"The Curious Researcher"

I really enjoyed reading the first chapter to "The Curious Researcher."  It was very comprehensive and easy to read, so I had no difficulty learning a great deal.

This chapter really helped me with my topic.  Before I read it, I barely had an idea of what to pursue, but now, I've been able to narrow it down, so I can prepare for Wednesday's statement.

Ballenger emphasized curiosity when researching -- very valuable advice.  Since reading it, my curiosity on the subject of modern exploration has only increased, and it has been directed to three broad topics.

What kind of modern technology has helped us explore impossibly-difficult-to-explore places?  Two places come to mind instantly: deep ocean and deep space.  These two places have, for most of our history, been beyond reach, but thanks to our advances in technology, we can now investigate them a little further.  What technology we use, how it has evolved, and how we can use it would be easily researchable.

Another question I've had is: Who are the explorers of today?  We can all name explorers of the past.  Leif Ericson, Christopher Columbus, David Livingstone, Captain James Cook, and John Muir popped into my mind without any research at all.  Why can we do that with past explorers but not with modern ones?  This would be an interesting topic to research.

Of course, there is also the controversial topic (kudos to Torii) that modern technology is actually killing exploration, since it has become so easy to just type the name of some ancient structure or some far off place in Google and find photos, research, and anything one would want to know.  Most people don't need to explore anymore; we can just stay put and let eccentric people do the exploring.

All three questions Ballenger would, I believe, call researchable and interesting to our reader.

One great comfort he gave me in this chapter was that we don't have to find a topic and try to squeeze as much info as we can into it, which would have been my tendency.  It is much more important to focus our paper on the most interesting and researchable to keep our audience captivated.  This is what I hope to do.