Forum Activity for @chief-admin

Offer: Research editing

Editing - OFFERS

Dear Elmien,I just did a test search on the exact phrase "research editing" using Google, and your offer came up as no. 8 on the first page of 18,000 hits. When I searched on the words, your offer came up as no. 17 on the page two of 51,000,000 hits.So, I would encourage you to keep this offer up-to-date, and others to also use the forums to gain affordable visibility on the internet!Thanks, and best regards,Peter

the message

Illustration - OFFERS

According to one theory about the origins and spread of wild rice, elephants may have carried the seeds from Asia into Africa, when the sea levels were much lower than they are now.... and long before humans entered the picture, riding their on their high horses, so to speak.

the message

Illustration - OFFERS

Dear Ray,Here are some more giants of innocence... (encounters in Burma)

Botanical illustrators

Illustration - REQUESTS

Dear Peggy,

Thanks for this. I will cross-post the Society information to our group ' the Image Workshop '

Peter

Botanical illustrators

Illustration - REQUESTS

I would like to have contact with professional botanical illustrators working in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, as I am studying a plant that is found many of those regions. Eventually, I would like to produce technical line drawings of different forms of the plant from wild, disturbed, and cultivated habitats. This is a long term project.
updated by @chief-admin: 11/11/18 04:59:06AM

How to write a research proposal

Editing - REQUESTS

Dear Misau,I'll try to say less!1. Regarding your (tentative?) title:Polio eradication in Nigeria: turning problem to opportunity.This sounds as if you have found the answer before studying the problem, or before you succeeded in creating opportunities.Here are two alternatives that might be suitable as working titles:"Polio in Nigeria: investigating the possibility of a happier future"Or:"Polio in Nigeria: community responses, oral history, and educational opportunities"By the way, in your country, is it possible to change the title of a thesis after it has been first accepted? The actual title of your final thesis should not be fixed until you have at least made substantial progress with the analysis and interpretation during the final writing up. At this stage you really only need a good working title that helps you explain the work you are doing to others, and that you are happy to work with.2. It is curious that (a) suspicion, alarm, and fear can spread in a community to prevent community acceptance of a procedure that is elsewhere well accepted and known to be safe, and that (b) educational information, presented in a neutral factual way, does not spread virally.i.e. Education is hard work, but alarming disinformation or misinformation or anti-information is easy. Is it true, generally, that alarming negative messages travel faster than encouraging positive messages?3. Your thesis might begin first by tracking or reviewing the history of the spread of negative views about vaccination in general and with regard to polio. What actual cases of ineffective or dangerous vaccination have been recorded in Nigeria? Such cases are possible when vaccines are weakened or destroyed by poor preparation, storage, or followup, or are contaminated with live bacteria. What actual procedures were in place to avoid such problems?4. After explaining the context as realistically as possible, try asking when, where and how were negative views first expressed, and how did they spread?This is where qualitative interviews would be needed with various players in the story - the clerics, the media, the doctors, the aid agencies, and so on. You wont be able to reach all people, but you can try to reach at least some.5. Then you might then consider presenting positive views (and what you others consider to be true views) about vaccines in different ways to a cross-section of people to gauge their responses.Is it possible to find former naysayers who respond by saying "Well, if it had been explained like that, we would never have done or said what we did!"?This might be a response you would like to hear, but you have to be careful, in your methods, not to lead people into giving you responses you want to hear (one of the number one problems with qualitative and quantitative surveys of all kinds).At each step in a project like this, you need to test your questions, rephrase them, take advice from early respondents and revise the approach and so on. Otherwise you risk making a huge but flawed effort with a one-shot survey. Surveys like this can be huge and expensive, or simple and cheap.What matters is being aware as possible of what you are doing at each step, while giving yourself chances to learn from mistakes. You need to develop approaches that work in your context, not approaches that can only work in very orderly and well-educated societies. If you do not make at least some mistakes, you will probably not learn much.6. So your theory might be something like this:"Although formal or long-term education programmes are needed for health education, faster or more popular means for communicating positive health information are also needed, and are possible in Nigeria"A classic case was the work of Mr Condom, the popular nickname of an actual man working in Thailand, and raising awareness of a simple prevention method for the transmission of AIDS. He used popular media to good effect in a country that is relatively open-minded about human desires.To conclude:I already said too much, but...If your goal is research that has immediate practical and positive outcomes, you need a theory about how such outcomes can be achieved.The particular examples and theory I suggested above can be ignored, used, or modifed -- as you wish. I hope that I am at least making some general points that are useful for you.Peter

