An Essential Part of Today’s Education System
The process of research has increasingly become a part of the modern education system. It is increasingly becoming common to see that research projects are incorporated at all levels of education, from the undergraduates, postgraduates to even school level curriculum. And whereas the move is a positive one because it fosters critical thinking and discovery.
One Serious Challenge
However, there is one serious challenge. Research is generally what most students are encouraged to conduct without knowing how.
School Assignment, College Report, or First Academic Essay?
Whether you are writing a school assignment, a college report, or an academic essay for the very first time, this article is going to help you. For ease, let us take it that you have a topic for research already.
The Process of Creating New Knowledge
At its core, research is the process of creating new knowledge.
Researching a Topic Thoroughly
However, in normal language use, it always means that one is doing research on a subject with the aim of getting to know everything about it in order to analyze and evaluate it. This is not just knowing a few facts about something through Google Scholar.
Was It Legal or Ethical
Let me explain this with the help of an example. Uh, so imagine you are asked to write about the latest controversy. I’m sure all of you have heard about the latest controversy involving the Kolhapuri Chappals and Prada. So let’s assume that the topic given to you is what Prada did with Kolhapuri Chappals. Was it legal or ethical?
Three Major Kinds of Research
We will use this case study to help us divide the entire process of research into steps. However, before we do that, let us identify the three major kinds of research. We have our primary research whereby we get fresh data through surveys, interviews, or experiments.
Secondary and Mixed Research
Then we have secondary research where we study existing resources like your reports, articles, or academic papers. And then there is a third kind which is called mixed research, which is a combination of both primary and secondary.
Step One Is Categorize Your Topic Into Themes
Okay. So now let’s walk you through the process step by step. So step one is to categorize your topic into themes.
Smaller, Manageable Categories
So first of all, now that you’ve got the topic which we discussed previously, break your topic into smaller, manageable categories. This gives your research a structure. For example, in the Prada example, categories might include information about Prada, background on Kolhapuri Chappals, legal protections from traditional products, the Prada incident, and ethical concerns.
Divide Your Entire Research Topic Into Subcategories
So you can the media or the public response. So what you will do is you will divide your entire research topic into subcategories. Further, for each of the categories that you’ve designed, you might want to create more categories, which you can call as subcategories, like under the information about Prada, you might include its origin, then the product line, the business model, and so on and so forth.
Identifying Reliable Sources
Think about it, once you have performed this step, then what areas or aspects of my topic do I need to know, then accordingly, you can make categories and subcategories. Next comes the step of identifying reliable sources. Now, you should search for reliable sources.
Think of Sources Like Ingredients
Think of sources like ingredients. If you have bad ingredients, the entire dish gets spoiled. So use credible sources like government websites, reports from KPMG, McKinsey, BCG, or any kind of reports or written articles from UN or the World Bank, data, uh, company websites, peer-reviewed journals, reputed newspapers and magazines.
Avoid Random Blogs
It is very important that you do not use information from random blogs and personal opinions. Although information may be provided by a renowned expert on Twitter, make sure that it comes from a trustworthy Twitter handle. Is this a trustworthy enough source?
Collect and Categorize Your Data
And after you have selected those sources, go ahead with the third step. Collect and categorize your data. Open your Word or Excel document. Identify each section according to your themes. Begin reading and collecting data.
Don’t analyze at this point. Just read and collect information.
You Will Know That You Have Enough Information When
The same point keeps coming up again and again in your sources. So now all this information is collected and then arranged into the categories that have been established previously. Is there any repetition among the sources used?
Keep Track of All References
If yes, then it’s time to move on to step number four. Keep track of all references. Every fact must have a reference always. References are a big requirement in all kinds of research. Why? Since it ensures your credibility, enables you to avoid plagiarism, and facilitates verification, revisiting is made simple.
Do I Have Evidence to Support Each Point
Thus, add a column to your document in which the sources will be cited, along with the names of the authors and dates of publication. And ask yourself the question, “Do I have evidence to support each point in this research?” Then go ahead to step five – Deep Reading.
Deep Reading for Understanding
So now you have all the data under different categories. Now is the time to go back over all of those categories and do some serious reading. Everything about your topic should be clear to you now.
Write Your First Draft
Ask yourself, could I explain this clearly to someone? If yes, then you can move on to step number six. Write your first draft. Start drafting your paper, your report, your article. Decide on a structure first and order of the sections, and then write one section at a time.
Don’t Aim for Perfection
Don’t aim for perfection in the first draft. You’ll take multiple drafts to do that. Focus on the flow and logic. Do you think that this makes sense to the reader? Yes? Then proceed to the next step, which is number seven. Gap filling.
Do Another Round of Research
So, you’ll find weak spots once you’ve made the first job. That’s okay. Do another round of research to fill these gaps. This loop of writing, revising is a part of the process. So once you’ve done this multiple times, you’ll probably ask yourself, is there anything unclear, unsupported?
Take a Break
If not, then your paper is ready, and move on to step number eight. Rest for a moment. Take a pause before going for revision. A couple of days can help you get some rest of your mind. Review and edit. Fix grammar and sentence flow. Test for plagiarism. Format to the required standards.
Final Draft and Turn-In
Does it make the cut?
If yes, then step number 10, final draft and submission. If you have confidence about your paper, then you can proceed to submit your paper. If you are submitting an email or the paper to a journal, make sure to attach a cover letter.
Research Isn’t Copy Pasting
Congrats! You have conducted the research adequately. You should note that doing research goes beyond just copying and pasting. Analysis and the presentation of organized information are needed here. Ease of research and comprehension can be made step by step.
