Chapter 29: Getting Started - From Planning Research to Evaluting Sources Summary

Chapter 29: Getting Started – From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources Summary

In this chapter you learn all about how to do your research for a paper and how to evaluate the sources you get your information from. You need to have a narrow manageable topic first. Then you can start brainstorming research questions. You need to have both simple and substantial questions, as well as, main and secondary questions. You also need to have a working thesis. The formula for a working thesis is: Working Thesis = Limited Topic + Tentative Claim, Statement, or Hypothesis. It is important to remember your thesis can change throughout your writing process. After this, you need to choose your research method. You can do background research, field or primary research, library research and/ or internet research. It all depends on your topic and where the relative information will be for you. You need to make sure to establish priorities when it comes to your research, like how much research will you need to do, what range of resources will give you quality, reliable information and what types of research does your project specify? You need to open to mind to explore all types of possible information resources and sites. Sites can be personal, reference works, books, government publications, people, libraries, mass media, testing, or the workplace. Make sure when doing your research that you choose your keywords carefully. You need to have some strategies for choosing your keywords. You need to engage your sources. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s better to skim the source before your read in-depth and read with an open-mind. Be aware of the rating of your source. You want to make sure it is reliable. You want your source to have current information, have a credible author, reliable publication, and you want your source to have quality writing and design. One of the most important things your working bibliography; this is very important. You need to make sure you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work. You need to tell when you are using information from a source. It is also important to develop a note-taking strategy. You need to take good notes and make sure to separate your source’s information from your own. You can also summarize and/or paraphrase your source’s information, but also make sure to tell where this information comes from. This is a great chapter in combination with other chapters to help you write a perfect research paper.