E.C.302 Research Methodology

Assignment Paper:-E.C 302 Research Methodology

Topic:-The Vocation of the Researcher

Name: - Saiyad Nargis I.

Roll No:-14

URL: - http://saiyadnargis14201112.blogspot.com/

Semester: - 1

Batch:-2011-12

                                         Submitted to,

                                                   Dr. Dilip Barad

                                                   Dept. of English

                                                   Bhavnagar

                        What is research?

                            Literary investigation means research. Literature can not exist without human-being. Literature itself is a human product. Literature can not be understand or interpret without human context. To know literature well, the investigation is necessary. This investigation is research. To know the vocation of researcher, first of all we have to understand the difference between critic and scholar.

            Difference between critic and scholar

                           Both are engaged in common pursuit. The students, some professional students prefer them to be called critics; some other would like to be called scholars. Some might have both the quality. The difference is of emphasis.

                        The critic deals with the literary work and its structure, style, content etc…whereas the scholar deals with the facts, genesis and history. The scholar sees many works, history connected with the writer and the work. Both deals with the literature but the way they deal differentiate them.  

                             George Whalley

                       According to George Whalley, the scholar’s eye is rather like the poet’s eye. They look for something that others don’t know. No critic can afford not to be a scholar. Without scholarship the criticism of a poem may be easily become a free fantasia. Thus, he tries to show the difference between critic and scholar significantly.

                    Vocation of the researcher

                The researcher differs from the ordinary people. The reading of the reader and of researcher is same in reading activity but the reader would get pleasure and there comes satisfaction while researcher would go on deeper and deeper.

                 The researcher must have a quest for the truth. Literature is an expression of an imagination of an author. The researcher should know the fact why this type of a writing the writer might have written, what inspired him, who are behind the characters of the novel, drama or poetry, which psychological factors affected the writers to write. The researcher should have the curiosity to know all these factors.

                  To understand any literature, he might have the idea of the society of that time. He should understand the attitudes like morality, myths, bias, and the assumption prevailed at that time. The writer should have written any literature in taking consideration the situation of that time. The reflection of that society would have definitely an effect on literature.

                  A researcher should know the history as well as the antecedents of the writer. To evaluate any poet or an artist, as a researcher, we have to compare him with dead poets or artists, too.

                 Enlightenment of criticism is necessary. We have to look at the work as it is. We should try to know the cultural heritage of the writer. We should take an interest in the emotional and intellectual adventure of early generations.

                 A researcher should have read literature only for real pleasure and satisfaction. Such a satisfaction that might not be felt by any other man or woman. A researcher should learn as well as teach. After all they are doing research for people, to give a true knowledge to the people.

                Nowadays dramatic discoveries do not occur as it was in the earlier century. There have been two notable discoveries in English Renaissance.

               To identify a thing is necessary for a researcher. To know the handwriting, language, theme, other books are the ways for identification. The Canadian episode concerned Sir Philip Sidney. No one knew how many titles were in Sidney’s record and at that time, a professor of Victoria College connected with the University of Toronto found the all-important key. She solved the question.

              To have a collection of books of poetry, drama, novel or any other books is very important to a researcher. As a researcher, we should not ignore any type of writing. A researcher should be aware of the history and biography of a writer. We should know not only his country but also the readers of him. As a researcher, we try to fond out the copies of any manuscripts as many as possible.

                    There are many incidents that took place in the world that affected the researcher.

                  Many scholars make a practice to keep major booksellers to be aware of his interest. So, if the bookseller would find any such book, he can contact him. Like this, researcher gets an advantage in research.

                A researcher should be aware of news events, note-books, reports, auditor’s notes etc…As a researcher; we should have the question of any type of work. For example, ‘Frankenstein’ is a very popular novel of Mary Shelley. It has never out of the print. A researcher should know the articles that deal with this novel and if are either deal as a work by a determined woman or as a landmark in the history of the literature.

               Strong will-power, originality of approach, fair degree of imagination, solidity of leaning, wish to see the work in a new perspective these all are the characteristics of a successful researcher.

               “Publish or perish” is a cliché. In America, most of the researches were done by academic people. Research was compulsory in many colleges. Researches were done for promotion. Any external pressure to write research looses loyalty in the work. The students might divert a career and may get sadness by this. Let’s see Morris Bishop’s view about this.

                  Morris Bishop says that a taste for literary research is something special. It is not the same thing as delight in reading, or delight in introducing others to take the pleasures of reading or the pleasures of writing etc…

  

               Scholars may value the comforts of creature as high as people. This is such a profession that it should be chosen carefully because many students repents after choosing this profession. So, self-examination is necessary.

                  Any one should join this profession after serving one or more jobs. They are law and journalism. The law requires the command of the principles. Journalism is for resourceful person. It takes more and more ability. How to know the information, how to come to the fact are the works of a journalism. Both the occupation requires a skill of organization.

                A researcher should love literature. Just as art’s sake, researcher should love literature for its own sake. A researcher should have intellectual sympathy. A researcher should not only love the literature but also should teach how to love literature.

                 A researcher must be able to think as people think otherwise he can not comprehend current trends. The sense of past is indeed in a scholar.

                The literary research is a scientific way of searching and the researchers should think as scientists think. Intellectual curiosity, precision, imagination, shrewdness, inventiveness, new strategies, new methods all make the work accurate. An overlooked source, wrong date and unnecessary documents all these will make a violation of the scientific spirit. So, this should be avoided. The substance and the spirit give the researcher a benefit.

                  A researcher’s work is of detailed work. No error is allowed in this work. One should not feel fatigue while doing the work. Impatient man can’t do the research. The researcher should be capable of hardships. Even there are technological advantages; there is a need of more research.

                 Imagination is a prominent characteristic of the researcher. Even we can’t imagine a scholar without an imagination. The good researchers always get-together, look forward and tries to find a substance. When they get truth, it becomes literary history. It becomes a new masterpiece. It is the revision of a literary past.

                  There was a mistake in understanding Keats’s letters. One lady subjected the manuscripts to physical examination including microscope, infra-red light and photography and finally she went to the forensic science laboratory and we came to know about the truth. Then a list of his misspelled words came out.        

          Difference between researcher and scholar  

              In common practice, these two words ‘researcher’ and ‘scholar’ are used interchangeably but there is a difference between them. Any one can become a researcher without being a knowledgeable person. Research is an occupation and the scholarship is a practice of mind. Scholars are more than researchers. Scholars have both wisdom and knowledge. Research is a primary instrument in science.

                  As told by John Livingston Lowes, in the speech of 1933, by interpreting it,

“….Human scholarship has two worlds to move. One is of scientific method and one is of creative art. The interpretation can be revealed by researchers…”

                               Conclusion

            Many incidents of the world show that the research is very hard. A researcher needs the qualities like patience, inventiveness, curiosity, imagination, hardships, love for literature etc…He should know the present as well as the history. Thus, this is a vocation of the researcher.