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Research Strategy
An effective research strategy consists of the following steps.
They are presented in order but may be done simultaneously or get
repeated (see step 8). Research is not so much a linear process
as it is cyclical.
- Identify a research topic. Make sure you understand your
research assignment. If you don't, ask whomever gave it to you for
clarification.
To identify an appropriate topic consider framing your research
assignment as a question. What are the main or related concepts? What,
if any, are the research parameters: age, sex, ethnicity, time period,
geographic location? Refer to your syllabus, textbook and other course
readings, lecture notes, and Library sources (for example, specialized
encyclopedias) for possible topics.
- Analyze your research problem. What do you need to know about the
topic of your research? What do you already know about this topic? What do
you need to learn about the topic?
- Determine your information requirements. What types of information
(background versus in-depth, scholarly versus popular, factual versus descriptive, historical versus current,
primary versus secondary) do you need to find?
- Identify your information source needs. What types of Information
Packages (Sources of Information) (books, periodical articles, Web documents) do you need to
search for? What Library sources will help you fulfill your information
needs? Are these resources accessible electronically or in print or both?
- Conduct your information searches. Use your research
topic concepts and parameters as key words or subject phrases. Gather relevant information using
appropriate Library resources.
- Critically interpret, evaluate, and synthesize your information
search results. Just because a book, article, or Web document
matches your search criteria and thus seems, at face value, to be
relevant, does not mean that it is necessarily a reliable source of
information. See
Evaluating Sources of
Information.
- Avoid plagiarizing information sources. When taking notes or
copying information be sure to use quotation marks for anything noted
or copied word for word from information sources. For each quote, keep
track of the source: author(s), title, publisher, date of
publication, page number(s). See the example in the paragraph after
step 9.
- Review your research. Along the way, take time to review
your research and repeat any of the previous steps as necessary.
- Ask a librarian for assistance. During your research, be sure to ask a librarian for
Research Assistance. Librarians
can help you make the most of your time and energy.
While following the steps outlined above, keep in mind that "if you
focus attention on finding well-defined answers, then you're not doing
research, at least not scientific research. Research involves ideas, not
answers."
John L. Casti, Paradigms Lost: Tackling the Unanswered Mysteries of Modern
Science. New York: Avon Books, 1990. Page 12.
This page http://infodome.sdsu.edu/howto/strategy.shtml is maintained by Bruce Harley.
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File saved 06/27/05 09:56 PDT
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