ONE Introduction
Introduction
This book is for both students and practitioners in public services. By ‘public services’ I mean services run by society for society, such as health, social care, criminal justice, and education services from pre-school to university. Some public services are paid for by the state from our taxes, and others are run as charities, businesses, or social enterprises. ‘Practitioners’ are people who work in these services, whether paid or unpaid. They may also be users of the services in which they work and/or of other public services. They may also be studying for a formal qualification.
In the current climate, research is becoming an increasingly common requirement of public service jobs. This may be workplace research, such as evaluation of a service or intervention, a service user satisfaction survey, a skills audit, or training needs analysis. Or it may be academic research such as a diploma or a Master’s degree for the purpose of professional development or to support career progression. The differences between workplace and academic research
are not as pronounced as you may think, because good quality research demands most of the same approaches and techniques, regardless of context.
There is also less difference than might at first appear between academics, practitioners, students and service user/carer researchers. People move much more freely between educational and practice roles these days. Any academic or practitioner may also be a service user and/or a carer, and/or be studying for a qualification. Work across disciplinary boundaries is also more common, whether by multi-disciplinary teams or by a single researcher who has, and wants to use, knowledge from more than one discipline. I am using the term ‘practitioner’ in this book as a general term for anyone doing research while working in a public service, whether that work is paid or voluntary, informal or formal, and whether their research is under the auspices of the organisation or an academic institution.
I have worked as an independent researcher in public services since the late 1990s. After a while, practitioners began to ask my advice about their own research projects. I decided to write this book because I have seen at first hand some of the difficulties practitioners encounter when they are faced with the need to do research. As part of the preparation for writing the first edition, I conducted 20 in-depth interviews with public service practitioners. These practitioners had a wide range of roles (see Appendix 1) and they all had experience of doing research on top of a main job. Some also had experience of doing research as service users, or of supporting service users or other practitioners through the research process. I asked them how they managed to do research on top of their main jobs, and what advice they would give others who found themselves in a similar position. The insights they gave me were invaluable. Quotes from their interviews can be found throughout this book indented, like this:
I think, obviously naively, where’s the book that will tell me what to do? It doesn’t exist because it’s more complex than that. There’s no one book that will say, ‘If you want to research this, do this.’
As this interviewee suggests, this book is not an instruction manual that will lead you step-by-step through your research project. That’s because there is no such book. Writing a comprehensive instruction manual for research would be as impossible as writing an instruction manual for a city. You have to find your own way through your research, just as you would have to find your own way around an unfamiliar city, and this is your guidebook. Within these pages you will find much useful advice about places to go – and places to avoid. Then it’s up to you whether you go to the recommended places, or the dangerous places; the risk is yours. Think about it, though. Careful use of a guidebook can help to increase enjoyment and reduce stress when you are in an unfamiliar place. Similarly, this book is designed to help maximise enjoyment and minimise stress as you navigate through your research project.
The book is about research and evaluation because evaluation is a particular type of research that public service practitioners are often required to carry out.
However, I’m not going to write ‘research and evaluation’ all the time, because that would become very tiresome for my readers. In this book, ‘research’ generally includes ‘evaluation’.
Being a researcher or evaluator
While you are conducting research or evaluation, you are a researcher (Davies 2007:6). It doesn’t matter whether you are a novice or experienced; whether your project is one of many in your life, or the only piece of research you ever carry out. While you are doing your project, you have the identity of ‘researcher’ to add to all your other identities: friend, colleague, sibling, parent, service user, and so on. You already know what those identities mean and how they interact. For example, you might be more likely to talk about your emotional problems to a family member than to a colleague. You will probably respond lovingly if a child wakes you in the night because they had a bad dream, but you might be less sympathetic if you were woken for the same reason by a friend.
Some common qualities of researchers are:
Determined Creative Thoughtful Intelligent Tenacious Organised Reflective Empathic Meticulous Conscientious Thorough Analytical Self-aware Assertive Honest
From a personal point of view, I want to do it to the best of my ability. I have had comments like, ‘Just do enough to pass.’ I think, ‘Yes, I will,’ but I can’t. It’s not who I am.
Researchers also need to be skilled in reading, writing, thinking, generating ideas, making connections, dealing with people, negotiating, balancing competing needs, and managing setbacks.
This may look terribly daunting. I include it here because I think it’s easier to find your way if you know where you’re going. All identities are learned. You will have had experience of this during your life: perhaps you learned to be a university student, or a parent, or a sportsperson. So you can learn to be a researcher – and, like all identities, you learn it on the job.
All identities overlap and interact with each other. Nobody is ‘just a shop assistant’ or ‘only a student’. We all manage multiple identities all the time. Nevertheless, adding a new identity to the portfolio can be a stressful process, even if it’s one you would like to acquire. That process will be even more stressful if it’s not an identity you want. You may feel resistant to the idea of taking on the ‘researcher’ identity, particularly if you loathe the idea of doing research and are having it forced upon you. Perhaps you have a Masters’ dissertation or thesis to
complete, or your manager has delegated some evaluation research to you. But even if you hate the very idea and are determined only to ever do one piece of research in your life, it’s worth doing it as well as you can. This is because you will inevitably use research in your work over the coming years and decades, and not all research is good research. Nothing equips you for judging the quality of others’ research as well as doing a piece of research yourself.
One key research skill is communication. Fortunately, public service practitioners usually have good communication skills. However, embarking on research can leave you feeling like a bumbling amateur. I think this is because you’re working from an unfamiliar identity – that of researcher – and you’re putting other people into unfamiliar identities of their own, such as research participant, before you have acquired the skills to help this along.
For people who haven’t got a lot of experience in doing research, it gets very difficult when you’re learning on the job, in front of your colleagues, in a whole new sphere of skills that you haven’t actually got, so you feel well outside of your comfort zone even though you’re a very experienced practitioner. People feel very exposed and unsure, and that gets very difficult for a lot of practitioners who are very experienced to understand that they’ve got to go through that learning process.
Also, research inevitably includes a lot of ‘first contacts’ which are notoriously difficult for us humans who are predisposed to jump to conclusions (Kahneman 2011: 83–4). This can be doubly difficult when a first contact is made electronically, for example by email or on social media, where there is more scope for misinterpretation due to lack of contextual cues. Whatever your first impression of someone you meet during the research process – whether favourable or unfavourable – try to keep an open mind about that person, and remember how little you actually know about them. Where possible, take the time to find out more. Kahneman points out that we often operate as if what we see is all there is (2011: 85), and so we are willing to reach a conclusion about someone’s personality and potential on the basis of a very brief contact. In fact, people are astonishingly complex, and even a small investment of time and attention can often pay dividends.
