If there's one thing that people think of when they hear the word "academic," its an image of someone writing endless papers. Or reading endless papers. Or grading endless papers. With two conferences on the horizon (take a peek at the PROJECTS tab above to see where I'm presenting next) and a chapter of a textbook in the works, I am no stranger to writing endless papers.
But why would one want to even bother?
Well, an academic paper is the most basic building block of sharing knowledge, whether that is analyzing what other people are doing, evaluating established ideas, or presenting new findings. These might seem intimidating, but these papers are meant to be clearly written statements of what you did, why you did it, and what you found out. Because of the nature of the subject matter, there is usually a lot of jargon sprinkled in. Organic chemistry, for example, will need to have the correct names of the chemical components and processes involved, or the paper is worthless. But when we talk about something we're passionate about with others who are extremely interested in it--when we geek out, so to speak--we will also fall into using jargon that is meaningless to an outsider.
So, where do you start, if you want to churn out a pile of papers?
Let's say you're not a student, so you're not doing your own research, just analysis. You're not in school, and you're not associated with any academic institution, but you want to start building up your portfolio of "serious articles." This is absolutely a great way to start! You're going to have to do a little digging in two places. First, you will need to know what's already been said about your topic. And this can be on anything: interesting insects you found in your yard, analysis of how different movies influenced certain video games and vice versa, or how people change behavior in different social situations. Free sites such as scholar(dot)google(dot)com and academia(dot)edu are going to provide you with hours of reading material, and--here is the important part--so will Wikipedia. With every one of these sources, go to the end and copy the bibliography, because you're going to want to read the sources used to create the article you're reading. Nine times out of ten, that's going to be where you find the really valuable stuff. So far I've said some pretty simple advice, and while your success will depend on how well you adjust your search terms, this is something you will get the hang of over time.
Alright, so the second place you need to do some digging. This has to do with where the article (or articles) you end up writing will go. Academia(dot)edu is definitely a great place to start publishing your work for free, especially as you're able to get feedback from peers as well as from professionals in the field. You should also look to see if there are any academic journals who have put out a call for papers that cover a similar subject matter to what you are writing about. Periodically searching "call for papers" and some key words about your research will help uncover these opportunities as well as more articles to read.
Far too many people feel that higher education keeps them from contributing to academic research. However, I firmly believe that independent research can and should be a gateway to propelling one into higher education when they had little other means to get there. Especially with the internet as a resource, there are countless ways you can disseminate what you're doing as you start to analyze and investigate. Building up your portfolio should be a fun reading adventure!
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