Research

(A "keeper" posting from the Steps, Feb 2006)

An unknown person posted: ''Research is the scary part to me... and I don't have even one clue as to how to do it [...]''

Oh, but research is *fun*! One can get a start by asking somebody who knows something about what one wants to learn, where to start; by going down to the library with a list of books given one by the knowledgeable person, and asking the research librarian to help one locate them (with inter-library loan nowadays that is very easy, if sometimes a bit time-consuming); by setting aside a little money every month for buying one's own books (if on a limited budget, one should start buying when one has a sense of what books one is going to use and refer back to from time to time); by Googling, where it will not take terribly long, if one persists, for one to get a feel for what is worth while and what is unreliable, for which words one can get a better, more focussed selection from.

Research can be a delightful game of learning. It just takes persistence: the willingness to keep trying even if one doesn't find what one was looking for in the very first source one checks. When eventually one *does* find what one is looking for, the "eureka!" moment makes the search well worth while; and the things one has come across in one's search may well inspire further research. What's more, the skills one may learn in turning one's research into something real can be built on for later projects, and eventually used to give some other person who doesn't know where to start a place and direction to get going. :)

Sister Guineth