Research Tutorials

Step 1: Read and understand the assignment

Perhaps the most important step when beginning writing or researching is understanding the assignment and the requirements of the assignment.  Things to keep in mind are:

• What type of paper is it?

                  Compare/contrast, argumentative, annotated bibliography, research, etc. 

• What types of resources are required?

                  Articles, scholarly/academic resources, credible websites, books, etc. What is the best resource for your assignment?

• How many resources are required and is there a required timeline?

                  5 articles and 1 book, published during the last 10 years

• Is there a required word count or page length?

                  This will help you choose an appropriate topic

Step 2: Pick a Topic

Step 3: Find Background Information

Gathering background information will help you:

• Choose a topic
• Focus your topic into something manageable that fits the assignment.

Example

You decide to discuss health care reform and your paper must be 6-10 pages long. You must find some background information to learn about the issue in general, which will help you to narrow down your HUGE topic into one you can effectively cover in 6-10 pages. Some important questions to ask are:

• Why is health care reform an issue? 
• When did it become an issue?
• Who does it impact?
• Where is health care reform being addressed (states, countries, cities)?
• What is health care reform?
• How is health care being reformed? 
• How has the issue changed?

Many of those questions can be answered by locating background information. Some great places to look are:

Wikipedia is not an academic source, but is a way to learn more about your topic. Keep in mind that some articles in Wikipedia are better than others and you always want to check and make sure that the information is accurate. Check the references, too. 

Encyclopedias are great places to find background information about various topics. Luckily, they're available online today minus the 26 volume print editions.

Step 4: Identify Your Audience

As a health care professional, you will be communicating with colleagues, patients, family members, doctors, social workers, etc. To communicate effectively with each group, you may require a different method, tone, or level of information. Writing and research require the same attention to audience.

Example

You are writing a paper where the audience is another nurse or health care professional, so you use medical terminology to effectively communicate the information. However, when you write a paper where the audience is the patient or the patient's family, you will have to use terminology that non-medically educated people would understand.

Some important things to keep in mind when identifying your audience are:

• Who is your audience?
• What is their level of expertise?
• What are their limitations?
• What expectations do they have for your information (informative, argumentative, compare/contrast, research driven)?
• What tone or terminology are they comfortable with?
• What does the audience already know?  Will you need to explain to them?

Check out the following tutorial for more help:

Video attribution: Gracemarie Mike and Daniel Liddle in cooperation with the Purdue Online Writing Center.

Step 5: Narrow Your Topic

Narrowing your topic will help you:

• Manage the topic within the limits of the assignment
• Write a focused paper
• Cover the topic effectively and concisely

Mind mapping

Mind mapping is an exercise that provides guidance for narrowing a topic. Specifically, it allows you to make connections between related concepts in a visual way.

How to mind map:

• Start with your main topic/idea/concept (it may be broad at this point) - see below
• Based on your background research, brainstorm concepts that directly relate to your central concept. Try to use single words or short phrases. These will be your "branches"
• Start exploring and elaborating by brainstorming "sub-branches" of further related concepts
• Most importantly, do what works for you! Use color and imagery. If one branch of your map is more interesting, explore it further than others.

Example

You are assigned a 5-8 page paper on a health care issue that is negatively impacting the health of adults. You want to focus on obesity, but it is too large a topic. After mind mapping the topic, you  decide that a more manageable topic for a 5-8 page paper would be "the impact of high-sugar diets on the obesity rates of type II diabetic adults."

Note that this topic idea is still dependent on the information you locate. If you aren't finding enough information, you might need to broaden the topic to "the impact of high-sugar diets on the obesity rates of adults."

Step 6: Create an Outline

Why outline?

• Assists with organizing thoughts and research
• Keeps the paper focused and flowing from one point to the next
• Helps avoid unnecessary information or tangents

Remember, an outline is not rigid, and you don't have to follow it exactly. In fact, you may find you need to revise it as you write. The outline's key purpose is to guide and focus your writing.

Methods

There are several ways to make an outline. The thoroughness is up to you, but it is best to make at least a brief outline to keep your thesis predominant to the information that you are presenting in an organized manner.

An example of a traditional outline:

There are other ways to organize your thoughts without using the traditional format. You can also try:

• Write your thesis, main points, sub-points/research/evidence on post-it notes and organizing them physically
• Use PowerPoint Slides to enter your ideas and re-arrange them
• Use a Rhetorical Pyramid, a more visual method

Things to remember when using your outline:

• Are all of my points equally represented?
• Does the order of information logical and does it make sense?
• Does my thesis direct the paper's organization and flow from point to point?
• Are all of my points relevant to the thesis?
• Should I begin with my weakest argument and end with my strongest?  This can be a great way to build an organizational strategy.