I have an emotional interest too in that I want to do something that will make a difference, either in Ethiopia or another African country.
I found it difficult to write in an academic style and to have to back everything up with references. I’m used to writing project proposals for, say, web site development or other IT jobs. In those, I am much more in control of the facts – I know what’s involved and how long the job should take. I don’t have to prove everything I say.
Academic writing is very different. And I didn’t do that kind of writing for my degree – it was more practically oriented, though it did have written exams, and I didn’t have to write essays.
What will I do differently next time?
I would like to continue down this route but only if I can nail down a firm idea. I also have to think about if I could really go out there again to set up a research project. That depends on other, external things.
I’ll get a first draft written much earlier on in the process, so I can review it myself and also have friends review it for me. For this one, I asked a friend who has herself done research read over it for me – but that was a few hours before I submitted it! And it was helpful – I know from experience anyway that if I’m working on a document for a long time, I can miss obvious typos and other errors.
