4.5 Quick Guide for an Undergraduate Research Assignment
4.5 Quick Guide for an Undergraduate Research Assignment
Jemma Llewellyn; Erin Kelly; Sara Humphreys; Tina Bebbington; Nancy Ami; and Natalie Boldt
Defining and understanding your goals or purpose for research is an important step. Your writing has a purpose; therefore your research has a purpose. Instead of looking at research as a boring, difficult task, see it as an opportunity to learn. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, look to your topic and know that you have a mission. With that in mind, follow these steps if you do feel lost and overwhelmed by a research task (and, of course, contact a librarian!):
First, look at your assignment to note any requirements set by your instructor. In addition to the content, format, and genre of your paper, look for advice on how many sources, what kinds of sources, and what type of citations are required. These and other expectations will impact your research and writing.
Next, underline these expectations and guidelines or make a list of these requirements and criteria, and refer to your notes and assignment often; they’ll help you as you work. Keep your assignment instructions handy. Then, checking the assignment criteria again before submitting your final paper will ensure that you haven’t missed anything important. Most importantly, make sure you understand the purpose of the assignment, as that will direct your research and writing.
Developing your topic is usually the next step. You may have been given topics to choose from or the freedom to create your own. Either way, your topic needs to be arguable and be the right size to fit your assignment. If you are expected to hand in a ten page paper, you don’t want to have done enough research to write a book. Work smart, not harder.
When you have a specific and arguable topic, turn it into a research question. Your research question is your starting point. It should include your topic, what you want to learn about that topic, and some boundaries to keep your research focused. For example, if your topic is information science, then you can narrow down that research area by formulating questions: What is information science?; What makes it a science?; Why is library funding cut when we all need libraries?; How did libraries originate?; and so on.
Okay, you have your research question, now what? Start by answering it yourself in a 15 minute writing spree. Seriously, time yourself and just write and don’t worry about making mistakes. This “zero-drafting” or starting from zero (a common technique) gives you a baseline to start from and provides insight about your own perspectives on your topic. That said, you need to be prepared to shift gears or change your mind if your future work shows that your perspective on a topic is not supported by research. For example, your topic may be about poverty and homelessness. You may think that homeless folks don’t have jobs. But then you discover by reading peer-reviewed studies and journalistic interviews that up to a quarter