One process of inquiry I have pursued simply for pleasure is music and how certain songs were made. In my free time I would remake popular songs just by listening to them over and over again in order to understand what makes up a popular song. My “research” is gaining knowledge of drum patterns and music theory to create catchy melodies. This also answers my questions as to how a song is made and what little aspects they have in which the average listener wouldn’t notice.
One experience I would like to research more about is how a setting affects people’s productivity. For example, I always find myself being more productive when I’m in the library rather than being home. It makes me wonder how different aspects of the setting might affect our behavior. Another topic I would like to do more research on is serving the military and the long term effects it may have on a person. I am close with people who served and I wonder how a specific event can cause triggering episodes for some veterans. Lastly, I would like to do more research on why smaller dogs tend to bark at other dogs compared to bigger ones who are usually calm. I have two small dogs in my house and after observing the behavior of other dogs, I came to the conclusion that bigger dogs are usually calmer.
Something that I learned for the first time about research after reading Lunsford and Ruskiewicz is that Wikipedia isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. As long as you verify the credibility of your source you shouldn’t hesitate to use it. Also, when using a search engine such as Google it is important to note certain keywords to use such as and, or, and not. While they don’t seem important, these keywords tell the search engine specific command as stated on page 155, “In doing such searches, you’ll need to observe the search logic that is followed by a particular database.” Lunsford and Ruskiewicz state that it is much better to use library databases when researching on a specific subject because you may not find what you’re looking for on Web searches.