Other key research skills, such as project management, negotiation, and time management, will be covered later in the book. Although each of these is a skill that can be learned, and they are all essential for researchers, it is unusual to find these skills being covered in a book of this kind. Most research methods textbooks are written as if research exists in a bubble, separate from everything else. My intention is not to criticise research methods textbooks, or the wider body of research methods literature, much of which is very useful. I have drawn on a considerable amount of that literature, and I certainly couldn’t have written this book without learning a great deal from other authors and scholars. However,
my aim in this volume is to acknowledge that research is part of life in all its messy complexity, and to demonstrate ways of managing the research process in its wider context without compromising research quality.
Why do practitioners do research?
We do research all the time, don’t we? If you want to buy a product for work, say we need some marketing materials produced, I’m not going to go with the first company, I’ll go with the company that gives the best product at the best price. That’s research.
Why are you doing research? Because you’ve been told to? To earn money? To please your manager? To improve your CV or help you get a qualification? To increase knowledge, improve practice, or influence policy? For some other reason? Or for two or more of these reasons, combined?
One reason may be that the requirement for research to be conducted within public services appears to be increasing. I have observed this in recent years, as an independent researcher working with practitioners in a range of public services, and ten of the 20 interviewees for this book – from across the sectors – also said that this was their experience.
Due to the worldwide economic downturn, there is less money to outsource research, so it has become part of the main job for more people. There are also positive reasons for the increase. One interviewee from the health sector was eloquent about this:
Some reasons I can think of are:
1. Health professionals such as nurses access education at degree level and above now which has changed in the last few years. This has increased the body of literature regarding nursing, midwifery and health visitors generated by those professionals.
2. Education at these levels creates more academically confident professionals who understand, can contribute to and can critique and apply research. They understand the benefit of research and how it can benefit patient care in a way that was not there previously.
3. Extended roles for nurses, midwives and health visitors have been developed over recent years, such as prescribing, which was traditionally the stronghold of the medical profession. The ability to manage complex issues and to make clear decisions requires higher-level skills.
4. The NHS is required to make the best use of resources and deliver the best possible outcomes for patients – evidence base is needed to inform this.
5. Patients are able to access information such as through the we band health professionals need to be able to demonstrate that the treatments they offer are the best available in terms of safety and efficacy – this can be shown through research evidence.
Another interviewee, from the criminal justice system, said an increase hadn’t happened yet in the UK, but they could see it coming:
This whole research thing, it’s something that is ripe for expansion. In America there’s research and development departments in some police forces. There is in Australia; Australians in some respects are quite far ahead of the British in terms of establishing a police research culture. In Britain, there’s one or two research and development type departments but they’re few and far between. I think if the police had the capacity to do their own research, the database that they have, if they had the ability to use academic analysis on their material, they would, I’m certain, be able to reduce crime quite significantly because they have the data that people would just love to get access to, but because it’s confidential, you can’t.
As these interview extracts indicate, practitioners in public services are ideally placed to conduct research which will improve those services. This applies whether research done by practitioners is conducted entirely in the workplace or is for an academic qualification. In some countries, and in some disciplines, research skills are a requirement for career progression at certain levels. For example, in New Zealand, social workers have to demonstrate that they can do a piece of evaluation or research before they can progress to senior clinician status. However, as the interviews for this book showed, public service workers are often required to do research with little or no training or support.
I know people who think research is just about going in and talking to people, and don’t understand even that you shouldn’t ask leading questions. There is something to having done your background research before you’ve done the research. It’s not true that anyone can do it. I don’t think you necessarily need formal qualifications but to have read something about it, or done a training course, you would probably reap the rewards.
Formal training is seen as helpful but difficult to access for a number of reasons: budget restrictions, lack of local courses, lack of courses in the subject area, and insufficient understanding of training needs.
I don’t think there’s enough training courses available in this area. I don’t think people understand, really, that things like training audits, skills audits, evaluation, all fall under research.
One interviewee had some advice for those starting a job involving research when they had no experience of research.
You need to set aside a day of your induction, sit with your line manager or ideally your head of department, and get them to show you what evaluations they’ve done, how they do it, and what they expect of you. So you’re really seeing either a benchmark you’re working towards, or the style of working practice.
This book will explain the fundamental principles and practices of research in public services. It won’t provide everything you need – no book can do that –but it will give you a good grounding in the subject, as well as lots of practical advice about how to manage the research process in tandem with the rest of your life, and tips to save you time and stress. Here’s an example:
Develop a strategy for naming and storing document files on your computer that will make them easy to find and retrieve.
Some of the tips in the book, like this one, may at first sight seem to add extra work to your load. Think, though: putting in a little time up front will save you from having to sort out a tangled mess later on. Backing up your work also benefits from a strategic approach. There are many ways to back up. For example, you can:
• Transfer your work manually to a memory stick or an external hard drive (and, if you wish, from there to a different computer).
• Set up a free email address via one of the many providers such as Yahoo! Mail or Gmail and send your work to that address.
• Use a free cloud-based service such as Dropbox, iCloud or Google Drive (see appendix 3 for more information about working ‘in the cloud’).
• Use a paid back-up service such as SOS Online Backup or Carbonite.
Any of these processes will take only a few minutes to set up initially, and just a few seconds to use each day. You should of course keep your back-up somewhere away from your main data store; there’s not much point backing up onto a memory stick which you then put in the same bag as your laptop. Also, you need to consider the wisdom of using cloud-based services for people’s personal data which should be kept confidential. But between all the options, if you take a little TIP
time to think it through, you should be able to set up an easy-to-use system that will protect you against time-consuming and stressful data loss.
While you’re working on a computer, get into the habit of pressing Ctrl+S (on a PC) or Apple+S (on a Mac) every few minutes. This will save your latest work against computer crashes, power cuts, or accidents.
Insider and outsider research
‘Insider’ and ‘outsider’ are opposites, but presenting them in this dichotomous way conceals the fact that they’re actually two ends of a spectrum. If you’re a practitioner conducting research within the service you help to run, or a service user researching the service you use, you’re definitely an insider. However, it can be argued that anyone doing research in their own service is in a sense becoming an outsider, if they are taking on a researcher’s identity in a setting where others are not researchers. But when are you definitely an outsider? When you’ve stopped working in, or using, a service? If so, do you become an outsider straight away, or only after a period of time? Or are you only, really, an outsider if you’ve never worked in, or used, that service? In which case, can anyone ever conduct outsider research on primary health care or school education? Conversely, how much research does an outsider have to do within a particular organisation before they become an insider?
