​Ponder, Wrestle, and Ruminate

by Christine Liu-Perkins

My favorite part of the writing process is doing research. I collect as much as I can. The upside of extensive research is having a wealth of information to draw on and learn from. But the downside is getting overwhelmed trying to process all that material.
 
How can one absorb and understand so much information? How do you get it off the page (or screen) and into your mind?
 
Studies shows that students learn best when they actively engage with material. Likewise for writers, the more we ponder, wrestle with, and ruminate over our research, the more we comprehend. And the better we understand a subject, the more deeply and creatively we can write about it.
 
How can we get research off the page and into our minds? "Get control over your topic by writing about it along the way," suggests one of my favorite books on academic research and writing (Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, p. 66). Reflecting on smaller chunks of research as you gather it will help you avoid being overwhelmed by mountains of information later on.
 
Here are some ways to ponder, wrestle, and ruminate over your research:

• Take notes. Go beyond reviewing and highlighting. Outlining an article or chapter can help you see the flow of information and the logic behind its presentation. Summarizing ideas in your own words reveals what you do and don't understand. Timelines help trace a sequence of events. Creating a graphic organizer will enable you see relationships among ideas, make comparisons and contrasts, or sort information.
• Re-process and reorganize those notes. Some writers find writing notecards or sticky notes helpful. Arranging them in different ways can reveal unexpected connections. I like to organize information according to key questions I want to answer. Again, graphic organizers can prove useful in mining your research. Later, you might even use some of those graphic organizers in your book to help readers learn the material. 
• Ask questions: not just who, what, where, and when but especially WHY and HOW? Why did this person do that? What were the consequences and effects? How does ____ work? What does ____ mean? What other factors advanced or hindered? I use a spiral notebook to wrestle with questions and record my thoughts.
• Transcribe interviews and films, not just watch them. Transcribing takes effort and time, but the material will stick better in your mind. It's also a great way to get exact quotes to use in your text.
• Photos are terrific primary source material. Study them and take notes on their details. Describing them in words will help you later in writing captions for photos or illustrations for your book or article.
• Some writers like to talk with others about their research as a way of processing their thoughts. Some record themselves thinking out loud as they take a walk.

 
Ponder, wrestle, and ruminate over your research along the way. You'll be well prepared when it's time to write that first draft!
 
 
 
 

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