Researching is a Recursive Process

What does it mean to say researching is a recursive process? Despite guides like this presenting a linear set of steps, researching is does not follow a neat set of steps because as we research we constantly return to and redo the many activities that go into researching. So why present steps? Even though it helps to follow a sequence where one step leads to another, the research process like the writing process is recursive. For instance, most guides to the research process list understanding the assignment as the first step. Analyzing your assignment is a good and necessary first step because it helps you understand what you need to do and where you are going in the research project, but your understanding of the task invariably is incomplete or even incorrect at the beginning. Only when you get into the thick of the task do you begin to fully appreciate and understand what you are doing. Hence, the step one task to understand the assignment that launches the research process is never completely or perfectly done, and the questions it asks us to consider are productively reconsidered throughout the research process.

This doing of steps and then returning to them, reconsidering and redoing them as needed, happens for all the steps in the research process. Our appreciation and understanding of our task and our topic unfolds and evolves as we work on our inquiry project. Thus, research like writing and reading is a recursive process.

Despite this recursive nature to the research process, it is helpful to follow a broad sequence of phases and accompanying steps.

Phases of the Research Process

	Research Design --determine your research question and strategy
	Active Research --data-gathering and analysis
	Research Report --writing up research findings

images from Flaticon.com

It is important to start by designing your research project. Determining your research topic, a clear research question, and a plan for researching this question is a necessary first phase of your research project. Once this direction and plan is in place, the next step is to go out and find as much information to answer this question as you can from the best possible sources of information. As you collect this information, you then must read and analyze it to see what answers it is giving you to your research question. The last step is to report what you have found. This report is your research paper, and you won't really be able to write this report until you have done adequate researching and analysis of what you have found.

As you launch into your research process, I ask you hold this paradox in mind: follow a sequence of steps, but return to these activities again and again as needed. These steps build upon each other, but you are never completely finished with any step. Go forward, but go backwards to move forward--again and again.

 

PHASE #1: DESIGNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

 

Step #1: Understanding Your Assignment

First, read the assignment description carefully. Some are very detailed and specific, others may allow you lots of freedom to choose your own topic or approach. Then ask yourself these questions

• What am I being asked to do? (provide information, create an argument, analyze a work)
• Who is the audience? (instructor, classmates, online group)
• What are the requirements? (due dates, length, format, citation style)
• What research is required, what sources can I use? (books, journals, primary or secondary sources, websites, personal opinions)

See this site for more tips on understanding your assignment.

Step #2: Choosing Your Research Topic

Sometimes your instructor will provide you with the topic, but other times you will choose your own. Choosing a workable topic is a very important step in the research process. An interesting and appropriate research topic is the foundation to a good research project. A good topic is one that is broad enough so that you will be able to find sources, but narrow enough so that it fits the scope and length of your assignment.

Getting background information helps introduce you to the topic more deeply and find key elements of the subject that interest you and can help you broaden or narrow your focus and find a workable research question. Sources for background reading beyond general searches on the internet can be found in library reference databases like SAGE Knowledge, Credo Reference, CQ Researcher, or Gale Virtual Reference Library. Ask your librarian where you might search for this background information. Don't forget talking to people more knowledgeable on the topic can also be a great way to learn more about your topic.

Below are two good guides for choosing a Topic for your research, followed by guides on helping your brainstorm to find your Research Topic:

• Choose a Topic--Fresno State U.
• Choosing a Topic

Brainstorming Strategies to Find a Research Topic

• Concept Mapping
• Asking Questions
• Narrowing a Topic
• Broadening a Topic
• Choosing Keywords

Step #3: Formulating Your Research Question

A key step in getting started with your research project will be to define a clear Research Question. Some assignments will either specify the question for you or make it easy to declare this question, so examine your assignment sheet carefully. For other research projects, you will need to define your own research question.

It is really important to state a good research question because it defines the focus for your entire research project.

You won't know what to search for or even where to look until you set this goal for your research. This research question becomes the guiding focus and direction for your research and inquiry. For example, if your research topic is sugar and its potential negative effects, your research question might be: "What effects does sugar have on diabetes?" As you learn more about your topic, you might refine this research question to, "Does sugar intake influence the development of insulin resistance?"

There are many techniques for choosing, exploring, brainstorming and focusing on a topic that will help you work through this step. These are only a few:

• choose something interesting to you and explore it with some preliminary general research.
• notice key aspects of this general topic and begin asking questions
• generate as many possible research questions as you can and then zero in on one that looks interesting to you, that is aligned with the research assignment, and is do-able
• then try rephrasing and refining your chosen research question; write five or more versions of this question

If you have questions about your research question, ask your professor for their assistance in refining your research question. Librarians can also help you to think about and refine your topic and research question. Realize that the research question you start out with may not be the one you end up with. Be open to modifying your research question as you dig into researching answers for that question and learning more about the topic.

The resources below about research questions will also help your formulate and define your Research Question.

A good research questions should be:

• clear: it is ease to understand
• focused: it is specific and narrow in focus
• concise: it is not wordy
• complex: it is not a simple yes/no question
• arguable: it is an issue open to debate
  ***SEE How to Write a Research Question from George Mason Univ. for more.

