Research is an investigation or study of particular materials, subject matter, or sources, in order to establish facts or otherwise contribute to a discipline, area, question, or theme.
Knowing how to do research for your classes or jobs is important. You might be used to just doing your research through Google, typing in your question and picking the first or second source in the results list. This might be good enough for basic questions, such as finding a fact to prove someone wrong, but it probably won't get you very far when researching for a paper or for answering important questions. Research isn't a one time search, it is a process.
Research isn't linear either. You don't start at point A, then move to B, C, and so on. It's a cyclical process that usually involves a lot of trial and error before you find what you actually need. It can take several different searches to get enough information about your topic or question. No one should expect to type a few random words into a database or search engine and get perfect results the first time. Understanding the research cycle can help you to get better results.
We sometimes call it the "research cycle" because at any point in the process you might realize your search results aren't as effective or relevant as you want, that you need more sources, or that you want to focus more on a specific aspect of the topic. This means that you've completed the process with some sources, but you'll need to go through the process again to get more. You might even go back to the beginning and refine or change your topic to one that works better or is more interesting to you. Keeping all this in mind can help you push forward and save you some frustration if things don't go the way you expect.
Planning out what topic you want to explore and getting background information can help you determine if it's researchable and interesting to you. Refining your topic to the right scope for your assignment will also help you manage your research later.
As you brainstorm a topic and gather background information, it helps to make a list of keywords, along with synonyms of those keywords. This allows you to search for information sources in various ways and can improve your chances of finding the information you're looking for. Planning how you'll search is just the first step of the process, and you will most likely find that some keywords get you better results or you may find new ones as you search.
Searching is the part of the process that puts your plan into action. It helps you figure out if your keywords will get useful results in a search tool, such as a database. Don't just do one search. Try different combinations of keywords and synonyms until you find sources that seem relevant to your topic. Searching will also help you find out if your topic is too broad or too narrow based on the amount of information you find on the subject.
As you search, it's important to evaluate what you find. Evaluating involves checking the results to see if your search statement is getting the right kinds of sources you want, and then looking more closely at sources to see if they are relevant and credible. This is where you decide whether to keep and use an article, or whether to keep searching.
Synthesis is how you pull important points and supporting evidence out of the different sources you found to support your argument and answer your questions. You can use the work of others as evidence in a research paper, but remember to give the authors credit by properly citing the sources. Knowing how to read and synthesize the main points of your sources is an important part of research.
With any process, it is good to reflect on what you learned as you went through the steps. You should reflect on the research process itself, including how your plan worked out, where you found the best information, and what you learned about your topic as you synthesized your sources and wrote your paper. This kind of reflection can help you transfer what you learned to different situations.
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