Track 1 Research For A Project You Have | Track 1 Research For A Project You Have

Move from Research Statement to Research Question to Keywords

Thinking about your project, put its research need into the form of a statement. What do you need to research?

Example: A big part of my novella is about wilderness survival. I need to research wilderness survival, especially in the ocean, on the seashore, and in areas close to the seashore.

Looking at your statement, come up with one or more research questions. These research questions could be closed questions or open ones.

Example: How does someone die or survive in frigid water? On Pacific Northwest seashores, what are the things someone could eat in tidepools or on the shore or near the shore? Psychologically, what is it like to survive hypothermia?

Looking at your research statement and research questions, list keywords you think might be useful in searching.

Examples:

Wilderness survival
Ocean
Seashore
Riptide
Hypothermia
Pacific Northwest
Psychology
Trauma
Mindset

Keep a Research Journal

What could go into a Research Journal?

Use Some Library/Database Search Tricks

Use the Advanced Search function if possible.

In Advanced Search, use the AND/OR/NOT functions.

Use quotation marks for exact phrases:

Example: “wilderness survival”

The asterisk trick:

Examples:

surviv*
psycho*

Use Zotero

Information about Zotero and how to use it.

Consult Dissertations

What are dissertations?

Why consult them?

Dissertations at the University of Washington.

Find Special Collections and Archives

Search for “special collections” or “archives” or “unique collections” or “distinctive collections” in your area or related to your research interests.

ArchiveGrid

Seattle Municipal Archives

Seattle Public Library Unique Collections

United States and Washington State government documents

University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Finding Aid – Archives West

Interview People

As you do your research, you might get ideas for people to contact and interview. These might be scholars, artists, professionals, workers, witnesses. (Many scholars have a university webpage with contact information, like an email address.)

In a message that you send to a potential interviewee, you can lay out things like these:

An outline of your project. What it is and what its purpose is.
What you need from this person. What would you like to speak with them about? How much of their time do you need?
What you intend to do with their information.
Whether or not you can compensate them.
Your list of questions. Sometimes this is called your “Q Line.”

It’s debatable if it’s better to give an interviewee questions ahead of time or if it’s better to withhold the questions until you meet with them.

When you speak with an interviewee, it’s a good idea to record the interview, but always get consent about the recording. Once the interview is over, it’s also important to get consent from the interviewee about what you can use. Can you use everything in the recording? Or just certain parts? Make sure to get this consent on the recording and in writing, like via email.

Also when the interview is over, it is best practice to make a transcription of the recording. A transcription is useful when doing creative work and composition. It also serves as a backup of the recording in case the recording is destroyed.

It is time consuming to transcribe your recordings yourself, but oTrancribe is a digital tool that can ease the process of manual transcription. Otter.ai is a digital tool that uses machine learning for transcription, but it can be inaccurate and its privacy is suspect.