What is research?

    Research is what you make it. It’s kind of like life, you live and you learn. You do research and you learn. In general, research describes the act of increasing one’s knowledge about a certain topic of interest. Researching does not have to involve some type of scholarly purpose. An individual may be interested about a topic because it strikes a sense of curiousness.

Personally, I believe that curiousity is the root of research, whether the research method being used is for scientific purposes or personal use. As human beings, we have this urge to know the answers to everything. Think about it; without the ability to feel curious, research may have never been developed. Therefore, if we were never able to explore different things, we would not have some of the things that we have today. For example, technology and medications would have never been invented without an individual having the ability to research a way to make life better.

As a college student, I have observed that I am more interested in classes that pertain to topics that I already have some knowledge or interest in.  If a topic does not interest you, you most likely do not know that much about it, or care to even learn about it. The more I think about what the word research actually means, I could define it as my experiences while I’m in college. Some students come to college and choose to research certain events because they have never experienced them before.  Some of those students may make bad decisions and consider them as mistakes.  And we all know the motto:  you learn from your mistakes.