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5.7: Check-In

  • Page ID
    297720
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    Reflect:

    Another check-in point! Before moving to the next section where we'll discuss how to find more relevant sources for your literature review, and dig deeper into the sources you find, let's pause to reflect on what you've done so far. In this unit you have:

    • Explored published literature reviews to understand how they characterized the research on their topics.
    • Read sources you found in the previous unit
    • Took notes focused on patterns
    • Made connections between sources
    • Considered whether your topic has shifted.

    Emotions:

    How are you feeling about this research project at this moment? Write, draw, or find an image/gif online to describe your current state of mind about your research. You can add it below or in your journal.

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    Supports

    This is a great time to meet with other people to help you think through the puzzle or mystery that you've been working on. By sharing your detective notes, you might discover a clue you'd overlooked.

    Meet with your faculty

    Now that you're able to articulate what patterns you've seen in the literature and have potentially shifted your topic a bit, this can be a great time to check in with your faculty. If you want to change your topic dramatically, your faculty might need to approve that. Even if you're not changing topics, this is a good time to just have a check-in where you can talk with them as a sounding board. Tell them what you found, what you think is missing, just as a check-in.

    Connect with your support network

    Either in addition to meeting with your faculty or instead of, you might consider connecting with a friend or family member at this point. This works especially well if they're not in your field, but care about you and your success. Tell them how you feel about your research process and how far you've come so far. Then, ask them if they'd mind being a sounding board about some of what you've found so far. Tell them about:

    • your topic,
    • the patterns you've found in the research,
    • what excited you,
    • what surprised you,
    • what disappoints you
    • what you still hope you might be able to find

    What questions do they have? Don't react to their questions as if you are the expert on the subject - you're not using your support network to practice giving a presentation at this point. Instead, treat their questions as ways to question yourself. If they ask for a definition, consider whether the research defines those terms or how you define it. If they ask why you're covering something and not another thing, consider the question. You don't have to have brilliant responses during the conversation. You can always say "that's a great question - thanks for asking it! It'll give me something to chew on as I continue my research, but I don't have an answer for you now."

    Meet with your librarian

    Similar to meeting with your support network, librarians are great resources for sounding boards at this stage. You can mention that you're not necessarily looking for citations right now, just wanting to think through some of the patterns you've been finding and consider how that impacts your topic.

    Yourself

    Take the time for a mini-celebration! You haven't finished, but you have completed a great deal already. Acknowledge your effort and progress so far. Choose something that rejuvenates you, not just sleep or food. Here are a few ideas, but of course make it your own!

    • Listen: Pop on a celebratory playlist or a favorite album
    • Move: Go for a walk or dance around your kitchen
    • Imagine: Draw yourself nearing the top of a hill, at a beautiful vista point
    • Journal: List what you've done really well throughout these steps
    • Meditate: Consider a visualization, body scan, or just deep, purposeful breathing
    • Stretch: Start gently, but perhaps ease into deeper, longer stretches
    • Play: Do something fun - toss a ball, build with Legos, or color.

    This page titled 5.7: Check-In is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Frances Brady.

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