There are pros and cons to both insider and outsider research (Robson and McCartan 2016: 399–400). A comparison is set out in Table 1.1 overleaf (and I am indebted to Robson and McCartan for many of the points made here).
As you can see, neither insider nor outsider research is ‘best’. The answer to the question of which approach should be used depends on the nature of the research to be conducted.
There is more information about insider research in the ‘further reading’ section at the end of this chapter.
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Table 1.1: Comparing insider and outsider research
Insider research
Insider researchers have expert knowledge of their service which will help to inform the research
Insider researchers know where to go for help and information within their organisation
Insider researchers may be attached to a particular view of their service
Insider researchers may have more credibility with their colleagues and service users than an external stranger (although the reverse can also be true)
Insider researchers may have difficulty in challenging the practice of their colleagues, or their own practice, even where research findings demonstrate that change is needed
Insider researchers are likely to have full access to confidential information
Organisations may be more willing to facilitate insider researchers’ access to potential participants
Some participants will give fuller and more honest information to insider researchers who they already know and trust
Insider researchers are well placed to oversee implementation of the research findings or recommendations
Research done by an insider, with the full involvement of service users and colleagues, can greatly improve the working practices of the organisation
Doing research or evaluation
Outsider research
Outsider researchers have to spend time learning about the service
Outsider researchers have to spend time getting to know the people and politics of the organisation
Outsider researchers bring a fresh, independent view to the research
Outsider researchers have to build relationships and develop trust with service staff, volunteers and users
Outsider researchers usually find it easier to challenge practice where necessary
Outsider researchers may not have full access to confidential information
Outsider researchers may find it more difficult to gain access to potential participants
Some participants will give fuller and more honest information to outsider researchers who they believe will maintain their anonymity
Outsider researchers have to let go of the research when it is finished, and leave the organisation to implement its findings or recommendations
Research done by an outsider can become the focus of organisational discontent, at worst leading to the outsider researcher becoming a scapegoat
For a long time, writers on research and evaluation have acknowledged that participating in such research – say by completing a questionnaire, or taking part in an interview – may not be someone’s top priority. Interviewees were also aware of this.
It’s OK doing research but if you can’t get anyone to take part in it and you’ve got very low sample numbers it almost becomes pointless. It’s never anyone’s priority, it’s only the priority of the person conducting it, never the recipient’s.
I’d go further. I think it’s essential to acknowledge that there are times when conducting research or evaluation isn’t even a researcher’s top priority. There are
times when looking after a sick child, a night out with friends, visiting a bereaved relative, or going on holiday with your partner will come first. And quite right too.
There is an art in balancing research or evaluation with the rest of your life. Everyone will differ in the extent to which they prioritise research. I prioritise it highly, because I love research and evaluation, and have made this my career since the late 1990s. For some people, research is a full-time job, or full-time study, and most people in either of these situations do not have difficulty finding time for their research. But for many people it is a part-time occupation, and for some people very part-time. For example, someone who has been forced to do a service evaluation – by a manager whom they don’t like, with no training or support, when they are sure they already know what the findings will be – is not likely to prioritise their research very highly at all.
Whether research is a high or low priority for you, and whatever your other commitments, this book will help you find ways to fit research or evaluation into your life. And it is important to balance research with the rest of your life, or there can be long-lasting consequences, as these interviewees found after neglecting friends and family in favour of research.
I did not spend the time I should have with them and I know I lost lots of contact with relatives and friends which I miss now that I am semi-retired and have the time.
I do feel that I probably lost a little bit of my social circle because I wasn’t as accessible, I wasn’t the party animal I had been. Now I’m trying to make up for it!
Some friendships have been sacrificed, and relationships have been sacrificed. Some people need you to make that time and if you’re not there to make that time, well, I’m OK with that. I think from an impact point of view, I’ve perhaps been more absent than other friends, but the people who have persevered, we’ve perhaps got a deeper relationship.
Although, as the last interviewee hinted, there can also be positive consequences for family and friends from spending time on your research.
I think if it had an impact, it was a positive one. My son has a great intellect but really struggles with his dyslexia, he struggles with getting things on paper. He learned perseverance. I think some of my women friends would say it’s a bit inspiring to see one of your friends doing that, and they’ve gone on and retrained and changed what they do.
Several interviewees suggested that you should think through your plans at the earliest possible opportunity, and talk them over with people you trust.
People should seek others out who have done what they are proposing and sit down and talk to them about the ups and downs.
Get some good sounding-board people – they don’t have to be researchers, but people you can talk to about the project, people you feel comfortable talking to about things.
Just as identities overlap and interact, so do the component parts of the research process. This book is written, like most books on research or evaluation, as if there are separate and discrete parts of the process: background reading, data collection, data analysis, writing up. Here is some of the reality:
• Reading in various forms is likely to occur throughout the process.
• Notes from your reading may be coded and analysed in the same way as primary data.
• Documents may be categorised as background reading, or secondary data, or both.
• Writing is an essential part of data analysis in particular, whether it be qualitative or quantitative, and of the whole research process in general. (Rapley 2011: 286)
These are just a few examples of the ways in which research processes interact and overlap. It is necessary to separate them for the purposes of discussion and teaching, but in reality, they are inextricable parts of a whole. Nevertheless, there are transition points in research projects, and it is these transition points which some researchers find hardest to handle.
I finished gathering the raw data, and it sat there and looked at me for about three weeks before I actually did anything with it. Then I did a few graphs and tables…
Even after years of experience, I still procrastinate when faced with the blank page on which I need to start writing a research report. But these days I know that it is the constants of reading, writing, and thinking, that will carry me through the bumpier stages of the research process. So I read some of the notes I’ve written, and think about what I want to say, until I’m ready to start. Other people use different techniques, such as this interviewee:
I’ve got a studying CD which involves quite a bit of Frank Zappa. It makes me laugh, it makes me relax, then I can get started. I need to find a way to relax. Music is my medicine.
Whatever works for you is fine. But if you don’t yet know what works for you, I recommend experimenting with reading, writing, and thinking.
Reading, writing, and thinking permeate the research process (Hart 1998: 6), and thinking is the most important of the three. Your thinking, like everyone else’s, develops and moves on day by day. The fact that your brain is your most useful research tool is particularly helpful for busy practitioners, because you can think about your research or evaluation when you don’t have time to do any of your other research work. You can make progress with your thinking in the shower, on the bus, at the supermarket – any time you have to be doing something which doesn’t require much of your brainpower. As a researcher, your brain is your greatest asset, both for conducting the research itself, and for working out the best ways to manage the research process in the context of the rest of your life.
