Chs. 3-6 in Asking Questions, Finding Answers outline overall approaches to research with specific, focused, practical approaches to planning and starting to execute projects. The thing that struck me most about the reading is the emphasis on the reader. Not what research are you interested but turning the perspective around to look outwards: what is the reader interested in, what questions does the reader want me to answer? This questions my perspective, I’d thought of data visualization more as displaying factual statistics, but this reading asks me to consider showing data from a different standpoint. The topic is important but is a starting place to go from: to get to the place of both thinking of the reader’s reaction and answering follow-up questions.
I like the note that a topic is too broad if it can be summarized in 4 or 5 words. I thought that the 3 question framework to developing the topic into research questions is a useful process to explore: step 1, name your topic -> step 2, add an indirect question (I am studying this because I want to find out..) -> step 3, add the answer (in order to help my reader understand). This approach with step 3 - significance - goes further than I’d perceived as a research data visualization outlook.
Question – any recommendations for an online platform to use for compiling quotes, references, citations, research ideas?