A good research question presents

• a question that is appropriate in scope (size and focus) for your project or essay?
• a true question--one you don't already know the answer to or that has an easy answer
• a question that is researchable
  • that is, it presents a question that can be answerable through researching available information
  • that is, it does not present a question where information is not available or the question can only be answered with opinion
• a question that is interesting and passes the "so what?" test--it is interesting to you and relevant to your audience
  *** See these guides on Good and Bad Research Questions:
  --Characteristics of Good and Bad Research Questions--Univ. of Maryland
  --Examples of Good and Bad Research Questions

  Example Research Questions on the Topic of Sugar How does sugar intake affect pregnancy and the development of gestational diabetes? What are the physiological effects of sugar on a person's mind? What is the relationship between sugar addiction and eating disorders? Are sugar substitutes healthier for you than refined sugar? Should we limit our intake of natural sugars and if so how much? Is there a relationship between sugar consumption and depression? What is the role sugar played in 16th century Mexico?

 

Step #4: Waiting to Declare Your Thesis or Research Findings

Like any essay, your research paper will need to have a thesis--a single, clear point which your introduction declares and your body develops and supports. But it is important for you not to declare your thesis too soon.

Stating your Essay Question should be the start of your research journey, and the goal of your research is to find the best answer to that Research Question. Like a good scientist designing an experiment, you should not presume to know what the end point of your research will be. A good research question is truly a question which means you don't yet know the answer. The whole goal of your research is to find the answer to that question. Thus, you may not know your thesis until well into or after your research into the topic is complete. Defining your thesis will be one of the first steps when you get to the point of writing your research paper.

The following are good guides on writing a thesis statement for a research project:

• How to Write a Thesis Statement--San Jose State Univ.
• How to Write a Good Thesis Statement--Richard Nordquist

Step #5: Developing a Research Strategy

Now that you have your research question, the next major phase will be to start your research and finding information. But before you start this active research to find information, you should take a bit of time to do some planning and strategizing. This planning involves some thinking about WHERE to search and HOW to search.

Plan WHERE to Search

Ask yourself:

• What types of materials do I need? 
• How recent should my materials be? 
• How long do I have to do my research? 
• What subjects are covered by my topic?  

Do you need background information? Most people need help understanding and focusing the topic of their research. Starting with a general encyclopedia beyond wikipedia can help you understand the landscape of your topic and think of keywords. The library's Subject Guides can also provide ideas or you can ask a librarian. You wouldn't want to cite an encyclopedia in your paper, but they're provide good general background knowledge that can help you search for scholarly sources more easily. Some quick searches on the internet may also generate sources that provide general information on your topic.

Do you need "scholarly" or "popular" sources?  Scholarly sources are written by researchers and scholars who are knowledgeable experts on the subject who seek to contribute to the understanding on a topic. These sources come in the form of scholarly books, journals, or even reports and are "peer-reviewed" which means other experts in the same field have reviewed and approved the content. The audience for this scholarly material tends to be other scholars who study and do research. Popular sources are written for the general public and will not be as technical as scholarly sources. They may represent research done in scholarly sources but in terms understood by the general public. Popular sources include newspapers, magazines, blogs, reports, or other general information websites. Your assignment should specify what level of experts to use in your research. However, for college research, you are likely to need some scholarly sources in your research.

Do you need "primary" or "secondary" sources?  Primary sources are documents, images, or artifacts that contain firsthand information that provide direct accounts of an event, person, object, or work of art. Secondary sources are indirect sources that interpret and provide commentary on information presented in primary sources. Video footage of an event or an account written by a participant in an event would be a primary source; a secondary source might be an academic article or book written about the event later. Shakespeare's play Hamlet would be a primary source, but a book or critical essay analyzing Hamlet would be a secondary source.

• Primary vs. Secondary Sources--Univ. of Massachusetts
• Tutorial on Learning About Primary and Secondary Sources

Do you need books or articles? For many projects, you'll use both books and articles, but sometimes your instructor will specify that you must use one or the other. Books provide richer, more comprehensive information, while journal articles are more focused and narrower. Typically, it is good to have a mix of books and articles in your research.

Do you need current or historic sources? Typically, it is good to find the most current information on your subject because the understanding of topics evolves over time. However, your topic may require you to go back to find past perspectives on events or topics.

Plan WHEN to Search: Creating a Research Plan and Calendar

Once you have a sense of the type of information you will need and where you will need to get it, create a research plan for yourself for what you will search for and where.

• Review how much time you have for the project and any dates when deliverables are due--then map out a calendar for the project.
• Think also about the sequence for where you will search. Often jumping straight into scholarly articles can be difficult because they are frequently technical and narrowly focused. Finding books and general web searches using credible sites can provide good general grounding in the topic to guide more focused research in scholarly articles.
• Try using this Assignment Research Calculator to help you set up a plan and a calendar for completing the research project.

Plan HOW to Search: De-constructing Your Research Question for Keywords

Research projects are all about the "stuff" that you find in order to support your own facts, opinions, and ideas.  To find those sources, you need to break your research question down into keywords for searching databases and search engines that give you access to all of that stuff.  One way to do this is to ask yourself, what are the three or four major concepts that make up your research topic?

