Introduction
While in high school, chances are you were assigned a research paper at some point. You may have had to find your own resources for supporting a chosen topic or your teacher may have provided resources to you for analysis. These methodologies are excellent ways to introduce you to the concept of research.
However, now that you are in college, you will be expected to do more of the preliminary work
(eventually all) on your own; so how do you start? What makes a good research topic? How do you find the right sources when there are literally millions of hits on a given Google search?
In this section, we help you find answers to this process as well as model ways to locate sources. Keep in mind that you can always consult your librarians for help - that’s what they want to do. But the elements in this section will provide a foundation for research strategies and ways to support your chosen topic.
Developing a Research Question
1I write out of ignorance. I write about the things I don’t have any resolutions for, and when I’m finished, I think I know a little bit more about it. I don’t write out of what I know. It’s what I don’t know that stimulates me. I merely know enough to get started. —Toni Morrison2
Think of a research paper as an opportunity to deepen (or create!) knowledge about a topic that matters to you. Just as Toni Morrison states that she is stimulated by what she doesn’t yet know, a research paper assignment can be interesting and meaningful if it allows you to explore what you don’t know.
Research, at its best, is an act of knowledge creation, not just an extended book report. This knowledge creation is the essence of any great educational experience. Instead of just listening to lectures, you get to design the learning project that will ultimately result in you experiencing, and then expressing, your own intellectual growth. You get to read what you choose, thereby becoming an expert on your topic.
That sounds, perhaps, like a lofty goal. But by spending some quality time brainstorming, reading, thinking or otherwise tuning into what matters to you, you can end up with a workable research topic that will lead you on an enjoyable research journey.
The best research topics are meaningful to you
1 A version of this section originally appeared in: Zickel, Emilie. “Developing a Research Question.” In Practice: A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing, Gagich, Melanie, and Emilie Zickel, ebook, MSL Academic Endeavors. Accessed July 2019. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The work may be viewed online at: https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu- fyw-rhetoric/chapter/developing-a-research-question/.
2 This quote is from page 130 of: Morrison, Toni. “Toni Morrison.” Black Women Writers at Work, by Claudia Tate, Continuum Publish Company, 1983, pp. 117-131.
● Choose a topic that you want to understand better.
● Choose a topic that you want to read about and devote time to
● Choose a topic that is perhaps a bit out of your comfort zone
● Choose a topic that allows you to understand others’ opinions and how those opinions are shaped.
● Choose something that is relevant to you, personally or professionally.
● Do not choose a topic because you think it will be “easy” – those can end up being even quite challenging
Brainstorming Ideas for a Research Topic
There are many ways to come up with a good topic. The best thing to do is to give yourself time to think about what you really want to commit days and weeks to reading, thinking, researching, more reading, writing, more researching, reading and writing on.
It can be difficult to come up with a topic from scratch, so consider looking at some information sources can give you some ideas. Check out your favorite news sources, or take a look at a library database like CQ Researcher or Point of Review Reference Center.
Which question(s) below interest you? Which question(s) below spark a desire to respond? A good topic is one that moves you to think, to do, to want to know more, to want to say more.
As you browse, ask yourself some of the following questions:
1. What news stories do you often see, but want to know more about?
2. What (socio-political) argument do you often have with others that you would love to work on strengthening?
3. What are the key controversies or current debates in the field of work that you want to go into?
4. What is a problem that you see at work that needs to be better publicized or understood?
5. What is the biggest issue facing [specific group of people: by age, by race, by gender, by ethnicity, by nationality, by geography, by economic standing? choose a group]
6. What area/landmark/piece of history in your home community are you interested in?
7. What local problem do you want to better understand?
8. Is there some element of the career that you would like to have one day that you want to better understand?
9. What would you love to become an expert on?
10. What are you passionate about?
From Topic to Research Question
Once you have decided on a research topic, an area for academic exploration that matters to you, it is time to start thinking about what you want to learn about that topic.
The goal of college-level research assignments is never going to be to simply “go find sources” on your topic. Instead, think of sources as helping you to answer a research question or a series of research questions about your topic. These should not be simple questions with simple answers, but rather complex questions about which there is no easy or obvious answer.
A compelling research question is one that may involve controversy, or may have a variety of answers, or may not have any single, clear answer. All of that is okay and even desirable. If the answer is an easy and obvious one, then there is little need for argument or research.
Make sure that your research question is clear, specific, researchable and limited (but not too limited).
Most of all, make sure that you are curious about your own research question. If it does not matter to you, researching it will feel incredibly boring and tedious.
