Starting your Research

You're ready to go!

The plan at a glance

1. Get a working knowledge of your topic.

2. Find a problem or issue to investigate.

3. State your problem or issue in one question (and only one question).

4. Create a roadmap to organize your research by forming an outline out of elements of your question.

For more help, see the extensive guides on TWU Library's website, or contact a librarian at TWU:

infodesk@twu.ca

Make a Roadmap

Once you have a question to ask, make a roadmap:

Take elements from your question and create a basic outline to guide your next steps in research.

What type of messaging is most effective in curbing teenage alcohol use?

• Problem of teenage alcohol use

• Types of messaging in practice

• Most effective messaging

How questions work

• Ask only one question.

• It shouldn't be something you can just look up.

• The answer shouldn't be easy to determine.

• You may find several possible answers & have to choose one of them.

• The books and articles you use in your research will offer clues & support.

Examples:

Starting your Research

Climate Change: Is the development of alternative fuels damaging or beneficial for the economy?

History of WWI: Given the causes, how could WWI have been avoided?

Teenage Alcohol Use: What type of messaging is most effective in curbing teenage alcohol use?

The Great Gatsby: What is this novel saying about American culture?

Step 2: Find an Angle

A research project is not a compilation of what we already know. It has to be an investigation.

Research is problem-solving with information.

So find something to investigate within your topic, and put it into the form of a question.

This will narrow your topic and make it problem-based.

For example:

You want enough information

to grasp what the topic is

about.

You also want to discover

possible areas for research.

Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Step 1: Get your feet on the ground

It doesn't have to be an exercise in frustration.

Before you start on a topic, you need to understand its basic features. Get a working knowledge:

Find a short summary that covers the topic well from:

• Wikipedia (use carefully)

• A library-based specilized dictionary or encyclopedia: For TWU, use the books/e-books tab for any link at http://libguides.twu.ca/

Avoid common websites - the information may be unreliable. Journal articles are too detailed at this stage.

You have a new research project

What do you feel?

• Anxiety

• Uncertainty

• Frustration

• Dread

For most students, getting a project started is the hardest part.

Here's a plan.