Overview of part I - Research and writing

A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018


Overview of part I
Research and writing

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald

Overview of Part I

We know how daunting it can feel to start a substantial research project, whether it’s a doctoral dissertation, a master’s or senior thesis, or just a long class paper. But you can handle any project if you break it into its parts, then work on them one step at a time. Part I of this book shows you how.

We first discuss the aims of research and what readers will expect of any research paper (a term we use broadly to refer to all varieties of research-based writing). We then focus on how to find a research question and problem whose answer is worth your time and your readers’ attention; how to find and use information from sources to back up your answer; and then how to plan, draft, and revise your paper so your readers will see that your answer is based on sound reasoning and reliable evidence.

Several themes run through this part.

✵ ▪ You can’t plunge into a project blindly; you must plan it, then keep the whole process in mind as you take each step. So think big, but break the process down into small goals that you can meet one at a time.

✵ ▪ Your best research will begin with a question that you want to answer. But you must then imagine readers asking questions of their own: So what if you don’t answer it? Why should I care?

✵ ▪ From the outset, you should try to write every day, not just to record the content of your sources but to clarify what you think of them. You should also write down your own developing ideas to get them out of the cozy warmth of your head and into the cold light of day, where you can see if they still make sense. You probably won’t use much of this writing in your final draft, but it is essential preparation for it.

✵ ▪ No matter how carefully you do your research, readers will judge it by how well you present it, so you must know what they will look for in a clearly written paper that earns their respect.

If you’re an advanced researcher, skim chapters 1—4. You will see there much that’s familiar; but if you’re also teaching, it may help you explain what you know to your students more effectively. Many experienced researchers tell us that chapters 5—12 have helped them not only to explain to others how to conduct and report research, but also to draft and revise their own writing more quickly and effectively.

If you’re just starting your career in research, you’ll find every chapter of part 1 useful. Skim it all for an overview of the process; then as you work through your project, reread chapters relevant to your immediate task.

You may feel that the steps described here are too many to remember, but you can manage them if you take them one at a time, and as you do more research they’ll become habits of mind. Don’t think, however, that you must follow these steps in exactly the order we present them. Researchers regularly think ahead to future steps as they work through earlier ones and revisit earlier steps as they deal with a later one. (That explains why we so often refer you ahead to anticipate a later stage in the process and back to revisit an earlier one.) And even the most systematic researcher has unexpected insights that send her off in a new direction. Work from a plan, but be ready to depart from it, even to discard it for a new one.

If you’re a very new researcher, you may also think that some matters we discuss are beyond your immediate needs. We know that a ten-page class paper differs from a dissertation. But both require a kind of thinking that even the newest researcher can start practicing. You begin your journey toward full competence when you not only know what lies ahead but also can start practicing the skills that experienced researchers began to learn when they were where you are now.

No book can prepare you for every aspect of every research project. And this one won’t help you with the specific methodologies in fields such as psychology, economics, and philosophy, much less physics, chemistry, and biology. Nor does it tell you how to adapt what you learn about academic research to business or professional settings.

But it does provide an overview of the processes and habits of mind that underlie all research, wherever it’s done, and of the plans you must make to assemble a paper, draft it, and revise it. With that knowledge and with help from your teachers, you’ll come to feel in control of your projects, not intimidated by them, and eventually you’ll learn to manage even the most complex projects on your own, in both the academic and the professional worlds.

The first step in learning the skills of sound research is to understand how experienced researchers think about its aims.