For example:

These major concepts are your keywords! These keywords alone may not generate all the information you need when you start searching in different databases and search engines. In order to help you expand your search results, you should generate other words that are similar to your original keywords that you can use when you are not getting the search results you want.

See this video guide on How to Choose Keywords--McMaster University

Here is an example of searching for synonyms for the research question above:

CONCEPT/KEYWORD	SYNONYMS
sugar	glucose, fructose, dextrose, sucrose, sweets, sweetener, candy, carbohydrate
consumption	intake, absorption, eating, addiction
relationship	connection, interconnection, cause, effect, association, link, correlation
depression	mental health, melancholy, sadness, despondency, blues, dejection

Try to generate as many synonyms as you can. A site like Thesaurus can help you generate these other ways to phrase your keywords. As you begin searching using keywords, stay attuned to different subject words and phrasings for your topic that you can use in your keyword searching. Keep this chart with your research question and keyword synonyms with you as you engage in your active researching in databases and search engines.

You can also ask a librarian or your professor to get more ideas on finding good keywords to use with your research question and where to search and what to search for.

Use this Research Design Proposal Worksheet to create your Research Proposal.

PHASE #2: Active Researching for Relevant Information

Once you have done some planning for your research project, it is time to go out and find information to provide you with the answer (or answers) to your research question. This is the data-gathering and collecting phase of your project. But like a detective solving a murder mystery, one bit of information will lead you to another, and you inevitably will be at a phase where you are lost or confused (and feel you will never be able to solve the case). Like a detective, as you collect new evidence it will cause you to review previous information you had collected. Active researching involves:

• determining the nature and extent of the information needed.
• using research strategies to access needed information effectively and efficiently.
• evaluating information and its sources critically
• reading and understanding information and incorporating selected information into your evolving understanding of the research topic

Searching as Strategic Exploration
The Association of College and Research Libraries in its Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education states that searching is strategic:

Searching as Strategic Exploration refers to the understanding that information searching is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a broad range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding is developed.

Saying research is strategic means you not only need to know how to search, but also where to search and when to adjust your searching based upon what results you are finding. It encompasses dispositions such as being flexible, creative, and persistent. It means you understand first attempts at research are not always successful, and you learn when and where to seek help.

Watch this Video on Research as Strategic Exploration (3 min.)--The University of Tampa

Active researching involves these practices which you will repeat over and over again. In some ways, these actions happen simultaneously as you search in big and small ways.

• Searching
• Collecting
• Evaluating
• Reading

While these actions are presented as "steps," keep in mind the non-linear and iterative nature of how this researching happens in real practice. Becoming strategically effective at each of these research skills takes practice, patience, and persistence.

Step #1: Understanding How Searching Works

You probably are an experienced searcher for information online. You just open a browser and type in what you are looking for, right? While this basic understanding of searching is useful and will help you find information, academic research requires a more specialized understanding of how and where to search. Even though each place you search--the library catalog, and internet browser, or an academic database--all look the same with a search text box to enter your search request into, they are not the same. To find information efficiently and easily takes some knowledge and skill--skill you will develop as you become more experienced using difference search tools.

The following section helps provide you some of the knowledge and skills you need to find better results from your searches. This knowledge is based on understanding how keyword searching works and how different places you search provide different types of information.

Keyword Search Strategies
Guide to Keyword Searching Video: Searching Databases	Additional guides: Video: Searching Databases with Keywords Video: Selecting and Using Keywords
Understanding HOW Search Works
Video: The Internet: How Search Works	Video: How Google Search Works
Video: What is a Library Database and Why I Should Use One?	Video: Why Use the Library Database? Video: What is a Library Database?

Step #2: Active Researching--Collecting Information

You will search different places depending upon your research topic, but most likely you will need to use more than just what you find with an internet browser. Google will not be enough. This means you will need research sources from your library. I encourage you to physically go to your library because you can gather sources directly and librarians there are for immediate help. As you search, I encourage you to keep a record of where you searched and what search terms you used. Use this research log.

Find Books. Use the library online catalog to search for books located at your library.  Search by author, title, or keyword. Books in the library will include the call number and location to help you find it in the stacks.  eBooks are also available for check out.

Video: Finding Books--Univ. of Louisville
Video: How to Find a Book in the Stacks--McMaster Univ.

Find Articles: Use your library's online databases to search for journal articles. Your library will have many databases to choose from listed alphabetically or by subject. Clicking the "Full-text" box when you start your search will ensure you can get to the full article once you find it.

Depending upon your research topic, you may be fine with general databases like Academic Search Complete or JSTOR or need more subject-specific databases.

Video: Selecting a Database for Your Research--Purdue Univ.
Video: How to Search Library Databases--Stanford Univ.

Finding Internet Resources: Internet browsers are incredibly powerful search tools, and Google is definitely the most advanced search tool available. Google like library databases has methods for refining your searches to get more targeted results. See this site for help with becoming a better searcher on Google: Google Search Operators.

Google also offers special places to search you may find helpful. These include Google Scholar, Google Books, Google News and YouTube. These sites operate something like a library database within Google--they are special indexes of information that will give you results you won't fine (easily) with a general Google search.

Like different library databases, different search engines will provide you access to different information: See 20 Search Engines You Can Use Other Than Google.

Be open to modifying and focusing your Research Question as you search for relevant information to collect.

