Chapter 1

Tips for succeeding in research projects:

1. find a topic you have a personal connection with or investment in, or cultivate them with the topic you’re assigned.
2. don’t be afraid to follow established processes for writing -- write and work with sources in a systematic manner, especially if you get stuck.
3. keep track of your sources with some form of research log
4. decide on and develop a position on your topic. “[issue] exists” will not make as good a paper as “this is how [issue] works” or “this is why you should think the way i do about “issue”
5. develop an understanding of different types and styles of papers -- APA vs. MLA, Editorials vs. scholarly articles, etc. The differences between them are important to keep in mind while evaluating sources, and also while writing.
6. remember that your writing is going to be read by others. Keep in mind the settings and contexts in which you expect it to be read. Keep in mind the larger contexts and circumstances surrounding the topics you’ll be writing about, as well.
7. Manage your time. Hold yourself to a timeline.

How to choose a topic?

1. The text of your assignment may give you clues as to what sorts of topics are appropriate
2. keep in mind your intended readers -- what sort of topic will be relevant and interesting to them? Are they looking for depth or breadth? etc.
3. what topics won’t make you and/or your readers horribly bored and frustrated?
4. what genre of document are you writing? Different kinds of topics are more suited to different genres of document.

Contexts that affect your writing choices:

• Social context - how writers and readers understand each-other; what social information they do or do not have in common.
• Cultural and historical contexts - essentially the larger scale of social context. Colloquialisms specific to a dialect, historical references specific to a country or city. Communication style differences or worldview differences between generations. And so forth.
• Disciplinary context - knowledge base and reading/writing styles due to discipline, like the writing of a sociologist for a sociological journal vs. a mathematician for a mathematics journal.
• Physical context - is this being read on paper or on a screen? A dense, thick book or or a spacious, colorful magazine? In quiet libraries or on packed trains?

What’s your role in this, how are you relating to your readers? Are you teaching them something as an expert? Interpreting something as a layman on their level? Persuading them as an equal? Persuading them as an expert?

What are the specific requirements of your assignment and how will they affect your work? If your assignment requires five sources, you might take more time finding the best ones you can and cross-examining them to construct a unified idea than you might with an assignment that requires twenty-five sources. And things like that. Also, what are your opportunities? Do you have access to special resources for a particular topic? Keep that in mind when selecting your topic, and your approach to your topic.

INTRO TO BRAINSTORMING METHODS:

• Brainstorming - listing ideas as they come, NOT complete sentences, just as many snippets of idea as you can get out in a short period of time, even if you don’t think they’re particularly good or useful. Pruning down the list comes later. Maybe set a timer for this to help you relax.
• Freewriting - like brainstorming, freely coming up with as much as you can in a short period of time. Unlike brainstorming, it’s full sentences rather than a list of fragments. Perhaps start with a single point from a brainstorming session, and freely elaborate on it. Almost definitely set a timer for this, for a short period of time like ten or twenty minutes.
• Looping - similar to freewriting. Write for, say, five minutes on an idea. then read over what you wrote, pick a new idea from what you wrote, and write for another five minutes on THAT idea, and continue on until satisfied.
• Clustering - writing out your ideas in a graphical form, with bubbles grouped into clusters for different topics and sub-topics.

Use brainstorming to consider your topics, and pick the one that feels the strongest based on what you came up with. “Strongest” should mean that you have a strong connection with it or interest in it, and that it’s well-suited to your assignment’s requirements and your own access to resources.