The Research Process

Welcome to Mr. Kotek's crash course in conducting strong academic research. While you won't have everything I cover when I come into classes, you can find the basics of what a good academic researcher will do. As always, if you need help with these steps or you would like me to help you find some information, you can always email me.

Step 1: Define the Information Problem

Define your research question by defining your information problem. In other words, what do you hope to better understand or be able to explain/prove? Come up with an Essential Question that focuses on what you hope to answer as you research. Then break that question down into your Research Questions--those questions you will need to know the answers to so that you can discuss your essential question. You want these research questions to get you started, but they may change or new questions may come up as you learn more about your topic.

Essential Question:

• Is solar energy a viable solution for power in the United States?

Research Questions:

• How do solar panels work to produce energy?

• How does the efficiency of solar energy compare to that of other renewable energies?

• How does the efficiency of solar energy compare to that of fossil fuels?

• Does solar energy have an impact on the environment?

Step 2: Determine Possible Sources and Prepare to Research

Think about where you will look for information. Remember: the sources you use in academic research should be balanced, so make sure you consult lots of different places for information. Make a plan to check the school library catalog for print sources, know where to find library database sources (both those purchased by the school and the state through Badgerlink), and, of course, websites found using a search engine like Google.

Then, identify the keywords in your research questions so you are ready to begin conducting searches for sources. Your keywords are the main/important words from your research questions that you will use when you search for information sources that might help answer your essential question. For example, take the question "How do solar panels produce energy?" and find the main words in the question.

How do solar panels produce energy?

In this case, the main words in the research question are "solar", "panels", "produce", and "energy". These are the words you will use to find sources relating to this question in a library catalog, a database, or on Google.

Even with all of your keywords, you're still not ready to jump into locating sources. Make sure you are prepared to find all types of variations on your keywords since not every source you look for will use the exact words you thought of in your question. With that in mind, create a table of your keywords and find possible synonyms that a source might use so you don't miss any great sources that might be out there. Using a thesaurus or conducting some quick general research might help with this. An example of your keyword planning might look like this:

Now you'll be able to use any combination of these keywords should you start finding it hard to come up with hits as you search. This step will help reduce much of the frustration that might occur as you research. Keep in mind that you may also modify these keywords throughout your research as you learn and find new words and terms that help you better answer your questions.

To help you with this step of the research process, you may want to use a research path planner. Feel free to make a copy of this example planner and fill it out before you start looking for sources.

Research Path Planner

Step 3: Locate Sources

Now that you have your research questions figured out and your keywords ready, it's time to locate sources you think will help answer your research questions. Keep in mind that is all you want to be doing during this stage of your research journey--locating sources. Now is not the time to read all of the books, database articles, and websites you find in their entirety. Instead, you should look at abstracts, evaluate the age of your sources, skim articles, and consider the authenticity of websites.

As you find sources you think are good and helpful to your understanding of the topic you are researching, gather and keep them all in one place so that you can easily access them later. Use a library-sponsored tool, like NoodleTools, RefWorks, or Zotero to collect your sources. Not only will these types of tools allow you to keep the sources you hope to use all in one place, but they will also help you create an annotated bibliography (should one be required) and cite your sources in a "Works Cited" page when you have completed your research so you can show where your information comes from.

Step 4: Engage/Work with Sources

Once you have exhausted the resources available and you have located resources to help answer your questions, it's time to "Engage" with your sources. What this means is that you are finally going to go through and actively take a look at what you can learn from them. At this stage, you'll spend time reading your sources, highlighting important information you find in them, taking notes, and organizing what you learn.

As you go through this stage, it is again helpful to use a tool like NoodleTools which will allow you to make digital notecards of information you find that is important, paraphrase it, and think critically about why the information is important and how it helps you answer your research questions. To help even more with the organization of your research, use NoodleTools to organize your notes by each of your research questions.

Check out these examples of how to use NoodleTools to help you engage with and take notes on your sources:

Step 5: Present the Information

Finally, it's time to take everything you've learned as you researched and demonstrate what you now know by creating "new knowledge" (showing what you have come to understand about the information). In this step of the research process, you are creating whatever it is that your teacher wants you to create. Many times this will be a paper or a presentation. Other times, it might be a creative project or they might give you the choice to design your own way to show what you learned. Whatever the case, start by going back to your sources and creating an outline to guide you in what you need to produce.

If you took the time to gather all of your sources and do much of your thinking in NoodleTools, you can use the outline feature to create an outline of your project for you. If not, you can go back to your notes and produce your own outline using the information you discovered. Then use that outline to showcase all of your research in the format your teacher requested.