Other Tips for Finding Information:

• Librarians have created Research Guides and Subject Guides specifically for specific topics or for classes, and these can be good starting points. Searching for bibliographies of sources on a topic also can yield a curated list of information on your topic. Search your library website or ask a librarian for where to find these.
• You can request articles or books not present in your library through Interlibrary Loan. This service is free.
• Get a TexShare Card and you can check out books from other area libraries (again for free).

 

Step #3: Critically Evaluating Sources

As you locate "hits" in your research, you will constantly be evaluating whether the source is going to work for your research. As you examine a potential source more closely, it is important to evaluate its credibility and accuracy so that you don't use poor or incorrect information in your research paper.

The decision-making process of evaluating sources follows this sequence:

Level 1: On-the-Spot Decision--Does this source look relevant and useful?
As you are browsing search hits and investigating them briefly, you have the initial decision to make whether this source could be a good one for your project. It is important at this stage to move quickly and not get bogged down in reading the source too thoroughly at this point. Just collect this list of possible sources. (See the next step.)

If you were browsing the stacks in the library, you would pull books that look good. Library databases have a similar way of allowing you to tag hits you want to save for review. For hits in a search engine, you will need to copy hits to a word processing document.

Level 2: Collect for Closer Review
Your initial on-the-spot decisions from initial searching should yield a nice list of possible sources. The next step is to go through this list and read these sources more closely--but not too closely. Again, don't get too bogged down. Your goal is to decide whether this source is worth keeping and reading much more closely? If it is a book, do you want to check it out. If it is an article, do you want to download and save it to your computer?

As you review this list of possible sources from your level 1 decisions, rate the source on a 1-3 scale: 3 = best, 2 = fair, 1 = poor. Be choosy and take home only sources that you rate as "best." If you are not finding enough or the right kind of sources for your project, keep researching.

Level 3: Evaluating the Sources More Closely for Relevance and Credibility

Evaluate the Source for Relevance
You will next need to read these sources you have collected more closely to see if which ones will truly provide you information useful for answering your research question and that you will use in your paper. The next section has more information on this reading, analysis, and note-taking process. The most important thing to help you decide is whether you are learning information to help you understand and answer your research question. These are the sources worth spending the effort to read more closely. Because reading is time-consuming, be choosy and have a high standard for what you decide to read more closely.

Evaluate the Source for Credibility
You will develop a nose for smelling out poor sources that you will use even in your level 1 and level 2 evaluations of sources, but for sources you have targeted for using in your paper, it is important to do a more thorough evaluation of the source.

I recommend you follow the 5Ws Method of Evaluating Sources:

• WHO is the author?
• WHAT type of document is it?
• WHEN was the information published or last updated?
• WHERE was the information published?
• Why was the document created?
• How was it written? How was it produced?

One analogy to describe this evaluation of sources and decision-making is triage. In a hospital, emergency rooms assess and sort patients according to how urgently they need of care, and ultimately make a decision about admitting the patient to the hospital or not. Similarly, as you review information you find, you will be evaluating the source to see if you want to admit it or not by using information from it in your paper. Research triage is about assessing and sorting sources of research information you find according to their credibility, usability, and relevance for your research goal. See this Guide on Research Triage.

See also Critically Analyzing Information Sources: Critical Appraisal and Analysis--from Cornell Univ.

The goal of this triaging of research information you find is to "admit" only sources that seem to provide good information to answer your research question with a high likelihood you will use in your paper. Only these sources are good candidates for the effort of close reading and analysis we will discuss in the next section.

The Three Levels of Research Triage:
Comparing Searching for Books vs. Searching for Electronic Sources

--because you only want to “admit” sources that you really might use in your paper into the effort of close reading and analysis.

	Books	Electronic	E.g. # of Sources
Level 1—On-the-Spot Decision: Quick Review and Collection	Scan book shelves, pull down books for quick review, add to pile of books in your arms	Quick scan of hits from keyword searching in databases or on the web --collect possible sources bookmarked or saved in folders	10 possible sources found
Level 2—Collect for Closer Review	Take pile of books to a table and skim through them more closely to pick out which one’s seem good enough to check out	Go back and review possible sources, download them, and decide which ones you will read entirely and more closely	5 of 10 look good after review
Level 3—Read Source More Thoroughly and Decide to Use or Not; Evaluate its Relevance and Credibility	Check out the book, take it home, and read it more thoroughly. Decide if it is central to your paper or not	Print the sources you decide look good and read them closely to decide if you will use it in your paper	3 of 5 ultimately used in paper

You may have multiple sittings where you actively search for sources, so you may go through multiple cycles of this triaging of sources to find what you need for your research project.

Allowing for the Serendipitous: Follow Your Nose
While this process of triaging your research findings emphasizes the importance of reading more thoroughly only sources you think will work well for your project, I want to contradict this by saying that there can be value in the serendipitous review of sources where you follow your nose, so to speak. This browsing may be instigated at any point in your review of possible sources as one thing you have read leads you to another source and so on.

Letting Good Sources Lead You to More Good Sources
When you find a good book or research article on your research topic, it presents a gold mine of potential other sources for your paper. Let one source lead you to others. Look in the bibliography or Works Cited (or Reference) page to see where to find these sources, then go out and triage them to see if you want to check them our for closer reading and review for your paper.