The other thing it’s important to say at this early stage is that there is no such thing as perfect research or evaluation. Yes, the standards are high, and with good reason. Research should be rigorous, ethical, and robust; researchers should be thorough and conscientious. If you don’t yet have a good understanding of the reasons for this, you will by the time you’ve finished reading this book. But research and evaluation are never perfect, and can never be perfect, because they are conducted by, with, and for people just like us with all our conflicts and inadequacies. Planning and carrying out research or evaluation to a high standard, in the real world, is an enormous challenge – and can also be a source of great joy.
Managing and commissioning research or evaluation
It is difficult to manage or commission research or evaluation if you don’t know how to do research yourself. (It’s not that easy when you do know how.)
I had to produce a commissioning document, interview all the organisations that applied, and make a decision based on their application and interview, on which could really deliver what we were asking them to deliver. I don’t think we appointed the best contractor, but we went on who scored the most points, and now, 18 months in and looking back, I’m not quite sure what I’d do differently but I know something needs to be different.
You will need at least a broad idea about research methods and the research process if you are to manage or commission research effectively. You also need a clear idea of what the research or evaluation is that you want to delegate or buy, and why you want that work to be done.
Useful questions to ask yourself include:
• What do you want the research or evaluation to achieve?
• What are the resources you can invest? (These may include funding, time, training and so on.)
• How will you know whether you’re getting good value for your investment?
• What steps will you need to take to maximise the likelihood of the research achieving your aims?
One key step is to figure out which methodology, approach, and/or methods you think would be most appropriate, to enable you to match your resources to the research you want to manage or commission. The information in this book should help you do that. I don’t recommend being entirely prescriptive about the research design, as a researcher may come up with good ideas you haven’t considered. This may be because they’re more experienced in doing research or evaluation than you are, or simply because they’re looking at the research question and design from a different angle. But it does make sense to be clear about what resources are available and why you are making those resources available, and to share that information with researchers at the earliest opportunity.
Another key step is to ensure that the person you charge with the responsibility for doing the research or evaluation actually has the necessary skills and abilities. Books like this may help, but nobody can truly learn to conduct research from a reference book.
Terminology
Some academic language is quite impenetrable. Here’s an example: ‘Unlike psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic competence (which confines every desire and statement to a genetic axis or overcoding structure, and makes infinite, monotonous tracings of the stages on that axis or the constituents of that structure), schizoanalysis rejects any idea of pretraced destiny, whatever name is given to it -- divine, anagogic, historical, economic, structural, hereditary, or syntagmatic…’. This is quite an extreme example, being taken out of context from a well-respected book by two French poststructuralists.a I do not include it here to criticize the book or its authors, who have made a unique and valuable contribution to social theory. However, many people do find their work, and that of other academics, quite difficult to read.
Academic language, oh, ow, it made my eyes bleed, and that was really time-consuming. I still can’t remember what ‘hermeneutic’ means.
Sometimes, I’m sure some people would shoot me for saying this, when I’ve started to unpack some of it, some of it isn’t complex in itself but it’s the language that’s used to make it complex. Like phenomenological analysis. You’re analysing a phenomenon as experienced by someone else, that is fairly straightforward but the language has made it complex.
Luckily there is a fair amount of academic work which is written in more accessible language. However, each profession has its own jargon and other
complex terminology, and this can also be a barrier, for example to educators or service user researchers. The profession of research, including evaluation, is no exception, and the language of research practice can be quite opaque.
Some of the people I teach are expected to do small-scale research studies. Ninety per cent of them are practitioners within the service. They find the language quite difficult, it’s a language they’re not used to. Qualitative and quantitative research is not something that trips off the tongue.
The language of research can put people off. I’m in practice and it’s too academic for me.
In this book, I have tried to be clear about the meanings of the terms I use, and to use those terms consistently. But other writers will use some of the same terms with slightly different meanings, such as ‘document analysis’ where I have used ‘document review’. And other writers will use different terms to mean the same thing, such as ‘subject’ or ‘respondent’ to mean a person who takes part in research, where I have used ‘participant’. Also, I have not tried to include every possible research term in this book, just those that are necessary for understanding the points I want to make. I have prepared a glossary of research terms which you will find at the end of this book and online. But as you read other people’s work on research methods, you will inevitably come across new research terms and different definitions.
If you’re doing research or evaluation you are likely to have to get to grips with some unfamiliar and challenging concepts. After all, you’re doing it to learn. If you find complex abstract thought exciting and appealing, you’ll find plenty to amuse you. If, on the other hand, you prefer simpler explanations, there is so much literature available that you should be able to find readable commentaries on the topics you need to understand.
You don’t have to read the unreadable.
As a researcher, it is as important to learn to identify and skip documents that won’t help you, as to learn to identify and read those that will (Langdridge and Hagger-Johnson 2009: 19). Information about how to do this is in Chapter Six. It has to be said that the language of public services can also be difficult and off-putting. There are some good glossaries and jargon-busters online if you are struggling with that terminology.
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Write definitions of new words on Post-It Notes and stick them where you will see them frequently, for example on the inside of your front door, next to the kettle, or on the bathroom mirror.
There is a useful resource for help with research vocabulary in the ‘further reading’ section at the end of this chapter.
Structure of this book
Chapter Two gives an overview of research. It introduces quantitative and qualitative research, and discusses the role of service users in research. The chapter also introduces research ethics.
Chapter Three engages with some of the more complex concepts in the field: methodologies and some more specialised approaches to research (action research, evaluation research, arts-based research and digitally mediated research). The chapter discusses how these link with methods, the role of theory, and outlines the links between research, theory, and practice.
Chapter Four looks at how to choose a research topic and refine it into a research question. Research methods are introduced, and advice is given on how to write a research proposal or plan.
Chapter Five discusses ways to manage the research process in the context of the rest of your life. Planning, organisation, and time management are discussed in detail, and there is a lot of advice from practitioners who are experienced in research. The pros and cons of receiving support for research from employers are outlined. The need to reward yourself, and look after yourself, as you do research, is emphasised. There is a summary of what works – and what doesn’t work – in managing research.
Chapter Six describes the similarities and differences between document reviews for workplace research and literature reviews for academic research. Information is given about how to conduct document reviews and literature reviews, together with advice on record-keeping, critical and strategic reading, finding open access materials, using libraries, and making notes.
