Every time you describe your research or engage in discussion about your research you are preparing to write this statement.

Small and Formal

Pre-established Qs Clarification follow

ups Past / Now / Future Taking semantic

space

Situation Task Analysis / Action Result(s)

Interview Panel * S * T * A * R *

Small, Formal & Interdisciplinary

Kelton McMahon “fish address

book”

Sophie Clayton “virtual seas”

Courtney Coombes Molecular, Cellular,

Developmental Biology & Genetics

Jordan Becker Biochemistry,

Molecular Biology & Biopphysics

1 Minute Research Statements

3 Minute Thesis Statements

Describe a three-year plan for initiating your proposed research program.  Include concepts involved, a work plan summary, year-by-year equipment needs, funding sources, and total cost per year.  This plan should be no longer than 5 pages.  Again, we realize you have provided a research statement; please help us imagine this within the context of JustWhereYouWantToBe U.

Academic Institutions & Positions - 1 Research Institution

Tenure Track Research Position Faculty Role Position

Departmental Appointment Shared Appointment Research Institution Affiliation

Academic Staff Teaching Professor Researcher - Lab Manager, Institute Member Professional & Administrative Staff

Academic Institutions & Positions - 2 Comprehensive Colleges & Universities

Regional Serving – public: Mankato Regional Serving – private: Hamline Masters or Doctoral granting

Liberal Arts Colleges & Universities Research and Teaching Teaching and Research

Brief impromptu spoken remarks offered in formal & informal professional settings.

A formal document included in a job application, which begins and launches follow up conversations.

A portfolio that summarizes your future research trajectory with supporting documentation.

What is a Research Statement?

PurposeTasksAudiencesRhetorics

Definitely not a narrated walk through your CV.

…and Interdisciplinarity

Making a persuasive case about the importance of your completed work, and conveying excitement of your future trajectory.1.Convince the committee you will succeed.2.Describe short-and long-term research goals.3.Show emergence as independent investigator.4.Illuminate contributions / significances – to the field and beyond academe / industry.

Purposes include…

Convince them that you will succeed

Purposes

mapping your career as a researcher

exploring intellectual vision describing aspirations

approaches & significances short- & long-term

compatibility with place connections to other faculty roles

teaching, advising/mentoring, service

writing ability

Task & Common Components

Executive Summary

Graduate research Postdoctoral

research Future research  Conclusion

Executive Summary Separate “chapters”

for different research interests & projects

Teaching Role chapter

Conclusion

Chronological Topical

Task & Common Components

Para 1: overarching theme, disciplinarily situated.

Para 2: summary of dissertation research (method, theory, argument)

Para 3: contribution of diss research & related publications to field(s)

Para 4: next research project(s): topics, methods, theoretical orientation, statement of contribution to field(s).  

Para 5: summarize wider impact of research agenda(s), valuable and important in & beyond discipline(s).

Op-Ed Format: DeductivePara 1: introduction of research topic, significance, 3 bodies of evidencePara 2-4: making the case for 3 claims; evidence, analysis & transition sentencesPara 5: synopsis and conclusion to revisit importance of your research, to recap in future looking mode, and to conclude

Detective Story Format: InductiveOverarching Research QuestionEmergent AnsweringsBringing the Pieces Together

Dr. Karen Psychological Science

Audience – Format & Rhetoric

brief and organized. one to three pages   visually smart – pleasing and easy single spaced, okay; 1.5, even

better ¾” margins, okay, 1”, even better concise paragraphs short bulleted lists subject headings content, organization, surface

errors World English considerations

“I work on transitions in the care of the elderly in Japan. I am particularly focused on the recent growth in government run care facilities. I use ethnographic methods to address the nature of the care given in these facilities, and I explore how the care is received by the patients and their families.  My dissertation explores one such facility in northern Japan.”

Format Rhetoric“The rapidly aging society is one of the primary challenges facing Japan in recent decades.  Both the public and private sectors have hastened to respond to emerging needs of the elderly and their families.  Over 200 new government run elderly care centers have been built in recent years.  In my dissertation, I conduct an ethnographic study of one such facility in northern Japan, in order to explore the nature of the care provided there, as well as its reception by the elderly themselves and their family caregivers.”

Research Statement – Sample IntroMy research focuses on the psychological mechanisms that underlie spoken language. I am interested in understanding how languages are learned, represented, and processed. Using a combination of experimental and computational methods, my research explores constraints on word formation. This includes morphology (the study of form and meaning), phonology (the study of sound patterns), and speech perception (how words are recognized in fluent speech). My goal is use the patterns that are found among languages of the world as a basis to form hypotheses about how the mind must work in order to produce such patterns.

Claudia case - 1 Educational Background

PhD – Feminist Studies, qualitative methodology ethnic studies expertise; methods linked to literary

theory, media studies, historiography, ethnography Research Interests

Oral History and Midwest Chicanas Media Studies and Cultural Representations Use of Social Technologies in teaching and

communities Research Experience

Dissertation RA assignments Creation of new courses

Claudia case - 2 Possible Fits

History Literature Chican@ Studies Gender / Women’s / Sexuality Studies Cultural Studies

Unique Characteristics Technology

In teaching In research As research

Teaching Experience crosses 4 disciplines Work Experience includes educational community

organizing

Claudia case - 3 Positions Applied for

History – Comprehensive & Lib Arts; joint appts w/ WmSt

Literature – Lib Arts asst prof w/ Chican@ expertise

Chican@ Studies – R1 and Lib Arts, asst prof positions

Gender, Women’s, Sexuality Studies – all institutional types for asst prof; multiple department teaching expectations but single research & tenure home

Ethnic Studies – R1 postdocs, Lib Arts asst prof Variety of postdoctoral posts

Claudia case - 4 Decisions in Writing about Research

Three versions for single disciplines, incorporating Chican@ Studies

expertise Ethnic Studies positions, organizing based on job posting Women’s Studies positions, organized based on job posting

Three segments Current Research to Planned Next Stages Specifics regarding current, on-going, and future ways

of working with Students Long Term, first setting out a vision to convey research

philosophy as linked to student learning and community context, then setting out an agenda for future directions