 

Step #4: Critically Reading Sources

As a researcher you will read--a lot. But this kind of reading is different than you might do as you read online, for pleasure, or as you read a textbook. Reading as a researcher involves critical evaluation as you read (as discussed above) as well as making meaning from the text in terms of your research question and goal. This critical reading, as David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky state, is a two-way process of push and shove where the text speaks to you, but you also speak to the text.

Read this excellent chapter from the Oregon Writes Open Writing Text on the ways of reading you will do as a researcher.

Research and Critical Reading by Pavel Zemilansky

Key Features of Critical Reading (discussed in the chapter)

• Texts Present Idea, Not Absolute Truths
• Reading is a Rhetorical Tool
• Active Readers Look for Connections Between Texts
• Critical Readers Understand the Difference Between Reacting to a Text and Responding to a Text
• Critical Readers Resist Oversimplified Binary Responses
• Critical Readers Do Not Read Alone and In Silence

See also Critical Reading Strategies from the University of Minnesota

One challenge you will encounter is reading scholarly articles. These peer-reviewed articles are more substantive and credible than the sources you will generally find on the internet, but they also are more challenging to read. As you approach each scholarly article, I suggest you follow this sequence of skimming the key sections of the article to get the gist of the article as well as see if you want to read the whole thing:

1. Read the abstract first
2. Read the introduction and conclusion (and even the findings section)
3. Review the tables, charts, and graphs
4. Read it through! (for real this time)

The following guides will help you learn how to read scholarly articles and books.

• Video: How To Read a Scholarly Journal Article--Kishwaukee College Library 
  
• Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (Interactive tutorial) -- North Carolina State University Libraries
• Video: Identifying scholarly journals --Cornell University
• How to Read a Book

The following guide is an excellent source also on the general difference between popular and scholarly sources and the different features of scholarly articles within different disciplines like the Social and Physical Sciences vs. the Arts and Humanities.

• Reading Sources--Sacred Heart University

The authors of this guide on reading present this excellent chart on tips and approaches for reading as you research

Give yourself time to read a something a couple of times. But you don't have to read every single word each time.

Understand when to read for the gist, for the main ideas, and for the details. Your first read through should be to skim and get the gist of the reading. The next one can focus on the main ideas and details.

Take notes. If you print out readings, write in the margins to summarize ideas.  --See this Guide on Annotation as the foundation of close reading.

Think about "what it says" and "what it does" Each paragraph will have different ideas and a different purpose. A "what it says" statement is a summary of the paragraph you are reading, while "what it does" describes the paragraph's purpose or function within the writing.

Play the "believing and doubting" game. So you want to be open to the ideas you read in scholarly writing but also skeptical of them. All texts are trying to change your view by presenting new ideas and evidence. Look for weaknesses in the argument and raise objections even when seeing it from the author's perspective.

Reading with a Purpose

The most important thing to keep in mind as you read is your purpose in reading. This purpose is centered around your Research Question, so always review and evaluate your sources through the lens of this question: Is this source giving me good and interesting information related to my research question? Is this source helping me answer my research question? Research is about searching and finding, so keep clearly in your mind what you are searching for as you jump from source to source.

PURPOSE-- Why am I reading this information? What information do I need? How does this related to my Research Question? How much time and energy is it worth?	1. Preview	How is the article or book laid out? What are the sections or chapters?
	2. Skim	What are the keywords and main ideas in the abstract, introduction, headings, topic sentences and conclusion?
	3. Select	Which sections or paragraphs are relevant to me?
	4. Study	Closely read the relevant parts and take notes.

Reading with a Purpose--Australian National University

While you want to be open to discovery and letting your sources take you in interesting directions, you need to be a choosy and picky reader. Don't get distracted! Avoid rabbit holes that end up wasting your time. If you are struggling to read with a purpose, it may indicate a problem with your Research Question. If you research question is weak, you may struggle to find the information you need and read with a purpose.

Be open to modifying and focusing your Research Question as you read for relevant information in your sources.

Close Reading Strategies

Much of the reading you do as you research is quick reading--skimming to gauge if this hit will have something you can use for your paper. Like searching for a needle in a haystack, there is a lot of going through stuff quickly. But at some point, you locate the needle, you find sources that appear to have good information on your topic. Now your job becomes reading to comprehend and discover information relevant to your research question. Don't forget, you still need to read with a purpose.

