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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\nWhen I help students understand the basic reasoning behind research But I’m getting off track. OK, back to writing.<\/span><\/p>\n If I asked you to go make a Baked Alaska, what would be the first You might look ‘Baked Alaska’ up in several cookbooks. You would You might look up several recipes and compare the ingredients, or Once you head into the kitchen, do you start just randomly throwing You would keep at your baking until your food creation is complete. You have completed a research writing cycle. Just like with baking, Well done! Congratulate yourself! And here, have a piece of this lovely thing called Baked Alaska<\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nwriting, I often say “Research writing is like Baked Alaska. Do you know
\n what a Baked Alaska is?” I always get back a confused, laughing “No.”
\nPurposely, I pick this food because: <\/span><\/p>\n\n
\nbeen the norm. I mean, ice cream inside a baked cake! And served by
\nsomeone in pearls and an A-line skirt. Just imagine!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nthing you would do? You would probably Google it. Totally OK. Everyone Googles. Asking questions<\/b> is the first step.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ngather a few recipes that you would consider your main guides and you
\nwould keep rereading those recipes. Congratulations, you have started
\nyour literature review<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe style of making. Do you have a nine inch pan or a ten inch pan? Does
\n it matter? What if you want to use chocolate ice cream instead of
\nstrawberry? Is your oven big enough? Can you whip the meringue by hand
\nor with a mixer? You are determining your methods<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n flour, sugar, and eggs around hoping that a dessert will somehow
\nhappen? No. You carefully measure the ingredients in the proper order
\nand follow the instructions. You are specifying your tools and techniques<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n A wondrous cake, ice cream, and meringue dessert that you’d quickly
\ntake a photo of and post up to your social media accounts. You have
\ncommunicated your results and conclusion.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\n you might have ideas to try to make Baked Alaska again. This time the
\noven needs to be hotter, or you will use sponge cake instead of yellow
\ncake. You have joined the academy of researchers, <\/b>asking questions, setting up experiments, gathering data, and communicating results.<\/span><\/p>\n
This article was originally posted to LinkedIn on November 22, 2018. This post was updated on April 3, 2026 with a better font and deletion of the missing images.<\/span><\/p>\n