Laura Allen: Reflections of a Researcher

Laura Allen, The Niagara Gazette March 2007

          Researching for the mini bibliographic assignments was certainly a learning experience. Looking back on past assignments in past years, I was rarely required to do research in eras before the nineteenth century. Therefore, the content and method of research is fairly new. The most challenging assignment was assignment number one, which was an attempt to summarize "Recent Studies in Restoration & the 18^th Century Literature" for the year 2000. This assignment was challenging because the journal article made a lot of references to individuals, works and terms that I was unfamiliar with, which in turn required additional research. This journal also seemed to be a continuation of the studies done before so it may have been easier had I been familiar with the past entries. The most useful assignment was the second assignment, in which I was required to evaluate the website, “The Dictionary of Sensibility.” I found the content of the website very useful, and almost necessary when trying to gain a complete understanding of 18^th century literature.

            One of the strengths I noticed in my research is the ability to be thorough. I have realized that I read the pieces that I find almost in its entirety so I can gain a fuller understanding, which will allow for deeper critical analysis and interpretation. Ironically, my strength of thoroughness is also my weakness. There is no point in being thorough on a piece of work that you will not use. Sometimes, I found myself reading articles or journals that weren’t very relevant to the work I was doing. For example, reading about the unfamiliar works in the first assignment, or different articles in the third assignment took up a lot of time. This means that I should learn how to skim an article properly so I am not reading and hoping for something relevant to appear. As a researcher, I realize the importance of being most thorough with the work that is most relevant. I would like my peers to notice the thoroughness of these assignments as well. I tried to include all subjects that my work touched on. This way, my peers can pick out the parts relevant to their particular research and look specifically at that.