Best practices in developing your research topic

[Woravut]

"Best practices in developing* your research topic"

There is no such thing as 'best practices'. This notion does not take into account of many individual or contextual factors. So, it is nonsense.

However, I remember Aj. Richard wrote one article something like 'where do research ideas come from?' in a conference proceedings.

But very much of our ideas could be very limited and biased, and thinking back about my PhD, I was NOT aware or many assumptions, values, biases, beliefs, or forces from supervisors that influenced my PhD topic.

So can I ask people who are developing a research topic (whether PhD students, candidates, teachers, or reseachers?) whehter you are aware of such things that I said earlier?

*I use 'develop' as I believe a research topic is a thing that needs to be developed.

[stevelouw]

I read an article recently on gesture and its role in language. I wondered what on earth had motivated the author to go to Nepal and spend weeks photographing and videoing people of different language groups telling stories. The paper was interesting, but I had to ask myself how someone comes up with this stuff?

I'd say that for something to be worth research, the question must have some relevance to a field of enquiry and there should be the potential for it to contribute something meaningful to the body of knowledge. But it also needs to be something that is interesting to the researcher. This means that your personal values, biases, beliefs and assumptions are probably crucial in guiding your research focus. In this gesture article for example, this researcher was probably already interested in gesture, and had an idea that Nepalese culture may have something new to add to what we already know about the topic. In her case, this was a field that interested her, she knew a lot about, and believed it was important for some larger understanding of how language works.

On a personal note, I find that I struggle to come up with research foci - I don't know if it's because I don't believe anything is important enough, or because I think everything is so interesting, or because I have too much data around me, or not enough. Maybe the question of how to develop research topics is one that all researchers grapple with to some degree or another. I've decided I might have to conduct a study on gesture in the EFL classroom!

[Richard]

There is no such thing as 'best practices'.

Boy's quote applies in many contexts - there is no best practice in how to teach, there is no best practice in how to learn, there is no best practice in how to respond to Forum postings. While there are no 'best practices', there are bad practices. Luke Prodromou's article in ETp on 'How to be a boring teacher' comes to mind.

So what are bad practices in developing a research topic? What should you avoid?

[sgtowns]

Luke Prodromou's article in ETp on 'How to be a boring teacher' comes to mind.

This was a fun read. Thank you for sharing. Perhaps it is a parody (as discussed in our DA Research Cluster this week) of Biber's (1989) "Involved Persuasion" text type?

So what are bad practices in developing a research topic? What should you avoid?

Here is my advice on how to develop a great research topic:

Read as little as possible. It's a waste of time. And whatever you do read, don't think about it too much. Don't question anything about it. Don't take any notes or write down any questions or ideas that you might have. If it's important, you'll remember it!

Sometimes, even if we try not to think too much, we do get an interesting idea. But don't forget that the world is so big and amazing with so many ideas, so it's better to think about as many different ideas as you can. Don't spend too much time with just one measly little idea!

If you do come up with an idea that you have thought about, just remember that your ideas are not really that interesting or worthwhile to anyone else. Who are you anyway? You're obviously no Biber! Save us all the trouble and keep your dumb ideas to yourself. Don't waste our time by sharing your ideas with us.

And if you have totally ignored my advice and you have read critically, you had an idea or a question that you thought about a lot, you got some feedback from your colleagues, and you decided it was worth trying to do the research to answer the question, whatever you do, just promise me that you will never ever change your idea as you are going through the research and writing. Your first topic idea is always the best one.

But seriously though, I am in no position to give advice about how to find a research topic since I haven't been able to publish any topics myself But these are some of the things that I personally think that I can improve and what I think is the best way to approach research creativity. This was a good reminder to myself as I struggle to get my own research career going.

Does anyone else have any other helpful suggestions (best or worst practices)?

[Richard]

Brilliant, Stuart. You may have found your vocation.