Chapter 7
The Research Process
By: Aubrey Thompson and August Fitch
What Research Means
 RESEARCH: it is an investigation into a topic
 Ex.) You began with a problem and will look to a variety of
sources that have the info that you need to solve your
problem.
 REASEARCH PAPER: can inform the reader about a topic,
or it can attempt to convince the reader the feel a certain
way or take a certain action
 Ex.) Persuading a reader the recycling is the right thing to
do.
Choosing a Topic
 Choosing your topic is the first step in the research process.
 Choose a topic that you are interested in, not something that
will be hard for you to research.
 Formulate research questions that will help you with
investigating your topic.
 You can define the specific topic you will research by asking a
series of questions in order to arrive at your research
question.
Research Sources
 After you’ve chosen your topic, the next step is to find the
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answers to your research questions. There are many types of
research sources; websites, newspapers, magazines, and books.
You need to check over all the sources that you can so you can
make sure you get the full picture of what you are researching
There are two types or sources, primary and secondary.
PRIMARY SOURCE: is a document that is document that was
created during the time you are investigating
Ex.) Diary entries, poems, stories, historical documents like the
Declaration of Independence
Research Sources Cont.
 SECONDARY SOURCE: provides an interpretation of or
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commentary about a primary source.
Ex.) encyclopedia entries, magazine articles, critical reviews)
Common types of sources: encyclopedias, almanacs,
journals, news sources, interviews, field studies, technical
documents and microfiche.
Some sources might be biased, meaning they favor one side
over another.
Be aware that sources have different perspectives on the same
topics, and also look for the credibility of the author.
Using Sources
 Your research paper should reflect the ideas about the
research question you developed.
 You should write out a detailed outline or rough draft of your
paper before you produce your final copy.
 Support the info that you discovered in your primary and
secondary sources throughout your paper.
Organizing Your Info
 A good way to organize your information is to write it on
note cards. By doing this, you can have all of your ideas and
information whenever you need it.
 You can also use anecdotal scripting to organize your ideas.
 Lastly, you can create an annotated bibliography to record all
of your information and the sources that you got it from.
Integrating Source Information Into
Your Text
 First you want to sort your information by your topics and use only
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what you need
Use your draft to help find what info you need to put in your paper.
Direct quotations- exact words from the original author or speaker
Ex.) At the beginning of “Masque of the Red Death,” Poe describes the
prince as, “happy,” “dauntless,” and “sagacious.”
Paraphrasing- (indirect quote) is restating the words of another person
in your own words.
Ex.) Original material: William Seward, Lincoln`s SOS, commented on
the limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation. He said, “we show
our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where “we cannot
reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.
Paraphrase: Lincoln`s SOS William Steward recognized that the
Emancipation Proclamation created no actual change for slaves at the
time.
Cont….
 Summarizing: the process of putting the author’s main idea in
your own words.
 Ex.) The Declaration of Independence states the reasons that
the colonists sought independence from England.
Documenting Sources
 In-text citations used within a document to provide
information about a source.
 Ex.) Emily Post admonished in her 1922 handbook of
etiquette that one should never take more than one’s share of
food at the table (38).
 You need to put all of your information into a bibliography or
a works cited
 Ex.) Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York:
Macmillan Press, 1987.
Formatting and Publishing a Research
Paper
 You need to follow the guidelines that your teacher has given
you.
 Ex.) MLA or APA format
 Make sure your spacing, margins and title page follow the
guidelines you were given.