UberNoggin

I come from a field in which research is largely qualitative and most of the great thinkers are theorists. But, I think living with a social scientist is beginning to have an influence on me. It’s rare for a rhetorician to conduct a true experiment. Most of what we do is observation, ethnography, and theory. We disect and describe.

Sitting next to me, though, on most days, is a social scientist whose work is quantitative, experimental, and more…well, “scientific”! Scientific in the colloquial sense. I certainly woulnd’t argue that qualitative research isn’t scientific. After all, all research begins with a question, applies a method, and then compares the results to the question. That’s the scientific method! But, I find myself slowly leaning toward experiment, toward quantitative methods, and toward a structure of research that makes me feel more in control of what data I get.

I’m rapidly moving toward the end of my dissertation process and, even after writing a few hundred pages, I can’t quite label my work as qualitative or quantitative. It’s descriptive, yes. But, it seems a little more than that. Something a little bit different from the examples of research I studied in my degree.

I’m excited that my own work is morphing and expanding past what I was merely taught to do. I’m excited to see what comes next.

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