Below are common close reading strategies:

Preview the Text	Skim the whole section or text to get a larger sense of what it saying and where it is going. Connect it to what you already know. Set your purpose for reading.
Annotate the Text	Read with a pen or pencil and mark the text. Underline or circle inside the text and write notes in the margin. Define words you don't understand.
Annotate for Meaning	When you read closely and annotate, you note things of significance. These include: Noting the structure of the text: main points, sub-points, sections, main themes or topics Noting lines you think are important or like or are surprising Noting important people, places, dates, or facts Noting and record questions you have Noting and record connections you make, especially to your previous knowledge/experience Noting patterns and similarities and differences Taking especial notice of information relevant to the purpose for reading (your research question) See this guide: Annotations--The Foundation of Close Reading
Review the Text	After you've read the text once, annotating it for meaning, review the text by re-skimming it, particularly noticing your annotations. Seek to put together a more complete understanding of the text. As you review the text, you might: Look up or investigate some point or question more deeply Review and process your reactions Re-read particular sections that seem important Make deeper connections within the text to your purpose for reading Identify more clearly the relevant sections to your purpose Outline or summarize the text Journal on the reading or talk to someone about it Take notes to extract significant information related to your research question (See the next section devoted to note-taking)

One powerful strategy is to annotate for what the text is SAYING and DOING:

• In the left margins, write short summaries (less than ten words) of what the text is saying in a given section.
• In the right margin, write what the text is doing in short statements starting with an active verb.
  See Reading Like a Researcher: Steps for Close Reading

Note Taking Strategies

The essence of note taking is collecting or data-gathering. The goal of your active researching was to collect a set of sources with information on your topic. Now as you read through these sources, your goal becomes to extract and collect the information from these sources to help you answer your research question. By selecting and recording relevant information from your research sources, you can begin to make connections and support key findings you are discovering from your research.

But note taking has a practical use: it helps you remember and hold on to important information. It collects in one place all this important information so you can review it and make sense of it. You will read a lot of sources as you research, and you can't keep all of the information from these sources in your head. Within your notes, you will collect the building blocks of information that will become your research paper.

You might take notes in various ways:

• Using note cards putting one idea per card. These can be shuffled and ordered to create an outline (old-fashioned approach)
• Using post-it notes to places in the text (limited because they are stuck to the text and don't work for e-texts)
• Using pieces of paper or a word processing document to record notes. You could use a graphic organizer like this.

I encourage you to follow two levels of note taking. While you could take notes as you read the source the first time and annotate it, I recommend that you gather your notes after your first full read and annotation of the source. You won't have a sense of what is truly noteworthy until you've reviewed the entire source.

I highly recommend that you take notes on each separate source (either on paper or on a word processing document). Whether you pull only one quote or bit of information or twenty from a source, give the source its own page(s) of notes. As you do your note taking,

First Level Note Taking: One Page per Source

The first level of note taking involves reviewing the text and extracting important information from the source that relates to your research question. This might be in the form of exact quotes from the text or summaries of information. You can't copy everything into your notes, so you need to be choosy and use your judgment about what to include. Each source is different, so collect whatever you think is significant it has to say about your topic.

What to include on each page:

• Put the author and title of the work on the top
• Number the note page by source
• Put the page number (if available) next to each bit of information you write in your notes
• If you copy text word for word from the source, be sure to enclose that text inside quotation marks so you know to use quotation marks if you use this quote in your paper

Example:

Source #1 Author and Title: (pg. 25) note (pg. 26) note note note (pg 32) note ...

You may only get one or two bits of information from a source, or you may get fifteen. As you finish collecting notes from one source and move to another, start a new page. One note page per source.

Second Level Note Taking: One Page per Finding or Primary Support

It is important as a researcher to synthesize information and even make new meaning with that knowledge. You will need to pull together everything you have learned from your research to come to a good understanding to answer your research question. You may need to do some heavy thinking and reviewing of your notes and your sources to come to these insights and conclusions. Re-reading through your notes is the easiest and fastest way to see patterns in your "data" and ways to sort what you have found. The key principle of second level note taking is you sort these key theme together onto new note pages. Pulling together your information and sorting it together by these key categories will provide you a powerful perspective on your topic. Although this sorting and second level note taking is informed by your thesis (your answer to your research question), you might approach your thesis and second level note taking inductively or deductively.

Second Level Note Taking to Arrive at a Thesis: The Inductive Approach
You may not yet know what your thesis is from your research. The inductive approach begins by sorting your data into common themes, and then from a review of these themes and information you discover your thesis. It is a bottom up approach where you discover your thesis from your data collected and sorted from multiple sources.

Second Level Note Taking Starting with Your Thesis: The Deductive Approach
Unlike the inductive approach, you may have a strong sense of your thesis as well as the primary supports or main findings that support it. In this approach, you create a new note sheet for each of your primary supports. Then you go through each of your notesheets and sort the information by what primary support it relates to.

Common Features of Each Approach to Second Level Note Taking

• Start by going through each note sheet, identifying key themes or ideas in the left margin (perhaps circling them so they stand out)
• Determine your principle for sorting this information from the first level notes either by theme, primary support, or finding.
• Create a separate note sheet for each of the most significant themes, supports, or findings.
• Then sort the information from each first level note sheet onto the appropriate second level note sheet devoted to that theme, support, or finding.
• Label which first level note sheet each bit of information came from (perhaps putting the number you gave to each source)

Remember to enclose word-for-word passages from your sources inside quotes to avoid copying them into your paper not realizing they are direct quotes from your source. Also, go back to your research sources as needed to hunt for more information or to develop a stronger understanding of some point.

Example of 1st Level Note Sheet --title of article on top and identifying number --page number next to each bit of information Seven bits of information from five different pages in the article.

Example of 2nd Level Note Sheet --label for common theme or primary support on top --identifying number of source next to each bit of information Eight bits of information from six different sources.