How to write a research proposal

Editing - REQUESTS

Dear Misau,There is no reason to avoid quantitative approaches, but they need to be designed on the basis of some initial qualitative understanding of the situation you are looking at. And then you can aim for a kind of iteration between quantitative and qualitative approaches: ideally you will see a synergy emerge between them and your own understanding.One direction to consider is how people perceive risk: initially, the small risk from a visible vaccination program looms larger in people's minds than a polio epidemic that may be more-or-less invisible, and that may be disguised to some extent by a general condition of poverty, or by abandonment and isolation of the victims.There are doubtless many well-funded studies of medical risk perceptions in wealthy nations - I wonder how applicable they are to circumstances in Nigeria.You need to be careful with your title: do you mean opportunity for the communities and country, or opportunity for yourself as a (possibly selfish) researcher? I am sure you mean the former (though I wonder how), but the title is a little ambiguous, which is not a good thing in this case.This may be a rather public place to say so, but I once had a girlfriend who had experienced polio in one leg - she was beautiful and incredibly tough, managed without any physical supports, and had built a career for herself as a teacher. So I have some personal interest in your project, in a distant kind of way. She also had good treatment when young, as the daughter of a doctor (in Japan).When polio first reached Japan though, the country was still poor. There might be parallels here for you to look at.Peter

How to write a research proposal

Editing - REQUESTS

Dear Misau,I suppose the clerics in Nigeria may be familiar with local issues related to polio, and less familiar with global issues.You need to map out the relevant parameters for your study, and the state of existing knowledge, before looking for a theoretical approach that suits your research goals. And what are your research goals? I suppose the clerics have a central role in local community discussions about health and education (for example), so you might be looking for ways to effectively help them help their communities. How will you eventually communicate the results of your research? This may also influence how you want to start doing the research.So:Where do the clerics get health-related information from currently? What opportunities do they have to learn about local and global conditions and responses? What relationships do they have with local polio victims, local health workers, and government experts? Who do they meet and who do they really listen to, and who can actually give them reliable information in their own language?If you want to do qualitative research, then you will need to think about how to approach clerics and conduct interviews and discussions. Under what circumstances is such work possible? What permissions are needed? What explanations do you need to give them? How can you develop a practical consultative approach that is rewarding for all parties involved? To what extent do you need to solicit private versus public opinions and information, and are you able to offer assurances of maintaining privacy when making use of private opinions and information? In anthropology there are various ways of dealing with this, in publications.As for theory - this depends on what you want to theorise about: The epidemology of polio? The transmission of modern medical knowledge from the world to local communities (and vice versa)? Linguistic issues around knowledge transfer? The role of social hierarchy in aiding or blocking the transmission of knowledge? The integration of traditional and modern forms of knowledge? The role of religion in responses to new problems and opportunities? Are you approaching the work from a social or biological perspective, or both?These are just some initial thoughts. I hope other members of the Cooperative can offer more ideas. Good luck!P.

How to write a research proposal

Editing - REQUESTS

Dear Mr Saleh,Well - step one is to start writing drafts, and maybe about two months before the proposal needs too be presented, if it is a big piece of work. 'Immediately' is not usually effective!But - if you have already been thinking a lot about what needs to be written, and it only needs a page or two, then maybe you can do it quickly.Write an outline; imagine you are the intended reader(s), who may or may not know about the kind of research being proposed; how can you make it easy to understand and interesting for others?Peter

Internet based Research Work

Services archive

Dear Denious,The Research Cooperative is primarily aimed at people who are writing their own original work for publication.It is not clear exactly what you are asking for here, but if you are looking for someone to do your writing for you, then you will: (a) learn less, and (b) probably get a lower mark (teachers are interested in your thoughts, and how you pull other people's ideas together and apart, in a literature review, not so much in the standard of your English), and (c) miss out on the fun of writing your own stuff.English is a language designed to be mangled, so feel free to mangle it in your own way! Liberate yourself from the yellow tape of correct English! Express yourself!You could try to write something first, and then look for a volunteer to help with editing, and then acknowledge that help at the end of the review.Teachers are interested in how you write an essay, as well as what you write. They can (and should) help you if it is clear you are making your own efforts. If they get the impression that a student is not making an effort, they will probably switch off.One way you could approach this is to use our 'Projects' forum to outline your review as a project, and then ask for responses to your initial ideas, and leads to relevant literature. That would be a legitimate research approach, and a good way to get into the writing.