Research Journey

"Research is creating new knowledge."
Neil Armstrong

For the past eight months, my life revolved around research. From figuring out what I am interested in, deciding if it is researchable, choosing an appropriate topic, reading previous literature, putting a proposal together, collecting data to the actual report. It was truly a roller coaster that I so often wanted to get off from. Don't get me wrong I love research, I am truly passionate about it and I think it's because I am such a curious person who loves searching for answers. The truth is I didn't like research at all at first. We will have to travel back to 2016 when this journey really started, for you to have the whole picture. You will be shocked but will understand how I began to love research.

In 2016 when I was doing my second year of college research was one of the modules I had to take. It was a full-year module, the first six months were about theory; understanding what research is, its purpose, how it was done, and putting a proposal together. Since this was all new to all of us we obviously freaked out and stressed like experiments. The theoretical part of the research for me was just terrible, I was a top student but I was failing research, but with much support and motivation from our lecturer, we made it through the first semester, with our proposals ready. 

As we began our second semester we discovered that all the work that we had put into our proposal in the first semester went to waste. The academics board had decided that each individual had to do research with a focus on their specific field of study. So we had to work on new topics, new proposals, conduct the research and have a paper ready before the presentation dates. My stress levels skyrocketed and I was ready to drop out. My friends encouraged me to keep going and helped me believe that I could make it. After a month of struggling and no movement, I decided to drop out, along with two other friends of mine. We were determined that we needed more time to get this done. We spoke to the lecturer and she told us that she would not sign our dropout papers because she had confidence that we would make it. She offered to help and support us through the process if only we were willing to put in the work and effort. After coming to an agreement the three of us along with our lecturer decided that we would continue with research. I must say that most of my tears were shed those four months, I cried when I got stuck, cried when I felt discouraged, I even cried when I got something right. We spent many hours in our lecturer's office working to get the research done. Those hours paid off. The lecturer did not just help me get my research done, she helped me understand it and actually enjoy it. 

I enjoyed it so much that in my third year I joined the Cum Laude Association. The requirement to pass with Honours was that we had to complete three research reports and a research paper. I managed to accomplish all of that (Getting 80% and above for all the papers) with the help of lecturers and my research supervisors. On top of it all my research paper was published. 

Then after all that stress and work, I decided I wanted to do my honors (post-graduate) degree. I applied and got accepted at Varsity College. It was a part-time degree and it would be 18 months long. The first year we did four modules on corporate communication and the second year was research. We started having research master classes in October 2018 all the way through to November. The lead supervisor said the lecturers were to help us get prepared for the actual process. In the masterclasses, we spoke about the title document, concept document, literature review, research proposal, ethics, research report. By the end of November, the lead supervisor said we needed to start working on our title document. We learned to reference automatically (already knew how to do it), how to use the templates given, where to find information, and how to look for it. I didn't think that my past experience with research would make me feel easy about this. I really was just hoping that this would be a good journey. 

The masterclasses were helpful and they were to get us ready to hand in our title documents by the first day of class. This meant working all through the festive season. Something I honestly didn't do. When the masterclasses began in January, I knew what I wanted to research but I didn’t know how to come up with a topic. In one of the masterclasses, I walked in with a Topic, Theme, and verb. I did not have a working title. The lecturer would usually give us the opportunity to go to the board and present what we had so that he could help us get to where we needed to be. In one of the classes I stood up and after going to the board and presenting on what I am passionate about, the lecturer helped me get a working title. I was excited. I managed to work on my title document and be on the right path. 

I was still far from where I should have been but I was going in the right direction. I had a meeting with the lecturer just to get some more direction. After the meeting, I had both a theoretical and conceptual framework. I spent most of my days reading articles of other researches and gathering some information on what direction I can take for my study. The aim of my study was to develop a model or solution that will get more people interested in volunteering. I wanted to find a solution to help NGO’s get the help they need. I believe that volunteering is beneficial to both the volunteer and the person receiving help. It can be a form of helping individuals gain some responsibility and a sense that they have contributed to making a better society. 

Throughout the rest of the process, both the lead supervisor and my supervisor were very impressed with the work I was producing. The lecturer once told me that I was a step ahead of my classmates and that day I smiled and thanked my undergrad research lecturer for the advantage she had given me. Some of the other students were annoyed with me and started saying that I was the lecturer's favorite and some actually came to me for help. As you know I like helping people, so I was was ready to help those who asked for my help. Things change during our research process. Some of the students were not happy with how the lead supervisor wanted things, they thought he was too demanding and unnecessary. So he was removed and we were left to depend on our supervisors to guide us the rest of the journey. 

We were supposed to submit our research report on August 8 but because of the changes, they pushed it to the 28 of October. You will understand my frustration. People had plans to be finished by the 8th and move on with their lives. Now all plans had to be pushed. Anyways, I finished my report by the end of September and simply waited for the submission date. When the 28th of October finally came we submitted and then some friends and I went to celebrate the end of our sentence!

Overall it was a really smooth journey for me. The research itself was fine but the college's administration and the way they handled things really frustrated me. I sent several emails complaining about their inconsistency, how confusing things had become. There was an assignment we did that I got a good mark for but my peers didn't. I was so angry that I sent the following email:

My mark was good but I couldn't accept that my peers were not getting the marks that I knew they were capable of getting. The response to that email made me angrier because it was like they didn't care. But we got past it and moved on. We have submitted and awaited feedback and graduation.

Research can be scary when it’s new, simply because it is something that you have never done before. The whole process from getting a topic to finally presenting your findings is really time-consuming but once you know what you need to do and if you are researching something you are passionate about, you actually end up enjoying the process. You will struggle in the beginning but you will feel a sense of accomplishment in the end.