During your college career, you will be assigned research projects by your professors, but what does it mean to “do research?” A researcher at any level must go through the research process:
Research topic/question
Develop a research topic. When you are deciding on a research topic, you want to pick a topic that is interesting to you and that is not too broad or too narrow. You want to make sure that your topic has focus and direction, but remember, it is important to stay flexible as your topic will change and grow throughout the research process. Once you have your topic, you can formulate your topic into a research question. Let's look at an example:
My research topic is the impact of school lunch on the academic performance of elementary students. I can easily turn this topic into a question. My research question is, how does school lunch impact the academic performance of elementary students?
Your research question serves as a guide as you search and find evidence on your topic.
Finding Evidence/Sources
Use the Brandel library catalog and databases to find scholarly information on your topic. You will use this information as source material for your topic and as evidence to structure your analysis.
Analysis of sources
Once you have your sources, you need to read these sources very carefully. Identify who wrote the source, where it was published, when, why it was written, and main and subsidiary arguments made by the scholar. Write down any questions that arise while reading as well as information you encounter that is new, affirms, or challenges your thinking and existing scholarly information about the topic.
Conclusion
Research is not just about gathering information. Research is about analyzing information to understand all the available information on a topic and to advance current knowledge on said topic. Once you have read through the available information, you can begin to develop your argument(s). Use the source material you have gathered to support your thesis and to structure your analysis. By crafting your argument(s) and leveraging relevant information, you join scholarly discourse on your topic from an informed and confident position because you’ve done your due diligence and gone through the research process.