 

Creating an Annotated Bibliography

Creating an Annotated Bibliography is another way to critically review your sources and gain an overview of the information and arguments surrounding a particular topic. Many teachers assign an Annotated Bibliography to present to them the extend and quality of the sources you have found from your research. Creating the Annotated Bibliography is also an opportunity for your to evaluate the credibility of your source. Fellow researchers may benefit from reading your entries on each source because they can use your summary and evaluation of the source to decide if the source is worth investigating for their research paper. You may not use all the sources you include in the Annotated Bibliography in your final research paper.

Annotated Bibliographies contain two parts:

1. The full bibliographic citation of the source, properly formatted in the assigned documentation style
2. A short critical summary of 100-200 words, called the annotation.

What you will write in the Annotation:

• The main topic or subject of what the source is about
• A summary of the source and some key points it makes
• An assessment of the sources credibility
• A reflection on the possible uses and limitations of the source

Each entry is formatted in a particular way and arranged alphabetically. Below is an example of one entry:

Below are some good guides on creating Annotated Bibliographies.

• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography (Cornell U.)
  
• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography (Notre Dame)

 

 

Phase #3: Writing Up the Research Report/Research Paper

Research is an inquiry process of discovery, and so is the writing process. As you write, you discover what you mean to say, just as when you research you discover the answer to your research question. When you begin writing up the results of your research process into a research paper or report, these two processes of discovery become one. What does that mean practically? It means that as you write your research paper, your understanding of your research results and what you mean to say will grow and improve. Writing will lead you to think and rethink. It means that as you write what you have learned from your researching, you may return at any point to any step or stage in the research process as you work to make sense on the page. It means also the steps of the writing process--planning, drafting, revising, editing--mirror your research process:

• Planning reflects what you did in the designing stage of the research process
• Drafting and Revising reflect what you did in the stage of active researching and what you found

As you recursively return to the concerns of the writing process, you likewise recursively return to your efforts and thinking in the research process. The challenge now as you turn to write up what you have done is to find the right structure and right words to best communicate your research findings and conclusions. The power of writing now comes into play expressed in these words from William Auden: "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?" Peter Elbow also expresses a similar idea, "Meaning is not what you start out with but what you end up with" (15). You will find that writing, then, is the last and crucial step in the research process because it is through your writing process that you will complete the discovery process you started by asking your research question. Through writing, you will reach your answer to the research question.

Read more about the Writing Process: A Word or Two About the Writing Process

Step #1 Planning: Revising Your Thesis and Finding an Organizing Structure

Before you begin putting words on the page in earnest, take some time to chart your path for the paper. Your thesis is like the end destination, and your organizing structure is like the steps along that path that take the reader to that destination. By now you may already have a strong sense of what both your thesis and structure will be, but it is worth it to do some sketching of this structure. Just as architects do rough drawings in pencil before they give neat plans to contractors to begin the actual construction, so too should you do this rough planning. It enables you to see the whole and make needed adjustments to your plan before you invest the time and effort of drafting your paper. Also, as you draft, you will know where you are going and what you are doing in each part of the paper, and it will make the writing go much smoother (and more quickly).

• Look again at your thesis (from Harvard), and chart your main findings or arguments that support your thesis (your answer to the research question). Rethink and refine these primary supports.
• Find your organizing structure. (See also on Organization.) Try the following techniques:
  • Outlining (from Indiana University).
  • Brainstorming (from University of North Carolina).
  • Writing as Making Thinking Visible

  Strategy: Moving from Research to Writing Crossing the Bridge from Reading to Writing --moving from annotating to notetaking to creating notesheets to write from Argument Planner (fillable Word file) --example Argument Planner --example from Argument Planner to Body paragraph See also Evidence Sheets (fillable Word file)

   

Step #2: Write the First Draft

Good planning, particularly creating sets of notesheets containing evidence you plan to use, will make the drafting of your research paper go much more smoothly. Before beginning the actual writing of the draft, I recommend that you read these two guides on drafting to set your goals and expectations for your drafting:

• What Does Drafting Mean?
• Approaching 1st Drafts

Below are a few key considerations as you write your first draft:

• Let it be rough; don't worry about perfect grammar or documentation. You may have gaps. That's ok. You can revise later.
• Write in chunks or sections--for instance, one body paragraph at a time.
• Use your Argument Planner or Evidence Sheets as you draft. These should have all the building blocks you need to construct and weave your support in each Body paragraph.
• You can skip or only sketch your introduction or conclusion at this point.
• Take breaks as you draft to stay fresh. Before you stop for a break, write where you will go next.