Researched Position Paper
3Now that you have found a topic to research, it is time to begin the research process. Though you may have an idea of what you think your argument will be at this point, it’s important to start your research with an open mind. It’s often helpful to formulate your topic as a research question. Research questions are open-ended questions that you explore as you figure out the direction your topic will go and inform or shape your thesis statement. For example, if your topic is on first-generation students and financial aid, you might have a research question such as “What is the long-term impact of student loans on first- generation college students?” Using such a question as you begin your research leaves you a lot of flexibility to adjust your position, and therefore your thesis, as you uncover new information.
Using that research question as the foundation for your research, you can begin your proposal. This is oftentimes the first step in the process of writing a researched position paper. Basically, a researched position paper is one where you take a stance on a chosen topic and defend your position with qualitative and quantitative research found in scholarly or academic sources. While you might also include popular sources, you’ll want to make certain you incorporate evidence from a body of scholars whose work can be used to support the position you are taking. The difference between a descriptive or narrative research paper and a position paper is the argument - you are doing more than simply
reporting facts. In a researched position paper, you are placing yourself in dialogue with a scholarly community and taking a stance on a topic about which you feel strongly. The first formal step is the proposal.
A proposal is quite simply a method for thinking out loud on paper. While all instructors have their own specifications, typically a proposal is less formal than the rough draft and can range in length from ½-1 full page in length. In the proposal, you state the topic about which you are researching and why you are interested in it. Since this is the preliminary stage, it’s okay to say that you do not know if you can defend your chosen position. The proposal is the place to begin exploration. It’s a good place to talk about your research question and, based on the information that you’ve found so far, where your thesis begins to grow. Some instructors may ask that you also state what you know about the topic, what potential sources you might use, and what you think you need to learn before fully developing your selected topic. In my courses, the proposal serves as a written dialogue between my students and myself and provides some foundational plans for the research process.
The next step is the annotated bibliography. Later in this section, we detail for you how to write an annotated bibliography which is basically the step where you locate sources to defend your position and then summarize those sources for their strengths and weaknesses as applied to your topic.
After the annotated bibliography, the formal writing process begins with a first rough draft. Typically, you will be given a page length or word count specification within the assignment parameters so that you’ll have an idea of how much is expected of you at this stage. In the first rough draft, your focus should be on developing your thesis and supporting it throughout the body of your paper. While many
students get stuck on the introduction, this isn’t really the place to start your research. For this stage of the paper, you want to make sure the content surrounding your topic is strong with topic sentences connecting back to the thesis in every paragraph.
Sometimes, your instructor may ask for a second rough draft before final submission. If so, this is the place for you take feedback from a peer review or writing center tutor and fine tune your essay. Use the feedback you receive to check that your position is consistently supported throughout the essay and that you are using evidence correctly to support your position. Reading the draft out loud can also help you find missing elements or spaces for enrichment before the final draft submission.
The final draft will be your best polished effort at defending your chosen topic and position after going through the rhetorical strategies defined by your instructor. Depending upon style format, you may or may not need an abstract in the final draft. An abstract is a brief summary of the topic you are discussing in the paper but it does not give your conclusion. At the end of your final draft you’ll need to include your Works Cited/References page. This will be easily compiled from your annotated bibliography but remember - the annotations do NOT go into the final Works Cited/References page. Only the citations are included in the final draft. Keep in mind that nothing is ever perfect, but you want to strive to present a solid essay that utilizes scholarly sources to defend and support the position you are taking on your chosen topic. For the rest of this section, we will provide information on how to find the best sources for your paper as well as how to develop the annotated bibliography.
Developing a Research Strategy
4Sarah’s art history professor just assigned the course project and Sarah is delighted that it isn’t the typical research paper. Rather, it involves putting together a website to help readers understand a topic.
It will certainly help Sarah get a grasp on the topic herself! Learning by attempting to teach others, she agrees, might be a good idea. The professor wants the web site to be written for people who are interested in the topic and with backgrounds similar to the students in the course. Sarah likes that a target audience is defined, and since she has a good idea of what her friends might understand and what they would need more help with, she thinks it will be easier to know what to include in her site.
Well, at least easier than writing a paper for an expert like her professor.
An interesting feature of this course is that the professor has formed the students into teams. Sarah wasn’t sure she liked this idea at the beginning, but it seems to be working out okay. Sarah’s team has decided that their topic for this website will be 19th century women painters. But her teammate Chris seems concerned, “Isn’t that an awfully big topic?” The team checks with the professor, who agrees they would be taking on far more than they could successfully explain on their website. He suggests they develop a draft thesis statement to help them focus, and after several false starts, they come up with:
The involvement of women painters in the Impressionist movement had an effect upon the subjects portrayed.
