Five Essential Skills for Every Undergraduate Researcher

Adrienne Showman, Linh Anh Cat, Jacquelyn Cook, Natalie Holloway, and Tyler Wittman,
University of Central Florida Spring 2013 Volume 33, Number 3

Research is hardly easy. As Martin Schwartz point out in his 2008 essay, “The Importance
of Stupidity in Scientific Research” (Cited in, 2008). However, intimidating it will help us to
overcome our ignorance. We believe that there are special set of traits that a person shoul
have , in order to be a successful undergraduate researcher. Creativity, judgment,
communication, organization, and persistence are the key to an undergraduate researcher
developing the foundation for a successful career in research. Creativity is a constant for
the undergraduate research process. In an article by Jeffrey M. Obsom, dean of the College
of the New Jersey, and Kerry K. Karukstis, professor of chemistry at Harvey Mudd College,
originality is said to be a “common thread that runs through every undergraduate research
activity on campus” (cited in). Creativity is an essential trait that undergraduate
researchers should seek to develop and utilize within their research experience. When
creating or developing a topic or a plan for exploring a problem, creativity is fundamental
to this effort. The next key skill is judgment. You need a good judgment in selecting a
mentee, an undergraduate researcher should likewise evaluate and choose a mentor who
will help the researcher to grow in he best possible way. The third key skill is
communication. It is necessary to develop and maintain an effective relationship between
an undergraduate researcher and his or her faculty mentor using communication.
Alexander Astin, who counts these interactions as one of the most important factors in
development of a student’s undergraduate researcher (Cited in, 1991). The next one is
organization. A well-honed organizational skills facilitate effective research and good
science, as well as allowing students to balance classes, studying, research, socializing,
hobbies and maintaining a healthy lifestyle much easier. Being organized helps you to
analyse data, generating new ideas or proposals or determining the next step in project.
The last one is persistence. Persistence is the drive to never give up. It is useful for building
undergraduate researchers who do not have strong resumes or previous experiences. It’s a
trait definitely noticed by most faculty mentors. Applying the five skills will help an
undergraduate transition from being a student to becoming a researcher and move from
learning to discovering. Creativity, judgment, communication, organization and persistence
are universally applicable in the pursuit of becoming a better researcher.
Reflection:

At first, I really don’t know where to start my summary. I’m not really into reading
especially when it’s long. I need to read it again and again in order to understand the
article. But thanks God, this article is shorter compare to the first article that we
summarized.

Based on the article, to be a good researcher, you need a set of skills that will be
your key in order to build a foundation for a successful career in research. There are many
things you need to consider in order to accomplish and make a better research. Creativity,
judgment, communication, organization and persistence are said to be the skills that are
needed.

So how can I get those skills? Is it innate? Can it be learned? An idea popped in my
mind, maybe if I have those skills, my career in the field of research will be successful. I can
create many research that can help our economy and we can compete in other countries in
terms of research. I remember from the previous article that preoccupations about
university rankings reflect the general recognition that economic growth and global
competitiveness are increasingly driven by knowledge and that research universities play a
key role in that context. Indeed, rapid advances in science and technology across a wide
range of areas – from information and communications technologies to biotechnology to
new materials – provide great potential for developing countries to accelerate and
strengthen their economic development. By this statement, I conclude that by the help of
making a research, our country will be recognized by other countries and this will be a big
help to us. I admit that I don’t like making a research because I know that it’s hard but
because of this article I somehow feel enlightened and it gives me knowledge that you can’t
make a research if you don’t have those skills. Those skills that will be the key for us,
researchers, to make a better and productive research paper.