Research Tip: Making a Research Plan

The first step to completing a great research project or paper is to develop a research plan.  A good research plan consists of a great list of search terms, a list of possible source types, and a list of locations/methods to search for sources.  

Take a a look at this presentation on creating a list of search terms.  This is a very important step in your research process.  It sounds simple, but making sure you have an excellent list of search terms can make a HUGE difference in how successful you are in your resource selection process.  When you create this list, keep in mind that you need to consider how others may have referred to the topics/ideas you are studying.  

As you learn about your topic, you will build an academic vocabulary by noticing how others discuss it.  For example, if you were writing a paper on why some really intelligent students/adults get poor grades and don't do well in school, you would learn that a common term used for these students is gifted underachievers.  That term would become part of your academic vocabulary for the paper, and you would know to search for it and recognize it when reading.  You would then combine that term with other terms to locate information on your topic, like 'gifted underachievers' AND 'college entrance exams', or 'gifted underachievers' AND 'high school graduation rates'.  These searches, composed of various combinations of your search terms, will yield the best results.

Think about what kind of material might help you answer your questions.  There are different search methods for different source types, so it's important to know what you're looking for so you know WHERE to look.  You will, we know, use books.  You will probably also use periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals).  Will you also use films?  Photographs?  What about letters, journals, catalogs, or oral histories?  Maybe you need statistics, charts, graphs.  Make a list (just brainstorm and we will refine it later) of what kinds of artifacts and sources might be really helpful.  In your wildest dreams, what would you love to find?  Would it be SO perfect if you could get your hands on an elementary school math book from the 1800s?  Well, I bet we can!  Or would you just LOVE to see family portraits from the American south in the pre-Civil war era? I bet we can!  If you can dream it up, we can try to find it.

Finally,  start thinking about HOW and WHERE you might find these things.  These are your research methods.  One research method is to search our FSHA Library catalog.  You should also think about (and list) other library catalogs you could search.  Which public or university libraries can you search? You'll also want to search various databases, but which ones?  How about museums or other institutions that house digital copies of art or artifacts you can examine?   Do you need to collect your own data?  For example, would it be worthwhile to conduct interviews?  You certainly can if you have an expert on your topic in mind. Make sure you consider items linked on our LibGuides, as well as the Library web page on Tolognet.

So, a research plan consists of:

1. A list of search terms
2. A list of possible source types
3. A list of possible search methods (how and where to find the sources)

Once you have this plan ready to go (and it won't take more than 45 minutes to an hour to complete it), you're set up for a successful research process.