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Theme 1.1

What does a

research journal

look like?

On the surface this sounds like a simple

enough question but delve a little deeper and

it’s not necessarily as easy as it appears. A

quick internet search shows that people do

not necessarily agree on what a research

journal should look like, and indeed there are

views that appear to be at opposite extremes:

there are those who see it as a place to take

brief notes, primarily in relation to sources

(for example, books, journal articles) and

others who advocate keeping a record of

everything! Most support the idea of writing

in it regularly but are much less clear on what

to write. The words ‘journal’, ‘diary’ and ‘log’

are sometimes used interchangeably, which

can also be confusing. In general, these three

terms tend to mean different things:

• Journal – this often means a place

for free-flow writing. Some people keep

a personal journal where they write about

their everyday lives; others keep a journal

for a specific purpose, for example for

a project or during their travels. In

everyday life, a journal can often take the

form of a nice quality notebook where

you can write freely about whatever you

have decided to focus on. A journal can

also be used as a place to keep other

things, such as photographs, diagrams

and lists. Initially most of the pages will

probably be blank.

• Diary – this tends to be calendar-driven

with specific dates listed, and there are a

variety of options to choose from (for

example, a week to view on each page

or a week spread across two pages); it

will often include planners for the month

or year. There will also be space to write,

but this can restrict your writing to the

amount of space given.

• Log – this is a basic record of events, often

kept in date order. It is generally factual –

a list of what you did and when.

So, what will be the most useful as you start

your first piece of independent research? It

is likely that there will be aspects of each of

these kinds of records that you will want to

capitalise on in order to make it work for you.

Free-flow writing in a journal will help your

ideas and understanding to develop (see

Theme 1.3). This could be prompted by things

like reading texts that you feel are key to your

research, discussions with your supervisor,

things you discover as you gather your data,