The Research Process—The Preliminary Stage
By Richard Schumacher, University of Maryland University College
The early stages of any research project are important. You should start thinking about your
project as soon as you receive your assignment so you can begin laying the building blocks of
your research strategy. Below are some of these building blocks.
Choose a Topic That Matters to You
It is important to give serious thought to your topic choice. Insofar as possible, try to find
topics or themes that truly interest you. Relating your research writing to your own interests
and values makes the project more interesting both for you and for your reader. If you have
questions about whether or not a topic is appropriate, always consult your instructor for
guidance and feedback. Often brainstorming—by yourself or preferably with a group of
students—is a useful way to begin "trying on" subjects.
Narrow the Scope of Your Topic
The natural tendency amongst student researchers is to leave your topic very broad. Because
of the immense quantity of information on most topics, it is crucial to make decisions about
limiting or narrowing the scope of your paper. Such decisions are not binding; you can always
backtrack and broaden the topic again. As a rule of thumb, however, you can assume that
there is plenty of information for your project. Below, we describe a few traditional narrowing
"filters" you should be adept at using. We will return to the "logic" of using these filters in
module 2, which is on critical thinking.

Time filter. Be as precise as possible about your time frame. For example, if you are
writing a paper on popular culture after World War II, be sure to choose a particular,
preferably brief, sequence of years. Writing a paper on "Musical Revolutions in the
Sixties" is all but impossible because there are too many changes within this decade.
You might narrow your scope to the early '60s or even designate a precise number of
years, such as 1960–1962. Similarly, writing a paper on "American Comics" would
entail too many authors, superheroes, and artists. It would be better to limit your
inquiry to a specific time frame.

Place filter. Be as precise as possible about geographical location. In general, it is
difficult and often impossible to prove something about a huge geographical location.
Trying to write a paper on "Female Managers in the United States" will cause all kinds
of problems for you. In general, your research will go more smoothly if you designate
a much more precise geographical area for this kind of research project.

Theme filter. Be as precise as possible about the themes you are exploring. If you
are studying the Holocaust, choose a certain, precise aspect of it. For example, you
might narrow the scope of your paper to recent works on the principal causes of the
Holocaust.
Identify an Especially Important Question about Your Topic
Even in the early stages of your research, you can begin thinking about the direction it will
take. One of the ways of steering your research is to formulate a question about your topic.
For example, you might ask the following question about American popular culture in the
twentieth century: "In the original Spiderman comics, why was it so important for Peter Parker
to come from a modest background?" Or, with regard to the Holocaust, "Have there been any
recent attempts to explain the root causes of this tragedy?" Or, "Is there a specific part of the
United States where there is an especially high percentage of women managers? If so, why
does this occur?" Formulating questions such as these will allow you to have a proactive,
analytical attitude toward your research and not be confused by information overload.
The Importance of Dialogue
Dialogue and feedback are important parts of research writing. Do your best to share your
ideas with others. Never hesitate to ask for feedback from your instructor, especially if you
need clarification about the assignment.
Keep a Research Log
One of the primary techniques of all good researchers is to write down ideas and insights
throughout the research process. You also might try to keep a research log. In particular,
formulate in writing why you wish to choose a certain topic. Write down how you came to
narrow your topic (popular culture>comics>Spiderman>Peter Parker>sociological issues).
Experiment with various working theses to see how they "sound." Stay alert and think hard
about your topic.
Preliminary Writing Techniques
It is important to understand the differences between the various writing techniques you will
need to use when writing your research essay or paper. Some of these (textual annotation, for
example) are informal and can be adapted to your own learning style. Some are formal
(quotation, for example) and have established procedures connected with them. Your
instructor will work with you on these distinctions. Below, we have summarized five of the
most useful techniques.
1. Textual annotation. As you read books, articles, and Web material, you will need to
make your personal comments—underlining sophisticated technical vocabulary,
highlighting difficult passages, or making notes about how you might want to use the
author's ideas in your paper.
2. Systematic outline. You will often need to compress your source material to its core
content. This is what an outline does: it reduces complex texts to just their main ideas
and basic organization so that you have a brief record of what you read.
3. Paraphrase. When you need to retain the detail of one of your sources, you
recapitulate the author's ideas in your own words. You should strive to stay as close as
possible to the order of ideas of your source author.
4. Summary. Sometimes you will need to compress an article, book, or passage down to
its essential idea or concept.
5. Quotation. Using exact quotations from your sources is one of the major ways of
proving your ideas and structuring your research papers. Reproducing the quotes
precisely and informing your reader of the original location of the quotations is
important.
Using these five techniques in the earliest phase of your research project enables you to
organize your research and proceed smoothly through the various stages of the research
process.