<p>Obviously, there is research done outside these fields, but is there any way for students to take part in it? I see a lot of people studying tumors in rats, plant extracts, etc...surely there must be opportunities in economics, psychology, etc.</p>
<p>Bump, 10charizard.</p>
<p>Bump, 10char.</p>
<p>i’d like this answered as well</p>
<p>The easiest way is if you live in driving distance to a university. You can always email a prof and ask to do research. Plus, no matter where you live, you can always do research in any field over the summer if you are willing to spend the summer on a university campus.</p>
<p>I live within driving distance of a few community colleges.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t simply calling up a random professor be a little odd?</p>
<p>Bump, 10char.</p>
<p>bump i’m curious about this as well.</p>
<p>Me to. Bump…</p>
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<p>Sure are. In fact, there are numerous research opportunities in practically any subject, including your favorite hobbies.</p>
<p>For example, here’s a paper that details the social network structure of rappers, as determined by lyrical collaboration. Yes, that’s right, his research was on the social networks of rappers. He found that Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, and Kurupt were among the most socially well-connected according to various measures. It got published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics. </p>
<p>[[physics/0511215</a>] The Network of Collaboration Among Rappers and its Community Structure](<a href=“http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511215][physics/0511215”>[physics/0511215] The Network of Collaboration Among Rappers and its Community Structure)</p>
<p>Nor was this research all that difficult to do, as his methodology notes how he used various free online hip-hop lyrics databases (i.e. the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive at [The</a> Original Hip-Hop (Rap) Lyrics Archive Version 2.0 (Beta)](<a href=“http://www.ohhla.com%5DThe”>http://www.ohhla.com)) that tracked songwriters and then compiled that information into some social networking software. So, yes, he had to learn how to use some software tools in order to perform the data extraction and manipulation. But it’s still not that ‘hard’ to do that kind of work. It just takes time. What makes the research interesting is that nobody had ever used social networking analysis to analyze the rapper community. </p>
<p>Another research looked at the social network of the Marvel Comics Universe and apparently found strong links between Captain America and Beast (from X-Men), and between Captain American and Thing (from the Fantastic Four), but evidently the strongest link of all is, unsurprisingly, between Spiderman and Mary-Jane. </p>
<p><a href=“http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0708/0708.2410v1.pdf[/url]”>http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0708/0708.2410v1.pdf</a></p>
<p>I remember one student research group who wanted to investigate the gender usage of the weight room of the school gym, and specifically whether women tended to be deterred from using the weight room when there were lots of men around (or whether women tended to use the machines and benches that were far away from the guys). They observed the women and then interviewed a random sample of them to ask them whether they ever felt uncomfortable working out close to lots of guys. We were making fun of that research group, which was composed of mostly guys (and one girl) by saying that, basically, they just wanted to go to the gym and watch a bunch of hot girls working out. But they ended up producing a paper that is potentially publishable. </p>
<p>But the point is, whatever your hobby happens to be - even if it’s rap music, comic books, or, heck, even watching girls in the gym - there probably are opportunities to do research on that topic. Yes, you may have to learn how to use certain research tools like statistical analysis software packages, mathematical modeling, or qualitative techniques (i.e. how to interview people, how to create a good survey and get people to answer it, etc.). But you can learn these things.</p>
<p>I want to know how one does “research” in English.</p>
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<p>That’s easy. Take a bunch of works of literature and then see if you can explain them through various literary theories, i.e. formalism, deconstructionism, post-modernism, etc. Heck, you don’t even have to apply them to works of literature: I’ve seen people apply them to newspaper articles or even blogs. </p>
<p>Now, of course, one might say that that isn’t really “research”, and I would certainly agree that it certainly isn’t scientific research. But English isn’t a science.</p>
<p>^
LOL I think that’s the point. </p>
<p>I mean what do you do with an English degree? You teach. If you were going to write for a living you could have probably done without it. </p>
<p>Anyway though… I’m think about trying to Davidson Fellowship in literature… (even though I am more interested in sci/math) in part because you don’t need a lot of classes to be good at English “research.”</p>
<p>do you need to have prior knowledge? I’m probably going into business but I don’t know much yet.</p>
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<p>Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me that most English graduates don’t teach.</p>
<p>Take a gander at the jobs reported by the graduates of the English major from Berkeley. One person is working as the head cashier at Barnes & Nobles. {Hey, at least it’s the head cashier, because there would clearly be inappropriate for a college graduate to be working as a regular bookstore cashier.} You have another working as a Starbucks barista: basically, the guy who mixes and pours your overpriced coffee. You also have a guy working at Lumber Baron as a lumber puller (whatever that is). You have another working as a customer service rep for Air Tiger Express, which presumably means being the person that you yell at when they’ve lost your shipment. Another is working in quality assurance at Electronic Arts, which probably means playing games like Madden NFL all day long and reporting on all the bugs you find. </p>
<p>[Career</a> Center - What Can I Do With a Major In…?](<a href=“http://career.berkeley.edu/Major2006/English.stm]Career”>http://career.berkeley.edu/Major2006/English.stm)
[Career</a> Center - What Can I Do With a Major In…?](<a href=“http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/English.stm]Career”>http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/English.stm)</p>
<p>None of these jobs have much to do with the English major as far as I can tell. Moreover, this ain’t just some scrub no-name bottom-tier school we’re talking about here. This is Berkeley. Berkeley is supposed to have one of the best English programs in the world. Yet even it has numerous graduates who end up with jobs that have nothing to do with the major.</p>