The Importance of Being a Good Researcher - Essay Example

By doing the things discussed here, the researcher will be inspired to come up with brilliant ideas and these will open new paths to conducting well-structured research.

There are some steps and characteristics that make a good researcher what he is. The most important characteristics he has to have, in my opinion, are open-mindedness, constant seeking of the truth, and adopting a critical way of thinking, and by this, he not only criticizes but also knows how to expand and develop the research topic into something more than what has already been done. Being an open-minded researcher means understanding, and accepting other peoples` ideas and respecting their opinions. When writing a research paper, the researcher should seek the truth to develop trustworthy and valid research. A researcher should be a critical thinker, which means that he has to search for, compare different perspectives, and clarify important concepts on the target topic. Moreover, a researcher should be honest, should never cease to ask even seemingly easy questions, and should base his judgment on good evidence. In overall research writing, a good researcher is one who never ceases to ask the hows and whys.

         Before enrolling in this master's program, I only had a little knowledge of how to write a research paper or conduct a study due to the lack of a research method curriculum at my university. After enrolling in this program, I learned a lot about research methods and how to write a well-organized paper. I also learned how to collect data and find reliable resources, which, in my opinion, are some of the most important factors of research. Finally, I would encourage graduate and undergraduate students to be enrolled in a research methods course and to read more about writing research papers, as this also helps to develop the way they think and deal with whatever data they may be presented in the future.