Tired of being told what to think? Research offers capable students the opportunity to pursue their own questions and interests. Like any other skill, research must be mastered to be used effectively. Learn from your mistakes, improve your research, and you’ll gain a skill for life--those who research well are rarely bored, ignorant, fooled, or seriously mistaken …
Problem #1: It's hard to choose a research topic, and even harder to write a research question ...
Solution: Take it one step at a time, using IB's "Five Steps to Developing a Research Question."
Problem #2: Research feels like a slow and confusing waste of time ...
Solution: Use a research strategy (here's an infographic provided by BYU Library).
Problem #3: All the resources say the same thing, and none of their "insights" are worth sharing ...
Solution: Use a variety of resources (print & digital), and evaluate the resources you use. Privilege collections that cost other people money (funded research is often better developed and more insightful). The following guide is a good place to start ...
Problem #4: It's impossible to keep all these sources, quotes, paraphrases, and personal insights straight ...
Solution: Use a Research Notebook to keep citation notes as you go, including ALL quotes AND paraphrases AND summaries.
If an idea belongs to someone else, then you're bound to state as much. Citation is about giving credit where credit's due. Citation also offers students the opportunity to earn the respect of their readers, thereby earning writers credibility and a newfound sense of authority. Above all else, faithful citation frees students from suspicions of plagiarism ...
Problem #5: Research is just an elaborate scavenger hunt, less about thinking and more about gathering a meaningless pile of facts ...
Solution: Stop copying/pasting what you find. When you copy/paste from source to document, you eliminate the need to think about what you've found. If you don't think about what you've found, you won't have anything to conclude, learn, or remember ... The result will be a laundry list of ideas, none of which will have anything to do w/ you. Instead, note and analyze your findings (in a Research Notebook), synthesize multiple findings into collective ideas, and draw meaningful conclusions.
Consider creating an outline, to synthesis and organize your thoughts along the way ...
