Science & Research Writing

My Research Paper (this section will be complete when the semester ends)

Step 1: IRB

So before any research can begin, we have to first fill out a proposal form and send it to an IRB (Institutional Review Board) to get our proposals approved. I hated this, I had barely any focus when writing it, and I had an idea but not enough to make a whole proposal. But all said and done, I think that I have some things I can work with.

So my research question is, "How does different forms of media consumption affect someone's perspective on dinosaurs? " Pretty simple topic to work with. I grew up watching all things dinosaurs, Dinosaur Train, Dino Dana, Jurrasic World, plus a bunch more. So this question is basically what if someone didn't watch any of these or watched a ton more shows than I did. What's their thought on dinosaurs?

Is this topic significant, yea I'm sure it is. Dinosaurs are the history of the earth, you know, so understanding how the media adapts it and how we change our thoughts due to it is a pretty neat thing to research. And I think media shouldn't be a hundred percent accurate to what dinosaurs are, I see alot of people who think dinosaur movies should be accurate but their is no accurate dinosaur. And that's the beauty of dinosaurs. Cause everyone can have their own idea. This is what I wanna express through my study. (thats my global problem and semi solution by the way)

Now I don't know how this research could turn unethical. Since I'm using Comparitive Survey Research all I have to worry about is having a very detailed concent form, and letting all participants know that their personal info isn't being used. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, am I probably gonna mess it up, yes. But I have Mrs. B to proof read.

Now I wanna go more into my method, Comparitive Survey Research (it's required by the assignment). I honestly just searched up what I wanted to do and Boom! there was a method with the exact thing I was looking for. I read a quick study on it and I was in love. Comparitive Survey Research is basically you give the participants a survey, determine the group that they are in, and compare it to another group. My groups will be who watched what, so I would be in them all.

Extra credit time: What questions on the IRB do you think will be most helpful in drafting your methods section (which we will start Monday)? Why will these be helpful? The question thats gonna help me the most was, "Identify the gap addressed by your proposed research." Cause I got really stuck on this question and it made me realized that sure their was a gap for my study, but at the same time my study was not focused at all. So I changed my methods a bit to make it more focused (is it focused, no, but it is better).

Step 2: Literature Review

Alright, I did this one on time. Like turned it in, thats really good and I am really proud of myself. I just wish I could get peer feedback for it cause that's one deadline I missed . Friend's weren't open when I finished, and there was so many grammar mistakes. But for personal feedback I figured out that I use a lot of commas. I tried to step away from my addiction. I also wish I could review all the papers that I had read, but that's very unrealistic (for my work ethic and 30+ papers). I did include papers that were well over 100-200 pages long. So proud of myself there. And while research I also remembered that dinosaurs isn't my only topic. Media is there and honestly is a bit more important. So this shifted my focus over to media and pop culture. I think I got a good handful of perspectives. different gender'd authors which is quite important for paleontology. I did use a lot of peoples master thesis's though.

I used the Mr. Tri (old teacher) method, which is just finish. Don't worry about anything else, as long as you have something that's better than nothing. Then if you have something it can be molded into something wonderful.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SYqP37rYlMCH1Y8MYpj6PysgnbsWsvf9uvRoI-U6I2A/edit?usp=sharing

Step 3: Everything Else

So in the time since I last wrote here I have finished the first draft for my paper (it's really bad). But thats ok cause it's not the final draft. Quick run down: First I had to write the Methods and Results/Discussion sections. Second I had to make a Research Poster. And third but it probably should have been first I finished the data collection. Hurray

Now looking back, I could have made a lot of better choices. Now normally someone would probably say I procrastinated so much that I made it the night before and didn't get a wink of sleep. I would say I procrastinated so much that every day for a month I would wake up at 5 am to work on it. Not work on it. Then repeat the cycle till week when it's due.

This schedule should theoritically work cause I work best if I sleep early and work in the morning, but the catch to this is that I've been cursed with so many ailments in one month that sleeping is impossible. Also I procrastinated the days I did managed to sleep early so lets see what happens next semester.

Due to this schedule of procrastination, peer feedback was really hard to recieve. Since whenever I got the chance for feedback I wasn't finished and then I would get the feedback after it was due. I love getting feedback from people since they see things I can't but with both math and english I just struggle. You know how I'm typing right now, the very casual talk. From the feedback I did recieve, this writing style is inbued into my paper. So I need to do some rewrites.

A while back, in geography Alexander had to write a semi-research paper for our group project. He didn't so in a panic daze we wrote a draft. It was spaced so poorly to make it fit 5 pages, and half of it was plagiarized (don't worry we eventually added sources and rewrote it). So this draft really made me appreciate this class. Like I could use these skills in so many other classes and probably in the real world if I get a corporate job. Thats why I chose to redo this class next year. So my brain can really soak everything in.

For PBL I was in charge of designing stuff, so I used these skills to make a killer Research Poster (I'm saying this before I update the killer Research Poster so it might be bad but who knows.)

Page updated

Report abuse