Hey everyone, My name is Andy, I'm a design masters student at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland and I'm conducting a short research project on the genres of self help, 'how to', training and educational books. I'm looking to explore from an author's perspective what problems and difficulties you face researching, creatiting, writing, publishing and getting feedback on your material. This is a fresh, new area of investigation for me so forgive me for being a little vague. Any insights you can share will be greatly appreciated! Also if you would prefer not to share your insights on this post please could you drop an email to my school address:[link removed] Thanks very much! Andy
I think your question simply covers too much ground. No one could give you a coherent reply. Perhaps if you restrict your question to one area, say "research", you might get more responses.
+1 The first step in any research project is to get clear on what you're trying to learn. As you say, your questions are vague. And as Bryan Romer says, the scope of your research is too broad. I'd suggest you go back to the drawing board, narrow the scope of your research, and then clarify the questions you want answered.
I'll ditto @Bryan Romer and @David K. Thomasson. Problems of research alone would make for a pretty extensive study, with different subject areas posing varying kinds of problems.
Google has issues. The prospect of infinite source of information is thwarted by a hundred dead ends from my keyboard configurations. I work to get around the barriers, often to no avail but every once in while, success. Crowdsourcing on this and other forums is a saving grace. That's all I got. Oh, except welcome to the forum if you are here for more than pushing your web link.
It may be my weak Google-Fu, but it seems almost impossible to find information on certain subjects from the web. It's especially bad when trying to find information about diseases that aren't treated. I know doing a deliberate study is unethical, but people that probably do know exactly what would happen lack the imagination to believe that someone is honestly researching for a book. (I can actually say "fantasy setting" and they'll answer "go to a hospital, idiot.") My most recent search was about emergency blood transfusions, but the plain-english ones only talk about non-emergency transfusions. The technical manuals have a lot of stuff I don't understand and an assumption that someone is going to show you how and don't cover that part in the text.
What exactly do you mean by "diseases that aren't treated"? Are you talking about people not bothering to be treated and/or being ignorant of being sick in the first place? If so, there are statistics around, but you will need to search each disease individually. You can find most things, but the sources tend to be obscure. Military training manuals, government or regulatory body documents, and so forth. Here's one for emergency transfusion. It is quite technical, but most of the general info is there if you persevere in going through it. Enough to sound knowledgeable in a novel anyway. http://www.lhsc.on.ca/About_Us/Base_Hospital_Program/Education/021IVPrecourse.pdf
That military manual is better than what I've found... hard to decipher but I did get something useful from it. When I say "diseases that aren't treated" I mean what happens when you don't have access to certain things. Either what would have happened historically, or what would happen in a zombie apocalypse where they can't raid a hospital. In that movie where a glacier invaded New York, and the girl cut her leg while running from it, and they didn't realize she needed help until she was beyond the point of amputation, what would have happened if there wasn't a russian sub that they could raid for antibiotics also trapped in the glacier?
If the gangrene hadn't spread too far, the only alternative treatment would have been amputation and without antibiotics or even antiseptics, cauterisation of the stump. Chances are she would die. Try searching for things like "field first aid" and "emergency first aid". For people dependent upon constant medication, blood pressure, diabetes, etc, there is a good chance that they will die. Even knowledge of herbal cures and remedies don't really help unless you can find the plants etc and can recognise it when you see it. Same for things like tetanus or salmonella. Alcohol is probably the easiest antiseptic to make, vinegar too if you know how. Charcoal can help some types of poisoning and stomach upset. Willow bark can be boiled to produce natural aspirin.
