PART
THREE
TIPS FOR ORGANIZING YOUR
PROJECT KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE
IN MIND
Before you begin your research project,
be clear about how your report will
be evaluated.
Whatever your topic, your research should
be motivated by a need to learn something new or to see what you already
know in a new way. A research assignment that doesn’t change you has
failed. Research is required in the academic world precisely because
it is a way of informing yourself—and others, once your report is formally
presented. In the professional world, research can validate a previously
held opinion, but it may also point to new directions if you remain
open.
FOR STUDENT REPORTS
When you will be submitting your report
for a grade, the teacher is the primary audience—even when the report
will be shared with the class or posted on the Web. Make sure you understand
what characteristics the teacher expects the paper to have.
Most teachers evaluate student papers with
basic principles of research in mind. Use these goals to guide you as
you begin your search for information and later to determine what should
go into the report. The report should show that:
- You have found a good variety of sources
of information—sources appropriate to the level of the course (neither
too lightweight nor too advanced).
- You have understood the sources and
their place in your field of study.
- You have verified the information and
analyzed the presentations, comparing them to those of others.
- You have followed the format and other
conventions specified for reports in your particular discipline. See
Part 4 of this book.
Teachers may value some additional aspects—creativity,
or precision in format, or references to themes covered in class. You
can often tell a teacher’s emphasis by the way the assignment is presented,
but ask if the goal is not clear. And if you have not been told, find
out the minimum page- or word-count and the number of resources (books
and articles) expected.
FOR PROFESSIONAL REPORTS
The reader of a professional report above
all needs to be convinced that you know what you are talking about.
- The report should demonstrate a thorough
search for and understanding of information—whether it be only in
published material (libraries and the Internet) or also in the field
itself—in the laboratory, on location, interviewing those with experience,
observing or living with the details of the subject itself.
- The report should be organized to feature
what is important and to subordinate the supporting details.
- The report should be simultaneously
objective and persuasive—so the reader accepts the conclusions and/or
recommendations.
DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF INFORMATION YOU
NEED
You won’t know how much research is necessary
until you look at what you already know, what the audience expects,
and what the audience doesn’t need to be told.
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR LEVEL OF EXPERTISE
If you are new to your topic, you can do
a quick subject search on the Internet for background and history. Check
encyclopedias and other references online. Check reference books and
textbooks in your library. After some basic research, you can decide
what areas you will concentrate on.
If you already know a great deal about
your topic, identify the aspects where you want more information. List
the organizations, locations, and experts’ names you already know; list
the technical terms, including synonyms; then you can frame your questions
for research.
IDENTIFY THE KINDS OF SOURCES THAT YOU
WILL BE STUDYING
To write a report addressed to colleagues,
a marine biologist will need to use scientific journals and Websites
posted by other marine scientists. Although general interest publications
(such as Newsweek or the New York Times) might have reports
on the topic, these articles would probably be referred to only obliquely
in a specialist’s report, if at all. However, the New York Times
and Newsweek Websites are great places to begin for research
topics for a freshman-level project in almost any general-interest field.
Materials that you use for personal entertainment
would not ordinarily be appropriate for a college research paper, but
a report on Rap music will necessarily include newsletters, Websites
aimed at music fans, and liner notes from
CDs.
IDENTIFY THE AMOUNT OF DETAILED INFORMATION
THAT YOU WILL NEED
A twenty-page paper needs much more detailed
information and analysis than a five-page one. A paper on narcolepsy
will be much more complex for an audience of neuroscientists than for
English 101.
You may just need a few facts and a couple
of expert opinions, or you may need to show that you have done an almost
exhaustive review of the resources available. Again the audience, the
purpose, and the required length of the report will help you decide.
As a guide, you will need to support any generalizations you make, but
often a single fact or quotation will suffice—if you have checked to
make sure that the generalization is true.
IDENTIFY WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE ALREADY
KNOWS
Sometimes, your audience is very familiar
with the resources you will be studying (and may even have written some
of them). In that case, there will be some background information and
explanation that would be most inappropriate in the report, even though
you may need to do preliminary research to bring yourself up to speed.
At other times, the audience may not be knowledgeable about your subject
at all and you will need to include some background—even if you already
knew it before your research.