Chapter Seven explains the advantages and disadvantages of working with secondary data, and shows how to find secondary data on the web. Chapter Eight covers a range of ways of collecting quantitative and qualitative primary data. Chapter Nine outlines some ways of preparing, coding, analysing and synthesising quantitative and qualitative data.
Chapter Ten begins by identifying and dispelling some myths about the writing process. Then there is a full discussion of how to write research, with advice on how to structure, edit and polish your writing. The chapter explains how to avoid plagiarism and how to cite other people’s work.
Research
Chapter Eleven looks at how to disseminate research, why dissemination is important, and the potential barriers to this process. The advantages and disadvantages of different methods of dissemination are outlined. The similarities and differences of workplace and academic research are discussed, as are the ethics of dissemination.
Chapters One to Eleven end with some suggested exercises and recommendations for further reading.
Chapter Twelve concludes the book with a summary of the key points made in the earlier chapters.
There is also a glossary of research terms and bibliography containing details of all the references cited in the book.
The companion website for this book (http://policypress.co.uk/resources/ kara-research) contains resources for students and practitioners: some information about studying research methods and the role of networking, real-life scenarios to consider and learn from, and resources on time management. There are also some resources for lecturers who need to teach research methods.
Exercise
You are asked to advise a research commissioner who wants to fund three pieces of research:
1. Evaluation of patient care in a hospice.
2. Skills audit of civilian staff in a police force.
3. Pilot study, in three local schools, of whether training teachers in oral storytelling techniques can improve educational outcomes for primary school children.
In each case, would you advise the commissioner to specify an insider or an outsider researcher? Why?
Note
a Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, translated from the original French by B Massumi, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p 13 (original work published 1980).
Further reading
Bell, J. and Waters, S. (2014) Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers (6th edn). London: Open University Press.
This is a classic text that will help you to understand what is involved in doing research.
Fox, M., Martin, P. and Green, G. (2007) Doing practitioner research. London: Sage.
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unless you esteem rust above brightness, for idleness is the hour of temptation.”
“Wanted, a well-grown boy who can make himself generally useful. Salary moderate to start with.” This was the advertisement that had called together some twenty-five boys. The merchant talked with one after another until only two remained in the outer office. “Come in, both of you,” called the merchant, “I can tell you what I want and what I’m willing to pay.” Then followed an enumeration of the services expected with the promise of two and a half dollars a week with an increase at the end of each six months. One of the two boys turned on his heel and said, “That settles it! I can’t afford to work for any such wages as that.” “I’ll try it,” said the other, “and if I suit you six months will soon pass. The two-fifty will pay my actual expenses, for I live at home; then when I get to earning more I can help more.” Five years passed. The first boy idled away his time and went from bad to worse. At last he stood in the prisoner’s dock awaiting trial for forgery. What was his astonishment to behold his former friend ranged on the side of the prosecution as junior member of a firm of eminent lawyers. There was no need for argument on either side, for the poor fellow broke down at the sight of his former schoolmate, and rising, said, “I’ll tell the truth and take my punishment. If I’d begun as that young man did five years ago I might have been somebody to-day, but I was above low wages and didn’t believe in small beginnings. Now I am a living example of what pride and indolence can do for a boy.” Satan is sure to find mischief for idle hands, and the only way to keep clear of his work is to be busy at something, pay or no pay.
Industry is one of the pet laws of nature, and as Periander, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, said, “Nothing is impossible to industry.” It has conquered our American forests, built cities as by magic, improved prairies and valleys until they blossom like the rose, and made our civilization rich with the arts, both liberal and fine. Long before the Indians owned California the gold fields were there. Before Franklin found electricity in the clouds, it was there. Before Marconi discovered the unseen waves of air to carry his messages across the sea, they were there. All that was needed was concentration, careful thinking and earnest, persistent effort to bring them into use.
All great men have had the gift of laboring intensely, continually and determinedly before succeeding, many of whom won their way against heavy odds. Arsaces, who founded the Parthian empire, against which the mighty hosts of Rome long contended in vain, was a mechanic of obscure origin. Andersen, the popular Danish author, was the son of a cobbler, and in his earlier years worked on the bench, doing his literary work on scraps of paper during the moments of rest from his regular duties. Cararra began his life as a drummer boy and driver of cattle, but subsequently rose to the presidency of the Republic of Guatemala. Demosthenes, the Greek orator and “prince of eloquence,” was the son of a blacksmith. In his first attempt at public speaking, he displayed such a weakness of voice, imperfect articulation and awkwardness that he withdrew from the speaker’s platform amidst the hooting and laughter of his hearers. Giotto, one of the founders of Italian art, was a shepherd boy whom Cimabue discovered drawing sheep in the sand with a pointed stone, with such accuracy that he took him as a student. Herschel when a boy, played for balls, and while the dancers were lounging round the room he would go out and take a peep at the heavens through his telescope. It was while doing this that he discovered the Georgium Sidus, which made him famous. Samuel Richardson, the novelist, was a poor bookseller. He sold his books in the front part of the store, while he wrote them in the rear. It was a hard struggle. “My own industry and God’s providence,” said he, “have been my whole reliance.” Lough, the English sculptor, reached success only through self-denial and hard work. He followed the plough by day and modelled by night. At length he went to London and took lodgings in an obscure house in a back street above a grocer’s shop, and there began his statue of Milo. While working on it he went three months without meat. All the coal he used that winter was a bushel and a half. When Peter Coxe found him he was tearing up his shirt and dipping the strips into water to keep the clay moist. At last the statue was finished. The roof had been removed to finish its head. His work was soon noised abroad and sculptors took great interest in it. The Duke of Wellington went to see it and ordered a statue, and the boy who had struggled and suffered so much became the greatest sculptor of England.
“I
SEE IT!”
