MONT 150S: Laboring Under an Illusion (Beard)

What is Your Research About?

The first step in the research process is to decide what you are researching. For college assignments, sometimes your topic may be assigned and other times you will be able to choose any topic you'd like. You can also find yourself somewhere in the middle, where your professor will give you a broad topic or guideline for a topic and you’ll be able to choose where to focus your attention. This can be a great opportunity to bring in your own passions and interests and connect them to what you’re learning in your classes.

Be Curious!

Research doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) boring. If you choose to research something you're curious about, you might find the research process much more interesting and exciting. Remember, research is about learning something new and making new connections and discoveries. If you're interested in your topic, your audience will be too.

Develop Your Research Question(s)

It can be helpful to think of your topic in terms of a question you want to answer. This can move you towards crafting an argument instead of providing a summary or overview of a topic. Think about where information is missing or where there are gaps in your knowledge. What questions do you have about your topic? If you tell a friend about your topic, what questions do they ask? And remember, your research topic doesn't have to be set in stone before you even start researching. It is there to guide you as you discover sources and information.

Try to think of a research question that is:

• Relevant to the Assignment. Your professor may have given you guidelines for a topic. If you aren’t sure if what you want to research connects with what your assignment asks for, check with your professor.
• Open-Ended. Your question shouldn’t have one obvious answer. If your research question can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” you may want to restructure it to have more room for exploration. A good research question may have multiple points of view or multiple possible answers for you to explore.
• Clear and Focused. You don’t want your topic to be so broad that you’re overwhelmed with how much information is out there, but you also don’t want to be so narrow that you can’t find any information. Aim for somewhere in the middle, where you have a clear focus with room to explore.
• Interesting to You. You’re going to spend a lot of time reading and writing about your topic. Find an angle or question that interests you and that you want to learn more about. If you’re interested in your topic, your audience will be too.

Find Background Information

Once you've chosen a topic and thought of research questions, do some background research here to get a sense of what subjects are associated with your topic. This step can also be done before you form your research questions, since the background information you find may help you identify some questions about the topic. You can use textbooks, encyclopedias, and even web sources like a Google Search or Wikipedia to get an overview of your topic and help identify important information like terminology, names, dates, specific events, and more. These may not be sources you end up citing in your paper, but can give you some background information to narrow down your topic and search terms. 

When looking for background information, think about:

• What are the key terms or vocabulary words related to this topic?
• Who has already done research about this topic?
• What subject area(s) does this topic fall under?
• Are there any major events in the history of this topic?