Contents

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Introduction

Self-Centered Research: A Manifesto

Centered Research Is the Best Research

How to Use This Book

Introversion, First. Extroversion, Second.

TRY THIS NOW: Write Here, Right Now

PART 1: Become a Self-Centered Researcher

CHAPTER 1: Questions

A Topic Is Not a Question

TRY THIS NOW: Search Yourself

TRY THIS NOW: Let Boredom Be Your Guide

TRY THIS NOW: Go Small or Go Home

SOUNDING BOARD: Start Building Your Research Network

You Have Questions

CHAPTER 2: What’s Your Problem?

Don’t Jump to a Question (or You’ll Miss Your Problem)

Stress-Testing Your Questions

TRY THIS NOW: Run a Diagnostic Test on Your Questions

TRY THIS NOW: Use Primary Sources to Educate Your Questions

TRY THIS NOW: Make Your Assumptions Visible

TRY THIS NOW: Identify the Problem That Connects Your Questions

SOUNDING BOARD: Get Leads on Primary Sources

You Have a Problem (in a Good Way)

CHAPTER 3: Designing a Project That Works

Primary Sources and How to Use Them (or, Fifty Ways to Read a Cereal Box)

TRY THIS NOW: Treat Your Primary Source Like a Cereal Box

TRY THIS NOW: Envision Your Primary Sources

Connecting the Dots: Getting from Sources to Arguments

Sources Cannot Defend Themselves

TRY THIS NOW: Connect the Dots Using Your Sources (in Pencil)

Taking Stock of Your Research Resources

TRY THIS NOW: Decision Matrix

SOUNDING BOARD: Is Your Decision Matrix Complete?

Two Types of Plan B

Scenario 1: Same Problem, Different Case

Scenario 2: Same Topic, Different Project

Setting Up Shop

TRY THIS NOW: Get Money for Nothing (Prepare a Formal Research Proposal)

SOUNDING BOARD: Share Your Proposal with a Trusted Mentor (Who Understands How Preliminary This Is)

You Have the Beginnings of a Project

PART 2: Get Over Yourself

CHAPTER 4: How to Find Your Problem Collective

Identify Researchers Who Share Your Problem

TRY THIS NOW: Change One Variable

TRY THIS NOW: Before and After

TRY THIS NOW: Map Out Your Collective (Secondary Source Search)

Rewriting for Your Collective

TRY THIS NOW: Find and Replace All “Insider Language”

SOUNDING BOARD: Does the Lay Version of My Proposal Make Sense?

Welcome to Your Collective

CHAPTER 5: How to Navigate Your Field

Find the Problems within Your Field

Read Your Field for Their Problems: Reimagining the “Literature Review”

TRY THIS NOW: Start Your Own “What’s Your Problem?” Bookstore (aka Organize Your Field into Problem Collectives)

TRY THIS NOW: Change Their Variables

TRY THIS NOW: Rewrite for Your Field

SOUNDING BOARD: Find a Sounding Board in Your Field

Welcome to Your Field

CHAPTER 6: How to Begin

Don’t Worry. It’s All Writing.

TRY THIS NOW: Create “Draft 0”

See What You Mean: Writing Draft 1

TRY THIS NOW: Move from 0 to 1

Perfection Is Boring

SOUNDING BOARD: Talk to Yourself

Welcome to Self-Centered Research

What’s Next in Your Research Journey?

TRY THIS NOW: Find a New Problem and Start a New Project

TRY THIS NOW: Help Someone Else

Acknowledgments

Further Reading

Index