James Ferguson, the Scotch astronomer, was very anxious when a boy to understand the mechanism of watches. His father refused to allow him to play with his watch, and so James waited until a stranger called with a watch. “Will you be good enough to tell me what time it is?” asked the boy. The gentleman told him. “Would you be willing that I should look at your watch?” continued James. “Certainly,” replied the gentleman. The boy took the watch eagerly. After examining it for a moment he asked, “What makes that box go round?” “A steel spring,” replied the owner. “How can a steel spring in a box turn it round so as to wind up all the chain?” The gentleman explained the process. “I don’t see through it yet,” answered the boy. “Well, now,” said the visitor, who had become interested, “take a long, thin piece of whale-bone, hold one end of it fast between your thumb and forefinger, and wind it around your finger. It will then attempt to unwind, and if you fix the other end of it to the inside of a small hoop and leave it to itself it will turn the hoop round and round and wind up a thread tied to the outside.” “I see it! I see it!” exclaimed the boy, enthusiastically. “Thank you, very much!” It was not long before he had made a wooden watch, which he enclosed in a case about the size of a teacup. Soon after this he was set to watching sheep by night. Here he took an interest in the stars with as great a zeal as in the watch and ere long became noted as a great astronomer.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
Boys of to-day are living in the most enlightened age, when everything is an improvement of the past. Time was when man lived in caves, now in mansions; when he sailed the rivers in dug-outs of trees, now in steamers; when he traveled overland in ox-carts, now on steam cars; when he depended on fire or candle light to banish darkness, now electricity; when he spun cotton and wove it by a crude hand machine, now the spinning jenny and power loom; when he wrote on the bark of a tree with a sharpened iron or stick, now on the finest paper with a typewriter; when he sent messages by swift runners, now by telegraph. He now holds communication with other
continents by cable, brings distant worlds near with the telescope, examines a single hair of a fly with the microscope and harnesses the elements of nature in his forward movement. All things are conquered, utilized and perfected by industry. “Fortune,” as one said, “is ever on the side of the industrious, as winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.” There is no reason why any industrious boy should not reach the pinnacle of success. To do so will doubtless mean struggles, hard thinking, careful planning, but the end pays for all.
My boy, remember there is a place for you in the world. A place honorable, useful, influential, but it demands tireless exertion, steadfastness of purpose, carefulness of detail to reach and hold it. To neglect is to invite suffering in the future. “If I neglect my practice a day,” said Malibran the singer, “I see the difference in my execution; if for two days, my friends see it; and if for a week, all the world knows my failure.”
Don’t wait my lad, for something to “turn up.” “Things,” said Garfield, “don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.” While ninety-nine persons wait for chances that never come, the one hundredth realizing upon his irresistible strength and determination, makes his chance. “Never mind. What is the next thing to be done?” asked young Huxley, when he failed to pass the medical examination on which he thought his future depended. Looking back in after years at his defeat, the great scientist wrote, “It does not matter how many tumbles you have in life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble. It is only the people who have to stop and be washed who must lose the race.”
“When I was a boy on my father’s farm in Connecticut,” said Collis P. Huntington,—the man who had a hundred thousand people in his employ, “I worked hard, utilizing every moment, for there was plenty to do. But if I had any spare time I did chores for the neighbors. I never wanted for anything I needed! I always got it. But many buy things they do not need. When I went to New York in 1836 I had quite a sum of money, the result of my savings, judicious investments, and little tradings about the neighborhood.” He had an aim in life, and he worked till he accomplished it. That person who has not a definite purpose cannot expect to succeed. Philip, King of Macedon, lost his eye from a bowshot. When the soldiers picked up
the shaft they perceived upon it these words, “To Philip’s eye!” The archer had an aim that accomplished something, and he that has not, cannot.
“It’s the boys to shape the path for men, Boys to guide the plow and pen, Boys to forward the task begun, For the world’s great task is never done.
“It’s the boys who’ll work that are needed In sanctum or office or shop, Remembering the low lands are crowded But there’s room for the industrious, on top.”
CHAPTER VII
B S
The impression that study is only for those who attend school is decidedly wrong. If carried into practice it would prove disastrous to one’s success. There is no period in life when one can afford to be otherwise than studious. Had Henry Clay after learning to write by filling a box with sand and tracing letters with a pointed stick, or had young Daniel Webster, after plucking his pen out of the wings of his mother’s pet goose and making ink out of the soot scraped from the fireplace, ceased to go farther, their names as great speakers and writers would not be known.
John Quincy Adams was considered the most learned man of his day. When his parents intended to keep him in school, he plead so earnestly to leave that they gave him his choice between two things, work on the farm or school. John said he thought he would work and he was therewith assigned with other help in ditching. After working three days he became weary of his job and coming to his father said: “Father, if you are willing I guess I’ll go back to school.” In after life he confessed, “If I have accomplished anything as a scholar, I owe it to those three days’ work in the abominable ditch.”
General Lew Wallace, according to his own words, was a poor student in his young manhood. He grew tired of his college course after six weeks, and returned home. Calling him into his office, his father took from a pigeonhole in his desk a package of papers neatly folded and tied with red tape. These were the receipts for his tuition. After reading the items the father said, “That sum represents what I have expended to provide you with a good education. After mature reflection I have come to the conclusion that I have done for you, in that direction, all that can reasonably be expected of any parent; and I have, therefore, called you in to tell you that you have now reached an age when you must take up the lines yourself. If you have failed to profit by the advantages with which I have tried so hard to surround you, the responsibility must be yours. I shall not upbraid you for your neglect, but rather pity you for your indifference which you have shown to the golden opportunities you have been enabled to enjoy through my indulgence.”
Lew left the office thinking. The next day he set out with a determination to accomplish something for himself. He secured employment of the County Clerk to copy the records of the courts. For months he worked in a dingy, half-lighted room, receiving as compensation ten cents per hundred words. The tediousness and regularity of the work was a splendid drill besides teaching him the virtue of persistence as one of the avenues of success. He had a desire to become a lawyer, but realizing his deficiency in education he was compelled to study evenings. “I was made to realize,” said he, “the time I had spent with such lavish prodigality could not be recovered, and that I must extract every possible good out of the golden moments then flying by all too fast.” This he did until “Ben Hur,” one of the greatest books ever published, show how well he did it.
WHAT IT IS.
To be studious is to be ambitious, to excel, to be anxious for the acquisition of such knowledge as will be beneficial. From any source it will be gathered as the bee gathers honey from any flower. “Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring of knowledge,” wrote an eminent poet. “Study chiefly,” said Lord Bacon to Cecil, “what you can turn to good account in your future life.” James Russell Lowell once counselled his nephew, “A man is valuable in our day for what he knows, and his company will be always desired by others in exact proportion to the amount of intelligence and instruction he brings with him.” William E. Gladstone in counselling boys said, “Get all the knowledge you can.” And Theodore Roosevelt declared, “Shiftlessness, slackness, indifference to studying are all most certain to mean inability to get on in other walks of life.”
A GOOD AIM.