They decide this sounds more manageable. Because Sarah doesn’t feel comfortable on the technical aspects of setting up the website, she offers to start locating resources that will help them to develop the site’s content.
The next time the class meets, Sarah tells her teammates what she has done so far:
“I thought I’d start with some scholarly sources, since they should be helpful, right? I put a search into the online catalog for the library, but nothing came up! The library should have books on this topic, shouldn’t it? I typed the search in exactly as we have it in our thesis statement. That was so frustrating.
Since that didn’t work, I tried Google, and put in the search. I got over 8 million results, but when I looked over the ones on the first page, they didn’t seem very useful. One was about the feminist art movement in the 1960s, not during the Impressionist period. The results all seemed to have the words I typed highlighted, but most really weren’t useful. I am sorry I don’t have much to show you. Do you think we should change our topic?”
Alisha suggests that Sarah talk with a reference librarian. She mentions that a librarian came to talk to
4 A version of this section originally appeared in: Bernnard, Deborah, et al. The Information Literacy User’s Guide:
An Open, Online Textbook, ebook, Open SUNY Textbooks, 2014. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. The work may be viewed online at:
https://textbooks.opensuny.org/the-information-literacy-users-guide-an-open-online-textbook/.
one of her other classes about doing research, and it was really helpful. Alisha thinks that maybe Sarah shouldn’t have entered the entire thesis statement as the search, and maybe she should have tried databases to find articles. The team decides to brainstorm all the search tools and resources they can think of.
Here’s what they came up with:
Search Tools and Resources Wikipedia
Professor Google search JSTOR database
Based on your experience, do you see anything you would add?
Sarah and her team think that their list is pretty good. They decide to take it further and list the advantages and limitations of each search tool, at least as far as they can determine.
Search Tools and Resources
Search Tool Advantages Limitations
Wikipedia Easy access, list of references Professors don’t seem to like it, possibly misinformation
Professor The expert! Not sure we can get to office
hours; we want to appear self- directed
Google search Lots of results We need a better search term JSTOR database Authoritative, scholarly articles None that we know of
Alisha suggests that Sarah should show the worksheet to a librarian and volunteers to go with her. The librarian, Mr. Harrison, says they have made a really good start, but he can fill them in on some other search strategies that will help them to focus on their topic. Would Sarah and Alisha like to learn more?
Let’s step back from this case study again, and think about the elements that someone doing research
should plan before starting to enter search terms in Google, Wikipedia, or even a scholarly database.
There is some preparation you can do to make things go much more smoothly than they have for Sarah.
Self-Reflection
As you work through your own research quests, it is very important to be self-reflective. Consider:
● What do you really need to find?
● Do you need to learn more about the general subject before you can identify the focus of your search?
● How thoroughly did you develop your search strategy?
● Did you spend enough time finding the best tools to search?
● What is going really well, so well that you’ll want to remember to do it in the future?
Another term for what you are doing is metacognition, or thinking about your thinking. Reflect on what Sarah is going through. Does some of it sound familiar based on your own experiences? You may already know some of the strategies presented here. Do you do them the same way? How does it work? What pieces are new to you? When might you follow this advice? Don’t just let the words flow over you, rather think carefully about the explanation of the process. You may disagree with some of what you read. If you do, follow through and test both methods to see which provides better results.
Selecting Search Tools
After you have thought the planning process through more thoroughly, think about the best place to find information for your topic and for the type of paper. Part of planning to do research is determining which search tools will be the best ones to use. This applies whether you are doing scholarly research or trying to answer a question in your everyday life, such as what would be the best place to go on
vacation. “Search tools” might be a bit misleading, since a person might be the source of the information you need. Or it might be a web search engine, a specialized database, an association—the possibilities are endless. Often people automatically search Google first, regardless of what they are looking for.
Choosing the wrong search tool may just waste your time and provide only mediocre information, whereas other sources might provide really spot-on information and quickly, too. In some cases, a carefully constructed search on Google, particularly using the advanced search option, will provide the necessary information, but other times it won’t. This is true of all sources: make an informed choice about which ones to use for a specific need.
So, how do you identify search tools? Let’s begin with a first-rate method. For academic research, talking with a librarian or your professor is a great start. They will direct you to those specialized tools that will provide access to what you need. If you ask a librarian for help, they may also show you some tips about searching in the resources. This section will cover some of the generic strategies that will work in many search tools, but a librarian can show you very specific ways to focus your search and retrieve the most useful items.