Adrift in the Sea of Research

A-Level
About to go pay $123 to print off all this shit
Reading, Research, Reading
I still don't have a topic. . .
AHHH!
5:08 pm
Friday, June 3, 2005

Adrift in a Sea of Research

I like research. I like looking up topics, reading, taking notes, amassing extensive knowledge of one specific topic of interest. Producing papers of a high academic quality. Having a question and finding answers.

Only problem: I haven't identified that topic yet, per say.

I know I want to write on gesture and how it relates to sign language, with special attention being paid to the relationship between space and communcation.

Okay, but you can't write a paper over that. Not a 10-12 page review research paper. Damn.

I refuse to believe I'm the only person who wants to think about this. In fact, I know I'm not. There's an over abundence of research to be had. My problem is one of scope. I'm not sure what exact aspect of this problem I want to tackle, and hence can't seem to pin point a thesis, a drive, a focus.

So, I'm afloat in a sea of reseach. This is frustrating. I'm meeting with my teacher tomorrow, and I think that if I gather interesting articles today, read them, take notes and such, by 2:00 tomorrow, I should be able to have something to work with when we meet. Damn.

At least I don't feel incompetent, just adrift. I need thesis moorings for this paper to have any sort of form. I keep reminding myself that I wrote that fantastic paper for Educational Organizations and Social Inequalities last quarter in two days, and had to read several books at a time to get that one out. It's not that I can't do this, it's that I'm not sure what I'm doing.

It'll come. It'll come.

Oh, Joseph Regenstein. How you haunt my life, A Level of love and hate. Wireless network of joy, stacks of glory, basement of academia. I revel in your knowledge, in your vast expanses of literature on topics galore. I nestle in my cubical and learn.

Okay, so maybe I've been here a little two long. . . .