workforce scorecard research

NOTES – RESEARCH: Getting Started

Introduction

The purpose of this set of lecture notes is to get you thinking about how to do research

papers and specifically about how to approach the research paper assigned in this

course. We will be discussing three issues primarily: topics vs. ideas, research

quality, and library databases.

I should add that both the UHV library and the Academic Center have extensive

materials on their websites on how to do research papers. You would be well advised

to review those materials over the next few weeks.

Topics vs. Ideas

The first step in writing a research paper is not researching, but getting the idea for the

paper. Let’s pause there and think about this task for a minute.

I distinguish between the topic of a research paper and the idea of the paper. A topic

is usually a noun phrase, something like Attention Deficit Disorder. An idea is a

statement about a topic, for example, “Attention Deficit Disorder is controllable by

therapy and drug treatments.” I don’t know if that last statement is true or not—it is

just an example. But the key is that an idea can be true or false, whereas a topic can’t

be. A topic just sits there doing nothing until you say something about it.

The trick to getting started on a research paper is to have an idea, not a topic. Until

you have an idea, you have no way to do research efficiently, and you really have

little to say. So get to an idea as fast as possible.

In the real world of research, we don’t usually have to come up with ideas—they

come to us. If we are scholars, we have lots of ideas floating around in our heads that

we would like to write about (which means research, too). If we are professionals,

often the boss tells us what we are going to research and why. Only students have to

come up with ideas in order to write research papers. That’s why this seems so

artificial—it is.

I have heard teachers say that to get a topic to write about, go to the library and look

in some books or articles on your subject. Nowadays, I guess we save the gas of

going to the library by doing the same thing online.

But I would never do that.

I suggest instead that you take a walk, think about something that interests you in your

major or discipline, frame it into a sentence, and then think about that sentence for a

day or two. If nothing interests you in your major, I suggest you change majors or re-

think your life goals altogether. But if something does interest you, follow that lead.

A paper on something that interests you is going to be much more fun to write than a

paper on a topic you chose browsing an online journal. And it will be more fun to read

too.

Once you have your idea in a well-framed sentence, you still aren’t ready to research

it. The next thing to do is to think about how the paper should be organized. For

example, if I go back to my idea above, “Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is

controllable by therapy and drug treatments,” I automatically know how it has to be

developed. It needs to be developed according to the organizational formula called

problem-solution (P-S). In fact, it needs to be developed under the special version of

the P-S formula called the medical model. (See the lecture notes called “Research:

Organizational Formulas” for more on this subject.) I know that is the right formula

because I am talking about a solution to a medical problem in my idea. So here’s how

the paper will have to unfold:

Disorder: ADD

Definition

Etiology (causes)

Symptoms

Treatment: Therapy and Drugs

Definition

Advantages

Risks

Prognosis

Now I know exactly what I need to know to write the paper. I need to know the

definition of ADD, the causes, the symptoms, the treatments, their advantages and

risks, and the prognosis of successful treatment. So I can be extremely efficient in my

research. I don’t have to know everything about ADD—things like when the disorder

was identified and named, the history of treatment options, etc. I can focus in on what

I need to get into the paper. Instead of going to a data base search engine and looking

for ADD in general, I can look for each of my subtopics in turn and get access to

targeted information.

Bottom line: before researching, have an idea and know how you are going to

develop it in the paper. (You have only four choices for development, as the

notes on “Research: Organizational Formulas” say. And probably only one of

them will fit your idea.) If you follow this advice, you will spend a lot less time on

this paper.

Research Quality

Different research projects allow you to use different kinds of research materials. We

might think of a classification system like this one.

1. Scholarly Paper. Written for other scholars. Highly formal. The preferred research sources are primary sources, scholarly journal articles, scholarly books, and relevant

government documents.

2. Professional Paper. Written for members of a profession but not necessarily scholars— like all accountants, nurses, or high school teachers. Less formal. The preferred research

sources would likely be a mixture of some scholarly sources and some trade journal

sources. (Again, trade journals are journals written for members of professions that

present in an accessible form developments in that profession.) Interviews might also be

a source.

3. Popular Paper. Written for any educated member of society. Least formal. The sources would include all those mentioned above but now also magazines, newspapers, and

maybe even non-scholarly online sources.

For your research paper assignment, use the sources of a professional paper—

that is, a mixture of scholarly and trade documents, with government documents

and interviews, as relevant.

Let me just add a note on how scholars actually work. What I am talking about now

are scholarly journal articles. We use two terms for them: “refereed articles” and

“peer-reviewed articles.” Both terms mean the same thing, namely, that before the

editor decided to publish the article, he or she sent it to experts on the subject for a

recommendation. (The expert is the peer scholar or the referee—hence the two

terms.)

Most editors will send the author of the article the referees’ reports, whether the paper

is recommended for publication or not. As an author, those reports are tough to read

because they usually tell the truth—meaning that they can be quite critical.

You should know that with respect to scholarly articles, the authors almost never get

paid, nor do the referees. This is just part of the job of being a scholar. In fact, we are

reviewed every year for this activity by our department chair or dean. Failure to

participate in the process of writing refereed articles can cost faculty members their

jobs. The system is called “Publish or Perish.”

Library Databases

One of the biggest things this course can do for you in terms of research is to get you

familiar with the databases in your field and how they work. If I were you, I would

open the top two or three databases that come up under my discipline on the library

homepage and test them out. See what kinds of things they have in them and the best

ways to restrict your searches within them.

I know that you already live in a world in which you google to find research, and you

are wondering why you need to know databases for your field. The answer comes in

two parts. First, you are going to be a professional, that is, someone whose job is

defined in terms of knowledge. (That’s what a professional is, after all.) Throughout

your career you will have to continue to add to your professional knowledge—as your

field and the needs of your clients change. Professional databases are your entry to

that knowledge. Second, googling doesn’t get you the rich array of good information

that the library databases in your discipline do. If you know how to use the database,

you can get the best information very fast.

I would add just one more thing. I know this sounds dumb but I usually don’t have to

use a database to find the good things on any subject I am currently interested in.

Instead, if I read something very good and it has been recently published, I go to its

reference list at the end. What that person has read is what I want to read on the

subject. And so I hop from reference list to reference list in what I read, creating my

own list of sources to read as I go. I only go to a database at the end of my research to

be sure I didn’t miss anything major.