When you are in doubt about what the audience
knows, you can present background information in a separate section
of the report or preceded by a qualifier ("Researchers have identified
. . . " or "Most Americans would agree
. . . ").
PLAN TO USE PRINTED SOURCES
This book emphasizes electronic sources.
Some of those sources, however, will only identify the titles
of articles or books; you will still need to go to the library to read
them and take notes. For most projects, some of the information will
be available only in print. However, even when a book or article is
on the Web, you may prefer to read it in print.
Many electronic texts of articles are
devoid of formatting. Often, you get just plain typeface—many screenfuls
that you have to search through carefully to find what you want. In
contrast, print articles are easy to skim. You can select passages to
read in a long article, noting headings, illustrations, featured quotations,
and so forth.
You can browse in print, sampling
a middle chapter for example, or flipping through the table of contents,
endnotes, or index of a book.
Most versions of older documents are
out of context. Text-only electronic versions of older printed articles
have been removed from the surrounding pages and format of the original.
For some topics, you can get a useful sense of history and culture when
you view the accompanying graphics, other articles, and advertisements
adjacent to the article as it originally appeared in the newspaper or
journal.
It’s difficult to get a sense of the
length of some computerized texts. You can immediately tell the
size of a book or article in print. However, you won’t necessarily know
the length of an electronic document even when the size of the file
is given (for example, 15K) because some of those kilobytes may be for
graphics or large font size. (Without graphics, 15K in #12 typeface
is about 6 pages.) If the information is given, note the pages an article
covered in its original form.
On the other hand, computers can save you
a great deal of time. Use computerized indexes and catalogs first wherever
possible. Even if you read a source on paper, use a computer
for taking notes. Return to the electronic version of any source that
is available so you can copy and paste any quotations—as well
as the Internet address, author, title, and so forth—right with the
notes so you’ll later be able to document it easily and avoid plagiarism.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE TIME LIMITS OF YOUR
PROJECT
If the deadline is rapidly approaching,
you will need to be very focused as you research.
Plan to spend one-third of the available
time on research and the rest on analyzing information and writing
the report. With electronic research, you can quickly get a great deal
of information. However, researching electronically can become a mesmerizing
activity, and you might find that at the end of a pleasant afternoon
there is nothing to report. Try setting a timer (some computers have
this feature installed), stopping every hour or so to make sure you
have something concrete, so you aren’t caught empty-handed at the deadline.
Narrow your topic as soon as possible.
It’s almost impossible to write a good report on a general topic.
For example, don’t waste valuable time continuing to research "diabetes."
Instead, look at treatments for diabetes or progression of the disease.
Use additional terms as you come across them in the results from your
queries.
Limit your search to accessible materials.
Use what is quickly available. For example, you could put together a
good report on a famous author such as Virginia Woolf (if you’ve already
read some of her writing) by limiting your research to books and articles
on a particular theme in her work that you already understand.
- You could use standard English literature
resources such as the MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography
on CD-Rom, the Humanities Index (also on CD-Rom), and whatever
books in your library are available on the subject of Woolf or of
twentieth-century British authors in general.
- If your library subscribes, you could
log on to FirstSearch and look under "Literature."
- On the Internet, AltaVista <www.altavista.com>
returned 12,425 results on a simple query on "Virginia Woolf."
The first result was for the International Virginia Woolf Society
< http://www.utoronto.ca/IVWS>
which provides annual bibliographies. You could then get those listed
articles you want from your college library. If you still had time,
the first few listings by Altavista included several good academic
Web pages as well, where you could get ideas to discuss and cite in
your paper.
For most reports, those searches should
provide enough information. Don’t forget that you still must analyze
what you have found and then incorporate what you understand from Woolf’s
writings into the report. When time is a factor, gathering the data
should not take up the majority of your time; use your energy for analysis
and careful presentation.
Ask for help. If you will be connecting
to the Internet from home, don’t forget to allow time to use the library
where you’ll need to consult print sources—and perhaps get a librarian’s
help. Use helplines for search engines and databases.
Don’t outline too soon. Restrain
yourself (at least for a couple of research sessions) from outlining
or planning the report itself. Instead, first take some time to discover
what you didn’t know before, and then allow yourself time to see any
patterns within the information. Follow the search process and see what
you can discover. After that, you can develop an outline that uses the
most valuable information and your thoughts about it.
