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1. 

1Determine your research topic/question. In some classes, students are told to find

a topic; this means the exercise is for the purpose of learning the research process.

In other situations, the required topic is clearly indicated from the class, your ownwork, or your professional needs. Your topic can be aroused from a sense of

curiosity, hunch and interest over a particular perceived problem that you feel

needed to be filled in the gap of knowledge.Ad

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2. 

2Understand the difference between primary and secondary research. 

 

Primary research means doing original research, meaning that this knowledgedoesn't appear in any other paper. You might be reading through original treaties,

newspaper articles, or authentic letters from authors or statesmen. You might be

conducting scientific, medical or engineering experiments.

  Secondary research, the focus of this wikiHow article, means reading other experts'

published papers to learn something new about your topic, to survey what others

have said and written about it, to reach a conclusion about your ideas on the topic.

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3. 

3Determine your scope and time line. Any academic research should lead to a

written report ("research paper") which may be a class assignment, a work task, or

even a published article. Determine in advance how much total time you have for this

work, and make a rough work schedule.

  A work schedule must include the following major steps: 1. Finding and reading

sources. 2. Collecting notes from sources. 3. Preparing a rough draft. 4. Revising the

draft and incorporating source material and citations. 5. Preparing a final draft in the

required format (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.)

  The research scope means knowing how much of your broad subject you will deal

with. Since you probably aren't writing a book or dissertation (100 or more pages),

you must limit your reading and study to a particular focused aspect of the subject.

This requires thinking about what specifically you want to cover. your academic

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research scope should not be too broad (in that it covered more than the required

areas) and not too narrow (in that it does not meet the substantial requirement of a

research scope).

4. 

4Write a research question. This is a question that will guide you in your reading. It

will turn into a thesis statement later. This question reminds you of what you want to

find and read, what you are considering. It is not about a fact ("When did the French

first arrive in Britain?"-- 1066 AD), but about an idea or opinion ("What did the French

arrival in Britain do to the structure of the existing legal system?). The research

questions should written in a way that will be represented in your hypothesis. It

should be the basis in which your hypothesis stands.

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5. 

5Learn how to find useful sources. This is the heart of doing research. With the

internet, there is more useful (and useless) information available than ever in the

history of human inquiry. There is also plenty of material NOT available on theinternet.

 

You might be required to use a certain number and type of resource. These could

include: books, magazines or journals, encyclopedias (probably not

Wikipedia),reference books, newspapers, letters, interviews, blogs, etc.

  You might need an academic (school or university) library. They do contain

information and sources not generally or easily available on the internet, and

reference librarians who can help you. Find your nearest library and determine howto get access privileges.

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6. 

6Collect some possible sources. Begin locating material to read: chapters,

paragraphs, sections, sentences that cover your topic. Remember that you can't

read everything on the topic. You also can't include every word you read in yourpaper. This is background reading for you to learn about your question.

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7. 

7Begin reading in detail. Focus on your research question and find information that

illuminates it, explains, describes, analyzes, contrasts, or gives expert opinion and

viewpoints on it. You are seeking to form your own judgment, based on what youread from your sources.

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8. 

8Find a method to take notes on what you read. This is more than merely copying,

highlighting, or cutting/pasting. If you do only this, you will end up with a pile of bits

and pieces, and will still have to wade through them to find useful, relevant, and

specific quotes.

  Take notes of these: 1. facts that are not common knowledge. 2. quotes from experts

that state a concept in a unique, unusual, or startling way. 3. summaries of longer

explanations.

  Learn the difference between a direct quote, paraphrase, and summary. 

  Be sure to mark exactly where the note came from in your source. You must know

the exact location: author, title, magazine, book, internet page URL, date, volume

number, etc.

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  Arrange your notes into groups according to their content, for later organization into

sections of your paper.

9. 

9Continue to consider new sources. While you are reading, you might find newinformation, or questions on a topic that you need to read up on. You might have to

broaden your research to check on details, possible errors, corroborating or

conflicting evidence, the context of an article, expert, or paper.

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10. 

10Evaluate the sources you use. See: How to Evaluate Sources. Your source must

be credible in terms of the author, location of publication, date, publisher, etc.

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11. 

11Keep your research question in mind. This is what you will analyze in your paper.

Your source material must help you establish your thesis (statement of opinion or

belief) on that topic. If necessary after reading a lot, you might change your questionto fit what you are actually finding. Or you might change your opinion after doing your

reading.

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12. 

12Write your tentative thesis. This is a single statement of your viewpoint on your

research question. See: How to formulate a thesis. 

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13. 

13Begin writing your first draft. This is when you start writing what you have learned,

what you feel about your topic and thesis. Write what you have learned. First give

the background and set the context for this topic. Then start explaining, describing,

give reasons, state causes or effects, or analyzing parts of the topic.

  Some university papers require a first section on "literature review". This is a special

section where you discuss what papers other experts have published on this topic.

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14. 

14Begin to add quotes, paraphrases, or summaries into your writing. These

should be added into your paragraphs where they will highlight or help explain what

you are saying. Be sure to introduce sourced materials in the correct way (see a

standard writing handbook), and mark where your citation will be.

  Note all material taken from sources must be cited. Depending on what system you

use, your (in text) citation will contain a name, date, or page number. This notation

will refer to the list at the end of the paper of References or Works Cited.

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15. 

15Continue writing your first draft, and then revise it. This writing processfollows all

similar academic writing steps. 

  Revising means checking the content of your paper, and making sure the thesis is

developed, the content matches your thesis, there is enough material, it is in a

logical order, nothing off topic is included, and the writing flows smoothly.

  Editing means checking the writing details such as paragraph breaks, sentence

structure, punctuation, spelling, and citation formats.

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16. 

16Prepare the final draft. Strictly follow the format you are using, by checking with its

handbook or style book. This includes: title page, page setup and numeration, in text

citations, reference list, inclusion of visuals, sections and titles, etc.