Research has too many letters

Officially, this is my first blog post. For other people. People outside my mind. People with an editorial voice.

I'd have wanted it to be a little more special, say with candles, some foie gras, a knowing glance across the table. Oh, how naive. Breakfast dishes and a blipping cursor are all I need.

As a communications 'scholar' -- and I really use this term in the most liberal sense, as in 'one who relies heavily on Google Scholar to get her through grad school' -- I'm blogging about my research glories and guffaws. Right now, there seems to be more to laugh about than to learn from. My kitchen sink still runneth over. With joy? Sure, if dirty dishes and unformulated research potential = joy.

Before I get all lamentable on you, let me say this, for it's been the most profound learning I've had yet as far as research goes:

It has too many letters.

reach
Just like my romantic notions of blogging, so to my school-girl notions of research. This isn't happening in slow-motion. There's no soft filter on this view. It's hard mind-work to pull together a topic that's meaningful, robust, and worth sacrificing so many waves of young brain cells with great futures in front of them to this task. No, this tree of knowledge has no low-hanging fruit.

Or maybe 'research' has just enough letters, but not enough punctuation . . .

re: Search!
Beyond the actual search for knowledge, truth, or the requirements toward a grad degree is a little journey inward. Our cohort has been challenged to complete self-assessments before picking a research topic and methodology. Now I understand why. My original thought to study organizational storytelling and culture comes from somewhere, and so does the slow, lingering death of this idea. Will my self-assessment put this hapless idea to rest once for all . . . or will I be able to dramatically rescue it from its most certain demise? Stay tuned as the story of my search continues.