Getting it Together: The Research

By now, you probably have many ideas and some sense of direction. The next part is probably one of my favorites: gathering research. If you do not take any other advice, take this: stick to the topic. While doing your research, you are going to find so many articles and read so much information you may want to keep it all. Unfortunately, you cannot. I would not start discarding your research at this point, however. It is at this stage I highly recommend starting a bibliography. I know the topic here is research, but I discovered after writing probably hundreds of papers and essays that putting together a bibliography as the resources are found, will seriously save hours  of time later on when its time to do the references section. The reason for this is that all your references will already be formatted correctly and in alphabetical order; it will simply be a matter of copying and pasting later.

Now, back to my advice about sticking to the topic. When I say this, it does not mean do not go back and scrap part of your paper because you discovered the idea you are writing about is boring, unimportant, or that you do not have enough information to support it. It means you can not write about everything. Depending upon the purpose and length of your paper, you are probably going to have only a handful of ideas. Stick with those ideas and limit your research to those ideas. If your assignment is to write a paper about bipolar disorder amongst teenage girls, researching the affects of parenting styles on adolescent boys is not going to cut it. It may be interesting and may contain a blurb about your topic, but it has nothing to do with your topic. Look at your outline. Focus your reasearch on the contents of your outline. After all, it is the ideas on your outline you need to support.

One other thing, and this is very important. Use quality resources. The following is a list of some examples of APA acceptable resources:

• Peer reviewed journals
• Interviews you conduct yourself
• Government websites (.gov)
• Educational institution websites (.edu)
• Organizational websites (.org)
• Original transcripts
• Books but ONLY if they are non-fictional original works. For example, I wrote a paper about veterans and used a book about someone’s personal experience in Iraq.

Bottom line: use as much PRIMARY research as possible.

By now you should know that encyclopedias and dictionaries are not acceptable sources: Neither are magazines or newspapers. Do not discard them, though, because they all contain something very valuable; they include resources to journals, websites, books, names of doctors, names of people, etc. They are what I call leads. I often start out reading a Wikipedia page to familiarize myself with a subject or something I do not understand. At the end of Wikipedia pages there are usually references listed. I cannot tell you how many times I have found some of those references invaluable to my papers!

To keep things organized, I number my resources and write down the date I located them along with the website address or DOI number. I put my articles together according to subject matter and keep them in a manila folder. Of course it is important to stay organized; do what works best for you.

For more information, go to “The Library” and click on the video link titled “Why Peer Reviewed Academic Journal Articles Not Magazines?”

Get Organized

When you go grocery shopping, do you make a grocery list? When you make that list, do you write everything down with no rhyme or reason and run all over the place when you get there? Or,do you categorize  everything based on type of food? Better yet, do you organize your list based on the way the store is laid out or by the order in which you will visit each department? I prefer the latter. I know where I like to park and I strategize it based on where I will enter and where I will check out. When I walk in, unless I am only grabbing a couple of items, I will enter through the bakery. I will then meander my way through the prouduce, then the meat department, then the dairy and frozen foods and, finally, canned, boxed, and paper items. Writing papers is the same way. Even when writing short papers or essays, it needs to be organized. By now you probably have a handful of ideasand your thoughts are ruminating.You may be asking yourself questions such as “what do I write about first?” There is no right or wrong answer to your question. However, I am a firm believer that the last thing we read is the thing we remember most. Therefore, I like to save the good stuff for last. Here is an analogy that might put things into perspective:

I. Introduction –  prepare the reader. Do not be afraid to be somewhat creative with this portion. Your reader wants to keep reading. Give them a reason! Make it interesting. This also must contain your thesis.  (Introduction=planning=looking for my parking spot) Believe it or not, I often write this part of my paper LAST.

II. Body – this is the essence, the bones, the meat and potatoes of your paper. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in this portion of yor paper MUST support your thesis. If it does not, then it does not belong in your paper. (Body=what goes in the paper to support thesis= what goes in the grocery cart). Organize the body of your paper the same as you would your grocery list. For example:

A. Bakery

1. bread

a. wheat

b. white

c. english muffins

2. bagels

a. low carb

b. blueberry

B. Produce

C. Meat

D. Frozen

1. vegetables

a. broccoli

b. corn

c. peas

2. treats

a. ice cream

b. cool whip

I absolutely do not write my grocery list this way, but pretty close to it. Take those ideas you have in your head and from your research and put together an outline. Commit to not deviating from it. That way, you will be less likely to include information that has no business being in your paper. It prepares you for writing the body of your paper. If you go to the grocery store hungry, you will throw all kinds of things in the cart that do not belong. If you do not prepare an outline and follow it as you write, I promise your paper is going to be full of facts that have nothing to do with your thesis. The more intricate your outline becomes, the less likely you are to plagiarize and the smoother your ideas will transition from one to another.

III. Conclusion = wrap it up. This is where your critical thinking skills will shine. Restate the thesis and support it with your analysis. (Conclusion = summary of facts = checking out the groceries and getting a receipt. The receipt is your item summary. Your conclusion is your analysis of the facts you discussed in your body).

Grab a pencil and start organizing your ideas. Do not worry. It is nothing written in stone. If your ideas do not work or you do not have enough information to support your ideas, you can always go back and change them around, delete them or add to them. Thank goodness for cut and paste! (please note the outline I created here is not in correct alignment or format. Refer to the APA style handbook for the correct formatting of outlines or consult with your instructor).

For an example, see “Outline sample” in the Writing Lab.

Getting Started

You sit in your seat and your stomach starts churning. You start sweating and before too long have a full blown headache.Clicking your heels three times does not work. Wiggling your nose only makes your nose itch….

Take a deep breath. Relax. Everything is going to be ok. I know the feeling. I remember spending hours and weeks trying to figure to write about, let alone what TO write. It can be a mundane task figuring out what subject  you are going to choose. I would often Google “research paper topics” but found that takes up entirely too much time. The reason for this is that most of the results that came up are topics that have been so overwritten and overdone and are, frankly, just plain boring. Although it can be a good place to start, I believe in originality and writing about something that truly interests me, something I can learn from, and something that others can learn from me. You are going to be spending the next several weeks buried in information and if you are writing about a topic just to get something on paper, it is not going to be quality work and you will most likely run into problems including burning out during the process.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Go to “Writing Lab” and follow the links to one of the 5-minute writing websites
• Complete one or more of the activities
• After completing one or some of the activities, make a list of questions you have about something you have been wondering about  (ie: a story in the news, a new procedure or invention, a new policy at work, school, or government, a problem you have or one you solved lately, something interesting you learned in class … the possibilities are endless)
• Choose one or two questions and do the 5-minute writing activuty again
• What problems do you think are associated with your question? List 2
• What solutions do you think would be effective for solving these problems? List 2

You are now prepared for doing the fun part…. the research. Happy reading!