All undertakings, whether throwing a 50th-anniversary party for your grandparents, buying a new car, moving into your first apartment, or moving to another state, have one thing in common: They all take careful planning. The same goes with researching your paper. A well-developed plan will mean the difference between completing your project on time or ahead of schedule.Three logical steps you should take before digging for more information and to fulfill your research are:1. Set an agenda for your research2. Develop a list of the research tools and strategies3. Create a timetable or schedule for completionSetting an Agenda for Your ResearchPlanning in advance what you need to research can save you a tremendous amount of time and energy. You need a road map to take you in the right direction. Otherwise, you will be spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast. To avoid this problem, you need to set an agenda for your research.Accomplishing this task is easy. Consider the purpose of your topic and the expectations that your instructor has for your paper. What should your paper look like? What do you hope to learn about your topic? What characteristics should your paper reflect? Is your paper supposed to examine a highly debatable political, cultural, or scholarly issue? Is your paper supposed to take a position or weigh both sides of the issue? Who will your audience be? If you're not sure what the requirements are, always ask your instructor so you are heading down the right path.Following this exercise, determine what methods of research will be appropriate to meet those expectations. What kind of sources are you allowed to use? How much evidence is needed to shape your paper? What variety of sources are required reflecting different viewpoints?Finally, look at what combination of research will help you fulfill the objective of your assignment. Decide which tools and references you should use to balance your research and that you plan to explore. The tools and strategies you select will guide you to finding the research you need to accomplish your assignment.Listing Your Tools and StrategiesNow that you have successfully set an agenda, you need a shopping list. Your list should cover those research tools and strategies you decided upon that are most suitable and most appropriate for your project.In doing your preliminary research to test your topic, you probably only scratched the surface. Consulting encyclopedias, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet probably fulfilled your initial needs, but now you need to broaden the scope of your research to other mediums to fully research your topic before writing your paper.Consequently, list other print and electronic research tools that you want to explore in earnest, and check them off after you've completed this task. Your list might be something like this:___ Check almanacs
___ Check biographical dictionaries
___ Check electronic databases
___ Check master bibliographies
___ Check microfilm indexes
___ Check scholarly journals
___ Check specialized subject references
___ Check other sources (such as government documents, statistical abstracts, and the like)
___ Check with a librarian (for helping you find any of the above or other relevant sources) Your list may look different from the above example, but, nonetheless, it will help you focus on your needs and help you to achieve them.As you embark on this phase of research, be diligent. Take notes of what research you have completed, including citations—particular information that gives proof of what you have researched—for each source you plan to use, such as the author, title, publisher, year, and Web address, and what you have left to finish. This information will be useful to you later, when you compile your bibliography or works cited page for your essay, term paper, or written project.Creating a Timetable/ScheduleNearly everything in life is scheduled or involves some kind of rigid routine. You may wake up at the same time every morning, have breakfast at the same time (or skip breakfast every morning—your choice), go to school at the same time, or do your school work at the same hour every day. While it may be redundant and suffocating at times, the fact is that having a schedule works best to allow you to accomplish all that you need to do.When embarking on your research project, how well you manage and schedule your time is equally important. Researching an essay, term paper, or written project involves many critical stages, each of them completed successfully and on schedule, if your project is to be successful, too.To accomplish your research with ease, establish a schedule that breaks your project into small, manageable tasks. Your research won't be completed in one day, and it shouldn't be. Researching your paper is a process that encompasses the commitment of time and energy of a scheduled period of time to attain your goals. Students may spend a day or so or up to two weeks, depending on the scope and nature of the assignment, first searching for a topic, then defining and narrowing it before gathering the necessary research to begin writing their project.Depending on the time you have to complete your project, you should develop a schedule that addresses your time constraints and pending deadline for your project. For example, if you have only two weeks, then you really should complete your research in the first week so you can spend the second week writing your paper. If you have a month, you may have the luxury of more time, but you should plan on completing all of your major research within the first two weeks.Following are examples of two schedules, based on the above scenarios, which you can adapt or change to fit your needs:Research Schedule #1Day One: Actively begin researching your topic on the first day. Locate what you consider will be the best resources to uncover useful information for your paper. Keep a log of the sources you have visited and what resources you need to check the next day.Day Two: Keep researching your topic. Check more sources on your list and make notes of what new sources you have found.Day Three: Continue down your list of potential resources. Keep accumulating relevant information from your other sources. Make notes of the sources you have reviewed.Day Four: Now review all your research. Evaluate what you have and organize your research for your paper. After organizing your research, prepare an outline for your paper, indicating what research you plan to use in your paper and to determine if you have everything you need for your project or still need more information.Day Five: If necessary, use this day to acquire any last-minute research that will be important to writing your paper.Research Schedule #2Week One: Aggressively research your topic and commit as much time as possible during that first week. Find the most promising sources to unearth the most meaningful material for your paper. Keep a running account of your success and make notes of the research that you completed, what sites or resources you have checked, and, by week's end, what research you have not completed.Week Two: Continue researching your topic. Find and evaluate more sources. Create a preliminary outline for your paper, based on your research, in the order of what you plan to cover. To accomplish this task, carefully review and organize all of your research by the subtopics you want to discuss that are relevant to your main topic. By organizing your research and also outlining your paper, you can determine if you need any additional research. If necessary, you should acquire it before the end of the week so you can start writing your paper.
|
Email
Print
Save
Citation
Record URL
