As researchers, we tend to collect a plethora of information from journals, books, websites and so on. The difficult part is to get back to this information which has been collected over a long period of time.
Being very much dependent on the internet for sources, as it is just a click away, I realised something. I did not have access to the internet but had sat down to compile my literature. With months of assembling papers and saving them on my computer, I noticed it was very difficult to get back to it when it came to formulating my ideas and referencing them accordingly.
To make the best use of the resources that you have already collected and instead of re-downloading papers, I created my own method of writing:
- Switch off the internet on your device
- Provide sub-headings based on the study, one sub-topic leading to another, the body can be filled eventually
- Write down your own narrative within the body of these sub-headings, this is under the assumption that you have some arguments based on what you have read while accumulating the literature
- Pick out the key terms and search for it at the start button. These key terms can be picked out either from title of the sub-heading and/or from the arguments you have written down to defend or as a rebuttal to the popular opinions. The computer will automatically lead you to the papers that involves these terms
- Then place your own arguments and the arguments provided by your references in relation
Before you know it, you have not only made absolute use of the time you had taken to gather the literature, but also have optimised the use of technology. We do tend to have an array of files and folders making it impossible to find what we need at the right time.
Ranjani's Sepulcher 