Copyright
Pamela RyanPublished On
2023-08-18Page Range
pp. 47–58Language
- English
Print Length
12 pages
4. What Lies Beneath
- Pamela Ryan (author)
Chapter of: Research, Writing, and Creative Process in Open and Distance Education: Tales from the Field(pp. 47–58)
After a fairly lengthy autobiographical introduction, this chapter foregrounds the possible benefits of procrastination when embarking on a research paper before exploring the implications for the reader of the title. I explore the similarities of research to digging beneath the surface of things to discover what has been heretofore hidden or undiscovered. The notion of procrastination is nudged aside in favour of “slow writing”, and idle speculation turns to practical tips on how to “do” research based on what I have found most helpful in my long career as a literary scholar now passionate about open learning.
Contributors
Pamela Ryan
(author)Pamela Ryan has retired from full-time academia and now works as an academic consultant helping young academics with their research papers and research funding applications. She also serves as an editor for theses, dissertations and academic books. She was appointed as research fellow at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge in 2003, and fulfilled this role annually until 2017. Originally from the Department of English Studies, her interests are in Sylvia Plath, modern women’s fiction, psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, open learning, and digital literacy. Pam lives in a small village two hours from Cape Town, South Africa, and spends her time walking, reading, gardening and just generally staring in awe at the mountains.