Drafting Aids and Strategies

Using and Integrating Quotes You will be including a lot of information from your research sources as evidence in your paper. Below are important guides on how to use quotations correctly in your paper and seamlessly integrate these quotes for meaning and evidence in your paper: Using Quotations --The Sandwich Principle The Art of Integrating Quotes Tips for integrating quotations from sources  (from University of Minnesota)

Understanding Issues of Plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of presenting others' ideas as your own--something you NEVER want to do whether intentionally or unintentionally. Much plagiarism is unintentional and comes from problems in handling and documenting other people's ideas and words in your paper. Thus, learning how to properly handle quotes and properly document sources avoids most issues of unintentional plagiarism. Below are principles to help you avoid unintentional plagiarism: Always enclose borrowed language inside quotation marks Paraphrase source material in your own words Document all sources in your text Quote exactly and indicate any alterations you make to the text Of course, you want to avoid intentional forms of plagiarism like Copying or buying someone else's work Including fake bibliographic information Using a paper from a previous class Getting someone else to write all or part of your paper Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism can have serious academic consequences from a lower grade on the assignment (often a zero), an F for the class, or even suspension or expulsion from your university. Below are some good guides to help you learn about and avoid plagiarism: Plagiarism Overview (Williams College) Avoiding Plagiarism Quoting and Paraphrasing (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison)

Building Coherence and Cohesion: Transitions and Connecting Ideas As you write, you will want your ideas to connect with each other and the flow and structure of the paper to be easy for your reader to follow. These guides on coherence and cohesion will assist you: Guide on Building Coherence More on Transition Sentences Improving Cohesion (Univ. of Melbourne)

 

 

 

Step #3: Revise Focusing on Content. Do Additional Research as Needed.

Revision requires that you see your draft as an attempt that is by definition imperfect. Further, to engage in productive revision, you need a mindset which accepts that problems within what you have written may be rooted in problems in your thinking. You must learn to trust that you can use your already-written text as the best tool to find places where your thinking is weak or disorganized or needs to go deeper. In short, you will be most productive in your revision when you understand that re-thinking is fundamental to your re-writing. (For more see: Rethinking and Revision)

As you revise your first draft, I suggest you focus on your content--don't worry with correctness yet. Think big picture and don't tinker with the little stuff at this point.

• Focus on your ideas, their structure, their connection, their development, and to some degree the phrasing of those ideas. Don't spend time editing and fixing grammar, formatting your paper, or getting the documentation all set. Those things can come with the final draft.
  
  
• As you focus on your content, you may find gaps or problems in your research. Don't hesitate to dig back into your research sources or even do more active researching to find new sources if you need to in order to construct the ideas of your paper.

Follow this sequence as you review your paper for what to improve:

1. Review the assignment sheet and check that your paper is following the assignment task and requirements.
2. Examine your piece in light of audience and purpose.
3. Take a close look at your thesis (main point).
4. Review the Organization of the paper and how you are presenting your ideas.
5. Review your Primary Supports for how well they truly support your thesis.
6. Review the Development of Ideas in Your Paper.

Below are some guides to assist you as you begin to rethink and revise your research paper:

• Approaching 2nd Drafts
• Revising Drafts (from Univ. of North Carolina)
• Reorganizing Drafts (from Univ. of North Carolina)
• Revision checklist  (from University of Minnesota).

You may need more than two drafts, and I recommend you follow these above approaches to revising each of these development drafts.

Creating the Documentation of your Sources At some point, whether during the revision for your second draft or as something you leave for the very end, you will need to get the documentation of your sources set up in your paper. Below are guides to help you do this documentation: MLA Formatting and Style Guide--Purdue OWL Short Guide for MLA Documentation Sample MLA Paper--Purdue OWL Citation Machine--online tool to assist in creating Works Cited pages

 

Step #4: Editing and Polishing Your Final Draft

As you begin revising your paper for its final submission or presentation, it is wise to follow a progression rather than do this final revision all at once. The guide on Approaching Final Drafts helps walk you through this progression. Each pass through of your draft has a different focus. You'll find that keeping that focus will help you make positive changes that improve your final draft.

As you edit your paper, I suggest that you print a copy of your paper. You can follow these general strategies for editing and proofreading and use these Editing Marks as you markup corrections in your paper. You might even consider making a Sentence Editing Draft to aid you with your editing. Below is the progression I recommend you follow as you edit:

Check Content (again) First

Review your paper first in terms of the global concerns you focused on in your previous revision: the ideas, organization, connection, and support. Hopefully at this point your content is in good shape and you won't have major changes needed in your content.

Edit Sentences for Readability

Readability is about the clarity of your sentences. Clarity also goes hand in hand with conciseness because making our phrasing and word choice more precise and intelligible often involves trimming deadwood in our writing and simplifying what we say. These are only a few guides for revising sentences for clarity and conciseness.

• Revising for Style: Clarity and Conciseness (Duke Univ.)
• Revising Sentences Guide
• Writing Concisely

Edit Sentences for Grammatical Correctness

Now put on your error-detection hat and examine your paper closely for any sort of grammatical error.

• Review your paper for the Top 20 Most Common Errors in Student Writing.
• Check particularly for Punctuation Errors and Sentence Boundary Errors.

Check your Documentation is Correct

At some point, whether during the revision for your second draft or as something you leave for the very end, you will need to get the documentation of your sources set up in your paper. Below are guides to help you do this documentation:

• MLA Formatting and Style Guide--Purdue OWL
• Short Guide for MLA Documentation
• Sample MLA Paper--Purdue OWL
• Citation Machine--online tool to assist in creating Works Cited pages

Check Your Paper ONE LAST TIME!

You may be so ready to turn this paper in either out of sense of excitement and accomplishment for finishing or out of exhaustion, but it is a good idea to give your paper one last run through after you have it in final form. Again, it can be a good idea to print off a copy because our eyes pick up errors more easily on the page.

• Tips for Proofreading--Univ. of Wisconsin