Allow time for reflection while you
research. You can’t write a thoughtful report if you have no time
to think. Pausing occasionally to jot down your ideas as you work will
enable you to see both an emerging general picture of your topic and
the quality of the specific information. Even under the pressure of
a deadline, you can stay open to discovery. A few minutes using a different
index or browsing among adjacent texts on the library bookshelf may
yield surprising information or a refreshing point of view.
Plan your reading time. You won’t
need to read every single word in every source you use, but you will
need time for analysis and interpretation. Introductions, conclusions,
headings or chapter titles, selected paragraphs—all can give you a sense
of the main approach of a particular work.
Be kind to your body. Take a brief
stretching break every thirty minutes to avoid hand and eye strain.
Watch your posture at the computer. Plan to get some sleep before revising
the report; a fresh view will improve the paper.
RECORD INFORMATION AS YOU RESEARCH
As you research, save your information
on disk. Periodically stop to write down your own thoughts.
Have a couple of formatted computer disks,
paper, and pen handy for every research session. Once you find valuable
information, save it immediately to disk. Make backups frequently. Bookmark
each source and note the Internet address if your browser does not automatically
do so.
MAINTAIN GOOD COMPUTER FILES
You can highlight and copy information
or pictures and then save them on your disk. See page 00 for directions.
Keep separate files according to these types:
- notes on information (data, statistics,
biographical or historic facts)—with the source and date retrieved
on each one, right next to the information.
- downloaded information, marked as an
exact copy (to prevent plagiarism) and listing the author, title,
web address and date retrieved. Later you can take notes or select
passages from the material, but keep these files separate from your
own notes.
- lists of categories and search terms
as they occur to you—these will help you plan further searches and
organize the information you have discovered.
- general thoughts on the topic, reactions
to material you have found, and ideas on the report you must write.
This method will assure that when you are
ready to write the report, some of it will already be written, and you
will have the necessary information to prevent plagiarism.
USE DISKS FOR BACKUP
Even when doing all your research from
your own computer, you should backup on disk or zip drive all your information—including
Bookmarks—before ending each session. Do not erase original files when
you modify them; instead, rename the revision with the original file
name plus a sequential letter or number (e. g., background1).
Sometimes information you have discarded may become relevant after further
research. Similarly, computer crashes wipe out your search history,
and you will need to revisit some sites as your research progresses.
RECORD THE SOURCE OF EVERY FACT OR
QUOTATION
When you are ready to take notes, again
save them right on your disk, together with the specific information
you will need for documentation:
For an article from a database on CD-ROM
- Author if given. Title of article. Date of article (if given).
Title of database. City of publication: Publisher, date of copyright.
For an article on the Internet -
Author or organization. Title of article (or type of article if e-mail
or posting to a message board). Title of Website. Organization if different
from author. Date of last revision or copyright (if given). Date you
viewed it and complete Internet address.
For an article that was printed elsewhere
but that you got online - Author. Title of article. Title of publication.
Date, volume number, and pages (if given). Title of Website. Date you
viewed it and complete Internet address.
For a book that you got online -
Author. Title. City of publication, publisher, and date of publication.
Title of Website. Date you viewed it and complete Internet address.
KNOW WHEN TO STOP YOUR SEARCH
The problem most researchers encounter
is gauging how much time to allow for the search and for the report.
One thing you can count on is that writing the report almost always
will take much longer than you expect.
Add your thoughts as you assemble the
notes from your electronic sources. Since with computers you can
write and research intermittently, add your commentary and interpretation
as you are copying and pasting material from your various sources, being
clear each time to put quotation marks around exact wording from others.
Give the author, title, and date right below the material so most of
your documentation is also done. (See Part 4 "Document Your Information.")
Stop periodically to see whether you
have enough information. Compare the length of your notes to the
required size of the finished report. You may already have enough information
if you have double the required number of sources and have notes close
to the page requirement.
Take time to cull out information that
doesn’t belong in the report. Often an interesting fact or anecdote
has no place. Write an outline and then reject what doesn’t fit.
Allow time to write your analysis
and commentary. The worst kind of research reports just present
the information source by source, with little or no thoughtful commentary.
You will need to break up the material that you have found, to analyze
it, and to contrast the points of view of the different authorities.
Plan for additional research time.
You may at the last minute discover gaps in your information or need
to check Internet addresses.