A boy accompanied an old hunter through the woods in search of game. Suddenly a partridge whirred from before their feet. The huntsman with steady nerve, quick eye and calculating brain brought the bird down at the first shot. “How could you aim so quickly?” the lad inquired. “I didn’t wait till I got into the woods to learn,” was his
chaffing reply. He had done what Stone, the author of “The Mathematical Dictionary” did when perusing scientific works while aiding his father, who was gardener to the Duke of Argyll, had done; what David Livingstone did before he became Africa’s explorer, while in the old Blantyre cotton works with a Latin grammar on his spinning jenny; had done, what Ezra Cornell did before he built a two-story dwelling for his father’s family when only seventeen years of age; had done, what Henry Clay did with “these off-hand efforts” as he called his speeches in the corn field before he stirred the country with his orations,—made careful preparation beforehand.
What one will be in manhood depends largely on what he is in boyhood. The loftiest attainments are nothing more than fruits of earnest study. There is no perfection, no great excellence without great labor. “It is the deepest soil,” said Dewey, “that yields not only the richest fruits, but the fairest flowers; it is the most solid body which is not only the most useful, but which admits of the highest polish and brilliancy; it is the strongest pinion which not only carries the greatest burden, but which soars to the highest flight.” It is the best education which fits a person for a responsible position. If a man succeeds who has had no education he does so in spite of his misfortune and not by reason of it. Dickens owed less to education than probably any literary man. He was not in school two years in his whole life, but he was a genius by right divine. Few are so richly endowed, hence “a good education is a young man’s best capital.”
THE DUNCE.
He was called the dunce. His teacher would stand him apart from his class, for he could not or would not learn. One day a gentleman came into the room and seeing the lad standing, inquired the reason. “Oh, he is good for nothing,” replied the teacher. “There’s nothing in him. I can make nothing out of him. He is the most stupid boy in the school.” The gentleman was stirred to pity. Going to him, he placed his hand on the head of the humiliated lad and said, “One of these days, you may be a fine scholar. Don’t give up, but try, my boy, try.” The boy’s soul was aroused. His dormant intellect awoke. A new purpose was formed. Clinching his teeth, he said, “I will.” From that hour he became ambitious and studious. He became a great scholar,
an author of a well-known commentary on the Bible, and was beloved and honored by many. This dunce was the celebrated Adam Clarke.
The same was true of others. Isaac Newton was kicked by the brightest boy in the school because he was the most ignorant, but he said, “Never mind, I’ll repay him by beating him in my studies.” After a long time of earnest effort he did it. Oliver Goldsmith in his boyhood was very stupid, but he resolved to surprise his fellow students, and this he did by writing that popular book, the “Traveller.” Sir Walter Scott was nicknamed the “blockhead” when a student, but he declared, “I’ll make them change it,” and change it they did. Through close study he attained such eminence that he was afterward styled, “The Wizard of the North.” Sir William Jones, the greatest scholar of Europe, was not a bright student. He was put into a class beyond his years, and where all the scholars had the advantage in that they had previous instruction that had been denied him. The teacher accused him of dullness, and all his efforts could not raise him from the foot of the class. He was not daunted. Procuring for himself grammars and other elementary text books, which the rest of the class had gone through in private terms, he devoted the hours of play, and some of the hours of sleep, to the mastering of them. By this he soon shot ahead of his fellow pupils, and became the leader of the class and the pride of Harrow School. Dean Stanley was declared by Mr. Rawson, his schoolmaster, to be the stupidest boy at figures who ever came under his care, save only one, who was yet more hopeless, and was unable to grasp simple addition and multiplication, yet Arthur Stanley rose like a rocket at Rugby, achieved fame in Oxford and became a blessing to mankind. The other developed a phenomenal mastery of arithmetic. Years after he would make a budget speech of three hours’ length and full of figures. He is known throughout the world as William E. Gladstone.
HOW TO STUDY.
Boys of studious mind may achieve an education if they desire. It may not be such as will enable them to secure a diploma from a college, but such as will make them successful and useful. All should strive for a college education. It is an investment, the returns of
which in after years will be worth more and may do more than gold. Kitto, who was one of the greatest Biblical scholars in the world, receiving from the University of Geissen the degree of Doctor of Divinity, craved for the greatest knowledge of his day. Notwithstanding his affliction of deafness he begged his drunken father to take him from the poor-house and let him struggle for an education. Said he, “I know how to stop hunger. Hottentots live a long time on nothing but gum. Sometimes when hungry they tie a band around their bodies. Let me go. I can do as they do. There are blackberries and nuts in the hedges, and turnips in the fields and hay-ricks for a bed. Let me go.” And go he did with the already mentioned result.
Should circumstances, however, prevent a college education, every boy should use the margins of time in reading books and studying principles until he attains a cultured mind. Reading is one of the great means of education, and whether it be a blessing or curse, depends on what is read. By reading one communes with the mightiest and wisest minds. Great men have usually been great readers. Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield used to read and study lying flat upon the floor before the fire. Hugh Miller, after working from early morn to night as a stone-mason, managed to find time after his hours of work to read every good book he could secure, pondering over them during the day. In this way he became eminent as a scholar, and when the time came in Scotland’s history that some man should plead for her ecclesiastical freedom from State domination, Hugh Miller stepped to the front, though until he was thirty-three years old he was nothing more than a studious stonemason.
To remember what one reads is of great importance. It is not the amount of matter read but the amount remembered. Lord Macaulay always stopped at the foot of each page and gave a verbal account of what he read. Said he, “At first I had to read it three or four times before I got my mind firmly fixed. But I compelled myself to comply with the plan, until now, after I have read a book once through, I can almost recite it from beginning to end. It is a very simple habit to form early in life, and is valuable as a means of making our reading serve the best purpose.”
Granville Sharp was only an apprentice to a linen draper in London. To know the exact meaning of the Scriptures he mastered the Greek and Hebrew languages. A poor lame and almost blind African who had been cured by his brother’s medical skill was recognized on the streets of the metropolis by his old master and claimed as a slave. Granville resolved that the negro shall never more be in bondage. But what can he do? Slavery was then a legal right. Lord Chief Justice Mansfield was of the opinion that a slave did not become free by coming to England. Granville Sharp soon decided on his course. For two years he read and memorized law. Then came the tract from his pen, “Injustice of Tolerating Slavery in England,” which changed the mind of Mansfield and eventually made the slavetrade of England illegal.
Every boy should study by concentrating his mind. The reason of so much ignorance is not through a lack of educational facilities, but lack of will force and mental force to master a subject in hand. Many a boy commits his lessons parrot-like, with little or no disposition to understand the whys and wherefores, while another studies and inquires until he comprehends the reason of all that he learns. The result is, one masters his study, the other is mastered by his study. When Sir Isaac Newton was asked “how he had discovered the true system of the universe” he replied, “By continually thinking upon it.”
