Hello everyone!
This is Elizabeth here to talk about the first 4 weeks of my internship.
Despite having minimal knowledge on the
research process or what this course would encompass, I was still super excited
going into this course.
I’m working with the wonderful Lenny
and Lydia and we’re focusing on the effects of imagined intergroup contact on
prejudice towards overweight and obese individuals.
I’m in the process of piecing together
the method and choosing scales and measurements. It's taking a lot longer than I expected. I’ve spent hours and hours on
readings and researching related studies but this week, Kate warned us about
“The Reading Trap” which completely opened my eyes.
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| I Googled my symptoms |
I’ve spent an enormous chunk of my time
reading article upon article because I’m that type of person that wants to know
everything before I have put it down in ink. It also doesn’t help that I enjoy
reading the literature too. Leading up to the research proposal, I have to make sure I'm not blindly reading things without absorbing anything. I’m going to
keep Kate’s advice to “read with a direction/ goal” embedded in mind and try out the techniques she told us about in class. Keen beans to start progressing somewhere with my readings.
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| Going back to the reading basics |
My goals for this internship:
1. BALANCE
I find that some days, I’m super motivated to
work on my project but other days it would be sitting on the corner of my table
collecting dust. I’m going to try to work on it regularly but also balance it
with my other 3 subjects.
2. Learn
more about the research process
As I said before, I truly enjoy reading research
but I can’t picture myself doing the research. I feel like researchers are so
knowledgeable and must never make mistakes and I get intimidated because I’m still a student that makes silly mistakes with referencing. I’m hoping by
the end of this course, I’ll have a greater insight into the research process.
3. Seize the opportunity and have fun
This is a uni course and naturally I want to get
the best marks possible. But I have to remind myself that it’s also an amazing
opportunity to learn and explore. I don’t want to be pulling my hair every time
I get stumped on a task. So, I’ll be telling myself to calm down and relax. If
I have any issues, all I need to do is ask my supervisors. No need to stress.
That’s all from me! I hope everyone has a fantastic
week and best of luck with proposal writing 😎
Hi Elizabeth, Luana here!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the writing trap. I always feel as though I need to know everything to be able to start writing, but I have come to realise that actually trying to write is a really great way to found out what knowledge you have and where the gaps are. I also have the goal of letting people critique my work before I think it's 'ready'. As a perfectionist I often don't want to show others my writing until I am really happy with it, but I can see the value of getting feedback during the development process, as everything is still so malleable. Especially in this class as there are some great opportunities for support!!
Good luck with achieving your goals over the next couple of weeks. I know that choosing an analysis method can be very difficult but is so important as it can often change the whole design!
Goodluck proposal writing! (I know I'll need it ;) )
Hey Elizabeth!
ReplyDeleteHow good was Kate's lesson on writing tips! I think they will definitely come in handy with the proposal writing and even in some of our other subjects.
I really love your third point about seizing the opportunity. This really resonates with me and I'm sure a lot of other people because it is so easy to get caught up in the grades side of it all but this course is so unique that I definitely have the same goal in mind and have been telling myself to do the exact same thing!
I'm really excited to hear all about your experiment and the analysis method you end up deciding to go with.
Goodluck!
Mikayla :)