The Bedford Researcher chapter 3 summary

William Hoffmann
English102
4/15/14

 

The Bedford Researcher Chapter 3 Summary

 

 

 

       Chapter three specifies the importance of developing a research question and proposal. Looking back on your writing situation can be helpful in terms of how you are understanding your writing situation and what you can do next to learn more about it. To learn more about your topic (if you don't know a lot about it already) would be to look at potential research questions that can be developed by key words such as goals, history, information, and assumptions. Those key phrases can generate thinking processes which include evaluation, cause/effect analysis, or problem/solutions. Depending on your topic certain stater words may help generate a persons research question. For example, if a person is conducting analysis they may start off their question with words like what, when, why, and how, compared to others that are interested in exploring goals or outcomes might use the words would or could. The word should may be used if the research question is leaning more towards determining the appropriate course of action on the issue.

       In addition, the next step of the research paper is narrowing and refining your research question to conduct preliminary searches on your issue. Using conditional words such as although, because, given that, and in light of can help narrow the direction of your research question onto a more appropriate track depending on the research question.Also conducting preliminary searches will help you receive information on your topic. Locating a vast amount of searches when gathering information may mean that someone needs to rephrase their question into a more specific one. On the other hand, if your search ends up in almost no results perhaps broadening your question a little may provide more search results. After searching for information on your topic, creating a research proposal helps you stay on track with your paper. The research proposal includes identifying the topic and issue, provides a review of literature, explaining how you will collect information, and making an annotated bibliography. A timeline may also be helpful for keeping record of how many days, weeks, or months you have been working on the project for a writing document. Lastly developing and identifying appropriate search tools and research methods will help a person in the long run. Search tools include: Online, print sources, and field research such as interviews or observartions all are great methods for research for your topic.