This week got a little deeper into research - how to do it and how to understand it. I found Dr. Carl Drott's "How to Read Research: An Approach to the Literature for Practitioners" to be very helpful. I appreciate how he broke it down into four sections - Literature Review, Methodology, Analysis and Findings. I foresee going back to this article again and again as I'm reading articles and studies for my own research. Drott's systematic approach will be a useful tool for understanding the research of others. Along with Drott's article, Dr. Shirley Aaron's article, "Applying Drott's Criteria for Reading Research," puts Drott's method into practice on a study about interactive technologies in schools. This was an interesting article because, even though the study Aaron used was not available to me, I gained an understanding of it through her application of Drott's approach. I believe this will also be of great help to me as I read research articles for this class. I always find it particularly useful to see a plan in action when it comes to abstract concepts like the ones Drott discusses.
The textbook also had valuable advice for writing research proposals and reports. There were some great tips on where to look for library and information science sources for the introduction and statement of the problem. I got my initial problem statement back today and, as I feared, it was too broad in scope. That's always my problem; I really have a hard time narrowing things down. But I'm talking with Dr. Wallace on Monday so I'm sure that will help.
REFERENCES
Aaron, Shirley L. 1985. Applying Drott's criteria for reading research. School Library Media Quarterly 13 (Winter): 64-68.
Drott, M. Carl. 1984. How to read research: An approach to the literature for practitioners. School Library Media Quarterly 12 (Fall): 445-49.
Powell, Ronald R. and Lynn Silipigni Connaway. Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 4th ed. Chapters 10 & 11.
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