Where Research Begins

Introduction Self-Centered Research: A Manifesto Centered Research Is the Best Research How to Use This Book Introversion, First. Extroversion, Second. TRY THIS NOW: Write Here, Right Now Part 1: Become a Self-Centered Researcher Chapter 1: Questions A Topic Is Not a Question TRY THIS NOW: Search Yourself TRY THIS NOW: Let Boredom Be Your Guide TRY THIS NOW: Go Small or Go Home SOUNDING BOARD: Start Building Your Research Network  You Have Questions Chapter 2: What’s Your Problem? Don’t Jump to a Question (or You’ll Miss Your Problem) Stress-Testing Your Questions TRY THIS NOW: Run a Diagnostic Test on Your Questions TRY THIS NOW: Use Primary Sources to Educate Your Questions TRY THIS NOW: Make Your Assumptions Visible TRY THIS NOW: Identify the Problem That Connects Your Questions SOUNDING BOARD: Get Leads on Primary Sources  You Have a Problem (in a Good Way)   Chapter 3: Designing a Project That Works  Primary Sources and How to Use Them (or, Fifty Ways to Read a Cereal Box)  TRY THIS NOW: Treat Your Primary Source Like a Cereal Box  TRY THIS NOW: Envision Your Primary Sources  Connecting the Dots: Getting from Sources to Arguments  Sources Cannot Defend Themselves  TRY THIS NOW: Connect the Dots Using Your Sources (in Pencil)  Taking Stock of Your Research Resources  TRY THIS NOW: Decision Matrix  SOUNDING BOARD: Is Your Decision Matrix Complete?  Two Types of Plan B  Setting Up Shop  TRY THIS NOW: Get Money for Nothing (Prepare a Formal Research Proposal)  SOUNDING BOARD: Share Your Proposal with a Trusted Mentor (Who Understands How Preliminary This Is)  You Have the Beginnings of a Project  Part 2: Get Over Yourself  Chapter 4: How to Find Your Problem Collective  Identify Researchers Who Share Your Problem  TRY THIS NOW: Change One Variable  TRY THIS NOW: Before and After  TRY THIS NOW: Map Out Your Collective (Secondary Source Search)  Rewriting for Your Collective  TRY THIS NOW: Find and Replace All “Insider Language”  SOUNDING BOARD: Does the Lay Version of My Proposal Make Sense?  Welcome to Your Collective  Chapter 5: How to Navigate Your Field  Find the Problems within Your Field  Read Your Field for Their Problems: Reimagining the “Literature Review”  TRY THIS NOW: Start Your Own “What’s Your Problem?” Bookstore (aka Organize Your Field into Problem Collectives)  TRY THIS NOW: Change Their Variables  TRY THIS NOW: Rewrite for Your Field  SOUNDING BOARD: Find a Sounding Board in Your Field  Welcome to Your Field  Chapter 6: How to Begin  Don’t Worry. It’s All Writing.  TRY THIS NOW: Create “Draft 0”  See What You Mean: Writing Draft 1  TRY THIS NOW: Move from 0 to 1  Perfection Is Boring  SOUNDING BOARD: Talk to Yourself  Welcome to Self-Centered Research  What’s Next in Your Research Journey?  TRY THIS NOW: Find a New Problem and Start a New Project  TRY THIS NOW: Help Someone Else  Acknowledgments  Further Reading  Index