By KELSIE FERGUSON
Staff Writer
Generating a bibliography, quoting other sources and proofreading all take time and are not always considered fun. So, why do it?
The thing about research is that it not only benefits the individual doing the work, but also contributes to a body of knowledge that the academic community can build on and learn from. And research that’s published can be used to build students’ resumes. Why? Because doing research increases one’s intellectual skills, making that individual more valuable to an employer.
One way to get your research published is to submit it to the Undergraduate Research Journal (URJ). If your research is approved, it will be circulated alongside other excellent bodies of research done by other IU South Bend students.
Jake Mattox, an assistant professor of English, is one of the people who worked to coordinate the Undergraduate Research Conference. In 2007, Mattox graduated from the University of California in San Diego with a Ph.D. in literature. Mattox often does his own research, contributing to the academic pool of knowledge regularly.
“I want students to realize that knowledge itself is a process and not a product,” he said. “Conducting research and then presenting it demonstrates that many voices contribute to learning and the conversation never stops.”
At the end of one’s college experience, the next step is finding a career. IUSB’s Career Services is a place where many seniors find themselves working to secure a good job that will eventually lead them to accomplish their goals and dreams. Career Services helps individuals develop resumes that will impress potential employers.
Career Services staff will ask students not just about the classes they’ve taken, but also the projects and other work they did to prove that IUSB made an impact on their intellectual skills.
The more one works to get published, the better chances they’ll have of landing that dream job.
Mattox talked about developing intellectual skills, “which will be invaluable in any profession or simply in our own private lives. But [research] also translates into professional skills that will impress any employer, graduate school, or other program.”
“A resume that includes such projects and such participation signals to anyone reading it that the student can not only do the focused and disciplined work necessary for meaningful research, but also engage in discussions, converse in public, productively deal with complexity, solve problems, exchange and build upon ideas, and think on their feet,” he said. “Whatever the field, these skills are valued immensely.”
The URJ publishes every year and students interested need only submit their work to the coordinator that year. For more information, contact Tom Clark at tclark2@iusb.edu.
