I do my research backwards. How about you?

[mareserinitatis]

When I was at SU, I took a class on research methods, and our prof gave us the slides for a talk given by Simon Peyton JonesThere is a ton of great advice in there, but I especially like (love!) his second paper writing model

Comments

Interesting

[anonymous]

It's a really neat take on experimenting, and would presumably lead to some better research designs if you're already thinking about the logical consequences beforehand, but I'm hesitant about having data as your last step; too much agenda-driven bias might well damn any good idea.

Re: Interesting

[mareserinitatis]

Hmmm. Maybe outline a results section perhaps? But certainly, I've found it helpful to have background, related work, and methodology sections all done, as well as any extra steps you took to validate your process.

On the other hand, if you have a good idea of what you're going to get, maybe writing it up beforehand may make you more likely to notice things that might be erratic or not working as anticipated...so it could easily work the other way as well. :-)