Yuemiao Ma

This article was originally posted on my WordPress site (now replaced by this Github Page) with slight improvements

The first time I came across the concept ‘research journal’ was at my first meeting with my PhD supervisors. At that time, I was told to start reading some literature about my research topic, and it would be better to keep a record of what I had read and what thoughts I had. I happily took the suggestion, as I was a person who is so fond of writing diaries - at the end of the day, the most comforting thing for me is to sit in front of my computer, play some music, open the diary app, and just write down whatever I was thinking at that moment. It can be a record of what I did, what I felt, who I talked to, things I need to do tomorrow - it’s quite illogical, and it doesn’t have to be, because it’s my personal diary and I don’t have to show it to anyone.

This notion also applies to a research diary/journal - it’s completely our own, and whatever we pour down into it, it is fine. However, I got confused after a few weeks. I kept thinking that I need to submit some writing to my supervisors now and then, so should I write as polish/logic as possible in the research journal? Should I maintain critical thinking all the way down? To be honest, that was a really big obstacle for me to start building a writing habit. It might be the same for other types of writing as well - we can’t stop thinking who will be reading this page, and how they will comment (or criticise! that’s more often for me). Keeping those voices in mind really doesn’t help; the only thing they do is make us procrastinate, and until the very last minute, we finally start producing something, not of high quality, though.

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For me, I think the most important thing is to change our attitudes toward writing. Writing is NOT JUST writing. It consisted of many stages - planning, writing the first draft, writing the second draft, editing, proofreading, proofreading again, etc. There is really no ‘perfect’ writing, but a ‘finished’ writing is better than nothing at all, and therefore keeping all those ‘perfect’ or ‘near perfect’ ideas in mind and waiting for them to evolve to a great masterpiece rather than putting them on a page is nothing.

Recently, I was reading Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day, and I came across this notion of ‘zero draft’. It is also borrowed from other talented writers, and it means: this is a rich soup - it may contain a lot of ‘chewy’ stuff, but you don’t have to judge it or show it to anyone. It may depend on personal writing habits whether a zero draft exists or not, but for me, the ‘zero draft’ is my research journal. It’s mixed, muddled, unclear, but it makes some sense to me. So how?

Accumulation of words gave me a sense of accomplishment. It’s so normal for academics or any other people who write to sit in front of the computer, and come up with nothing for the whole day. I know how bad that will make me feel, so I tell myself, you will need to write something, even though that’s rubbish.
- Just for your information, apart from the ‘research journal’, I also keep a ‘writing journal’, in which I write ANYTHING except my PhD research per se. For example, ideas for this blog post, reading notes of a book, thoughts on a movie/TV series/podcast, reflections on a course recently taken, and many more. I usually start the day by writing in my ‘writing journal’, because this is easier, and I do have a lot of thoughts in mind every day that I want to write down; then, after entering the mindspace of writing, I move to my ‘research journal’.
- I set myself a goal of 500 words a day - that’s an important criterion when I choose the place to write, on paper or digital software? I need some place where I can see the daily word count, and the total word count - Microsoft Word does that fine, but I found that if the document becomes lengthy, then the programme runs slower. Now I use Obsidian, and it works really well (you might need to install some plug-ins, but that’s another topic). Seeing those words accumulate makes me feel I am doing something and I am not wasting my time.
Reflections and connections may intrigue new ideas. Usually people are not good at remembering everything, and that’s why we need to put it down on paper, or a digital writing space. I like reading what I wrote before, occasionally, which allows me to generate new connections and even new ideas. For example, when I was thinking about one question and got stuck, I might go back to previous writing to see if some of those thoughts could help explain my confusion. It does not always work, but in those times that it does work, I feel I’m pushing the boundary of my own knowledge system.

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So what do I write in a research journal/diary?

Every decision and thought process of my research. This usually happens when deciding on research methods (which ones I am going to use and why), preparing for fieldwork/data collection stage (how am I going to recruit participants, what words shall I use to contact them), and choosing theoretical framework(s).
Regular reflections (weekly or monthly, it depends). This also happens quite often during the data collection stage - what research activity I did, how it went, were there any interesting ideas/confusions during the activity, how can I improve, and what aspects should I focus on for the next week/month.
My questions. But not just the questions, I may write down what situations led me to this question, whether I have some initial thoughts/answers. Sometimes I may look into some literature or the Internet, e.g. ask ChatGPT. Of course AI tools are not able to provide comprehensive answers, and as academics we should not rely on them - using tools wisely is the key.
My feelings. I’m not ashamed to say I sometimes got emotional or sensitive during some research activities. As a qualitative researcher, I interact with real human beings, listen to their stories, watch their behaviour, and being sensitive is embedded in my personality that I don’t think I could get rid of, and I don’t want to. So sometimes I write down my feelings in the research journal, just like I write my own diary. I once asked my supervisors whether it is ok to write down feelings, and they said yes, because feelings can also be part of the research results. In my case, every time I feel included or excluded by the participants indicates their attitudes towards an ‘outsider’.

This list is absolutely not exhaustive; basically everything you think might be useful could be put into the research journal. The key thing is to try to remove our perceived difficulty of writing, and just get started.

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