Metaphors for Research: What's Yours?
Sometimes, a metaphor helps us understand a process. Ruth Palmquist suggests that how people think about the Internet (i.e., is it an information highway, a prairie, or an ocean?) influences how they search and what they find, and how satisfied they are with their findings. In a different setting, Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay "The Carrier-Bag Theory of Fiction," quoted by John Parks, suggests that there are two major forms of fiction:
between a great effort that yields immediate and large results or treasure (finding
the "one source" for a topic), and the slower gathering of small pieces to make
a larger, lively whole (finding many good sources and then integrating the information
from them) is a good metaphor for the research process. Many students aim for
the large "kill," to get all that they need in one fell swoop, when they would
be more successful and gain more understanding from picking the best bits from
There are other metaphors, of course--a common one is that research is a game, a treasure hunt, or like piecing together a quilt. The key to it all is learning to find what you need in a timely manner and to evaluate what you have.
Palmquist, Ruth A. "Cognitive Style and Users' Metaphors for the Web: An Exploratory Study." Journal of Academic Librarianship (2001) 27, 1: 24-32.
Parks, John G. "The Teacher as Bag Lady: Images and Metaphors of Teaching." College Teaching (Fall 1996) 44, 4:132-6.
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