The Metaphors That Research Students Live By

In this paper I report a study of the ways in which research students think about their research. I took a unique approach by using metaphor analysis to study the students' conceptions. The research students in this study were recruited for an on-line survey at an Australian research-intensive university in which they answered questions relating to their conceptions of research. Five categories of metaphors for research were arrived at which I have labelled metaphors of space, metaphors of travel, metaphors of action, metaphors of the body and metaphors of ordeal. These metaphors provide useful information about the ways that the students visualise their research and their conceptions of what it entails.