Delving Deeper...
What to Do as You Follow Trails into Your Passion
Day 13:
Now that you’ve found your passion topic, and you’ve probably done a quick Google search, you need to consider locating, checking, and recording resources. You will need some system of organization of your findings.
First, STAY ON ONE TOPIC ONLY so you don’t feel overwhelmed. I’ve been researching now for about three-plus years, so I’m all over the place. My two passions are changing the way education happens, and changing the way history is taught. Plus I dabble in other areas: indigenous people, racism, environmental issues, and ther ear more that creep in. So don’t follow my “dabble here…dabble there!”
Things to consider:
keeping a “simple” bibliography of all your resources;
note-taking where needed, using your own words for paraphrasing;
analyzing a hierarchy of topics for your researching; and
how intense you want your research to become..
First, we’re not talking “school” bibliographies, unless you plan to do some significant writing and sharing. Your main purpose is to be more aware of the facts and realities of your particular passion topic. You want to feel like you can discuss your topic in depth with someone. You need to know where your information can be found.
Here’s where taking advantage of technology is important. A simple Word document will suffice for saving URLs of sites of interest. Also, you can paraphrase important information in your own words. Two reasons: one, you will find it easier to talk about the facts when you have already written the salient points in your own words; second, you have the actual source easily available to share.
You also can use programs and applications available on line. When I first started detailed research, I was making copies of articles, rewriting important posts in my journals (color-coded according to specific topics), and keeping a basic list of URLs on my desktop.
This worked until I realized I couldn’t easily access some of my information, as my topics had increased my research and spread out into ways I couldn’t correlate. What was where, in what journal, in what set of book notes….wasn’t working at all.
Keep your research as simple as you need it to be. Can you access information easily? Can you record and save information easily? There’s no right or wrong way, just what’s efficient for you. Copy the URL, maybe a paragraph or two of great writing about the topic, and paraphrase the rest.
I’ve been through a lot of systems, and at my age, I don’t want to start a new system “just because.” I want to spend my time on my researching and writing. I’ve started using two apps, both of which are free and easily work with what I do on a daily basis. I started with Apple Notes (and I think most computer programs have something similar). I can move ideas around, start new pages for new topics, and keep a hierarchy of what I’m interested in, plus I can use hashtags for organizing further.
Two examples from Apple Notes: The first is a brainstorming of my rough thoughts on beginning a management system for social media content. The second is a sample of keeping track of notes and ideas that is easily accessible.
The other app I use is Evernote (no affiliation with Evernote. Notion, Roam are other apps - some portions are free to use). I chose Evernote for the free version, although because my research has become more extensive, I now have the paid version, but if you are keeping your focus on one topic, the free version will probably work for you. I also didn’t want to learn a new app and try and transfer information between platforms…getting a bit too old for that…
Samples of Evernotes: The first is some of my notebooks for different topics, all of which have notes inside them; the second is a quick note with the resource URL and the beginning of a few comments and potential questions.
Next steps? Make comments, spread these newsletter articles to other Crones. Realize and BELIEVE you can make a difference every day in our world. Let’s develop our community of resources available for anyone through this project. Drop your resources into the comment section. We can make a huge impact as we collect resources and put them together to share widely. Check your URLs for accuracy.
Don’t forget to smile at random people each and every day!
It’s never too late to be aware, to promote change, to correct misinformation, and to make a difference.