EYES OPEN.
Every boy should study with eyes open. The inspired penman declared, “The wise man’s eyes are in his head,” not in his elbows or feet, though multitudes act as if they were. But “in his head,” just where they ought to be. In other words, the “wise man” is a careful observer; he possesses this faculty of comprehending the nature and reason of things. Not that observation alone insures success but this is one of the leading, indispensable elements of it.
Professor Morse, who was judge of pottery at the World’s Fair, Chicago, being asked to what he attributed his knowledge, answered, “To the habits of close inspection acquired in my boyhood when collecting shells.” General Sherman explains his victorious march to the sea by saying that during his college days he spent a summer in
Georgia. While his companions were occupied with playing cards and foolish talk the young soldier tramped over the hills, made a careful map of the country and years later his expert knowledge won the victory.
Many persons go through life without an observation that is educative. Ten men will observe a steam engine only to admire its novelty, one studies each valve and screw until he understands the principle on which it is constructed. Ten travelers will pass through the country without noticing special peculiarities, one observes each tree, flower, hill, valley and river. Ten readers will skim over a book, catching only its general drift, one criticises style, expression and thought and is rapt with its beauties and sensitive to its faults. These are they who profit themselves and benefit others.
USING THE MOMENTS.
Every boy should study by utilizing the moments. As success in business depends upon the small margin of profit secured and retained, rather than upon the large volume done, so success in life may depend upon our ability to save the moments, the precious “margin” that is left after we have done the things which are necessary in order to discharge our duties or earn our daily bread.
Dr. Cotton Mather would express his regret after the departure of a visitor who had wasted his time, “I would rather have given my visitor a handful of money than have been kept so long out of my study.” Cæsar, it is said, would not permit a campaign, however exacting, to deprive him of minutes when he could write his Commentaries. Schliemann standing in line at the post-office and waiting for his letters when a boy, saved the fragments of time by studying Greek from a pocket grammar. Heine, the noted classicist of Germany, while shelling peas with one hand for dinner, held his book in the other. Matthew Hale’s “Contemplations” was composed while he was traveling as circuit judge. Henry Kirke White learnt Greek while walking to and from a lawyer’s office. Elihu Burritt is said to have mastered eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects by improving the fragments of time in his blacksmith’s shop. William E. Gladstone and Lord Lyttelton in their younger days always carried
one of the smaller classics in their pockets to read if they had a leisure moment. Sir James Paget, in his youth, made tables of Cuvier’s classifications while dressing, which he posted in his bedroom. Cardinal Manning, when an undergraduate at Oxford, acquired a satisfactory Italian vocabulary during the time spent in shaving. Phillips Brooks combined the processes of shaving and study, and, it is said that Theodore Roosevelt carries constantly a small volume of Plutarch or Thucydides to read in spare moments. Fifteen minutes thus saved, or utilized, four times a day, gives us thirty hours in a month, the working time of about sixty days of six hours each in a year, or about five years’ study in thirty years’ time, and five years well used yield more fruit than a whole lifetime squandered.
PLEASURE AND PROFIT.
Every boy should study for the pleasure and profit there is in it. Knowledge is power, and sometime, somewhere, the information will come useful. When Sherman’s troops were passing through a critical experience during the Civil War, they captured a telegraph line of the enemy. Hastily cutting the wire, the General inquired if any of his men understood telegraphy. A young officer stepped forward saying, “One vacation I studied this art just for the pleasure of it.”
When Bishop Whipple came to Chicago to preach he was anxious to reach the many artisans and railway operatives. He called upon William McAlpine, the chief engineer of the Galena Railway, and asked his advice as to the best way of approaching the employes of the road. “How much do you know about a steam engine?” asked McAlpine. “Nothing.” “Then,” said McAlpine, “read ‘Lardner’s Railway Economy’ until you are able to ask an engineer a question about a locomotive and he not think you a fool.” The clergyman had the practical sense to see the justice of that advice. So he “read up,” and in due season went to the round-house of the Galena Railway, where he found a number of engineers standing by a locomotive which the firemen were cleaning. He saw that it was a Taunton engine with inside connections, and asked, at a venture, “Which do you like best, inside or outside connections?” This brought out information about steam heaters and variable exhausts, and in half
an hour he had learned more than his book had ever taught him. When he said good-by, he added: “Boys, where do you go to church? I have a free church in Metropolitan Hall, where I shall be glad to see you, and if at any time you need me, shall be glad to go to you.” The following Sunday every man was in church.
Years ago, when Mr. Gladstone was in active political service, he made some public addresses during a parliamentary recess that gave offence to the leaders of the opposite party. They thought it necessary to discipline him by what would be regarded as an official rebuke, when Parliament should reassemble. He was to be convicted of breach of courtesy and violation of constitutional rights. In due course the reprimand was administered. A Conservative statesman of distinction was set up to chastise the offending lion. He rejoiced as a strong man to run a race. A splendid audience was present to see the thing done properly, and the Conservative orator’s wife had taken with her a party of friends to the House of Commons to aid in swelling the triumph. Through a long speech Mr. Gladstone sat in silence. He was accused of ignorance of English history and disregard for the English Constitution, rightly so sacred to every Englishman. After midnight he arose to reply. For two hours he poured forth his matchless eloquence. Not a point had escaped him. Not a fact or a sentiment of the arraignment had been overlooked or misplaced. He did not indulge in invective. He made no counter charges. He emptied out his stores of history. He unfolded and eulogized the provisions of the British Constitution. He left no loophole of retreat for his adversaries. He overwhelmed them with the fulness of his knowledge and his oratory, and routed them most ignominiously. The noble lady and her friends had no occasion to celebrate a triumph. Mr. Gladstone’s victory was largely due to his marvellous power of early study.
My boy, be studious. You will find sometime a market for everything you know. Be patient in your studies. If things do not seem clear, do not give up. A dull, hazy morning often turns out a bright day. Dryden would think for two weeks in the composition of one of his odes. There are few things which patient labor will not enable one to accomplish. Difficulties like spectres melt when approached. It is not one stroke of the axe that fells the tree, or one blow of the hammer that demolishes the rock, but the repetition.
Study everything of advantage, but bend energy and mind mostly in the line of your life work. Study for what it will do for you. Study for what you can do for others, and never give up study.
“The boy that by addition grows, And suffers no subtraction; Who multiplies the thing he knows, And carries every fraction; Who well divides his precious time, The due proportions giving, To secure success aloft will climb, Interest compound receiving.”
