WIKI Title: WIKI: Basic Research

Description: WIKI describing how to perform Basic Research.

What is Basic Research?

Research is a process that enables an individual to systematically find answers to questions or things he or
she wants to know about. Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue? It seems like a very basic question
right? Do you know the answer? How much detail do you think you can provide to support your answer? If
you don’t know the answer or you don’t have a lot of details to support it, research can certainly help you.
We will cover the fundamental steps to successfully perform basic research.

Why do I need to learn Basic Research?

Learning how to do research will enable you to find answers to ANY question you have. Do you want to
know how to be rich? Research can help you with that. Do you want to know how a car engine works?
Research can help you with that. How about making your crush like you? You can bet that research can also
help you with that! You can increase your knowledge and awareness on any topic if you know how to do
research! Isn’t that amazing?

When you start working, you will be given tasks that you will not know how to perform. What are you going
to do? Are you going to tell your supervisor that you’re sorry and that you don’t know how to do the task?
Of course not! Being the smart person that you are, you will use the power of research to learn about that
task in order to successfully perform it.

What does Basic Research look like?

Research doesn’t always have to be formal. It doesn't always have to be performed in a laboratory or
library. Research can be basic and informal. It can be performed using a search engine, by talking to people,
or by administering a survey. There are many ways to go about research and it would vary depending on the
information you want to know about.

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 Images from:
Central Board of Secondary Education. "Library." N.p., n.d. Web.
Usability. "Focus Groups." N.p., n.d. Web.
West Pacific Medical. "West Pacific Medical Laboratory." N.p., n.d. Web.
Geeky Gadgets. N.p., n.d. Web.

How do I perform Basic Research?

STEP 1: Gain Context

Gain context (building awareness) on the assigned topic. Do not just search for the actual words used in the
assignment. Meaning, if you were asked to research about the “Efficacy of a Ketogenic diet”, you do not
simply copy and paste “Efficacy of Ketogenic diet” in a web search (like Google) and use the first
article that comes up. You have to first identify the topic in the assignment and increase your awareness
around it. In this case, you want to build awareness around “Ketogenic diet”. You can ask questions like:

● What is ketogenic diet?

● What is a diet?
● What are examples of Ketogenic diet?
● Who invented Ketogenic diet?
● What is the importance of Ketogenic diet?

These are just a few examples of search strings you can start with.

As you can see, building awareness around a specific topic is a mini research in itself. If you do not do this, it
would be hard for you to proceed to the next steps.

You will know that you have gained enough context when you can answer the basic What, Who, Why, How,

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strictly prohibited unless made with prior written consent from AC Education Inc./iPeople, Inc. Violation or noncompliance shall be dealt with according to law.
 Where questions. If you can answer the questions above, then you most likely have enough context. You
may then proceed to the next step.

Tip:​ Wikipedia is a good starting point for building awareness around a specific topic. Take note that
this is just a starting point. You still have to look at other sources that will validate the information you
got from Wikipedia.

STEP 2: Identify the Goal/Purpose

Identify the purpose of the assigned research task. It is important that it is clear to you why you are doing
this research. Ask yourself “Why am I doing this?”, “How is this relevant, useful, valuable to me?”. Do not
simply copy the research assignment and add “To know about” in the beginning of the sentence. For
example, “To know about the efficacy of a Ketogenic diet” is NOT a valid research goal.

An example of a purpose for the assigned topic is “To determine if Ketogenic diet is superior to other
forms of diet with respect to maximum weight loss”. You can add more if you want like, “To determine the
health benefit and risks associated with Ketogenic diets”.

Once you are clear on the purpose, you may proceed to the next step.

STEP 3: List what you want to know

List everything you want and need to know about your assigned research task in order to satisfy your
purpose in Step 2. You can begin by listing

● What you already know.

● What you don’t know.
● What else you want to know.

You should end up with a long list of questions and statements. These questions and statements will
help guide how extensive your research would be. Through this, you will know what to include and
exclude in your research. This will help narrow your scope from a broad range of topics you might
encounter in your research.

STEP 4: Pick and Evaluate your sources

Pick and evaluate your sources. What does this mean? You can find sources from many different places. You
can use the Internet, textbooks, academic journals, interviews, surveys, or publications. There are sources
that are good for certain types of information and there are sources that are not good for certain types of
information. For example, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a good resource for
medical related studies. The Health and Fitness section on PinoyExchange.com forum is not.

In order to pick sources, you may refer to this WIKI:

Sourcing Information

STEP 5: Do your research

Execute your research. You should now find the answers for the list you created in STEP 3 and use the
sources you identified from STEP 4. Compile all your results in a document or spreadsheet. Make sure

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 that you neatly organize and categorize your findings so you can easily use them to interpret results.

Since most of our research will be done through the internet. Here are basic rules that you need to abide by:

1. Don't look at Ads. They are almost always biased.

2. Use pictures only for context building. Do not use them as basis for research.
3. If you start to read an article and it seems to be written more to entertain than to inform, it’s
probably not a useful source. Skip it.
4. If an article is pushing (mostly) strong opinions, it’s probably not a useful source (unless you are
searching for different viewpoints / opinions on a matter and this is one). Skip it.
5. Clarify the assignment with your teacher and provide him/her updates on your progress regularly.
6. Consider the title of the article. Is it relevant? If not, it may not be useful and you might just waste
time reading it.
7. Verify the source. Google the source (STEP 4)
8. Read the content thoroughly.
● Stop at words you don’t know and Google them or use the dictionary or thesaurus.
● Stop at key ideas, think about them, discuss them, explore them, understand them.
● Read for meaning. Read to learn.
● Form further questions you want to answer.
● Ask your facilitator to help you understand a concept that you get stuck on.
● If the content is not relevant, or it is written more for entertainment or opinion, skip it.
Otherwise, read the entire article. AGAIN, READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!
● Focus only on articles and parts that are relevant and will help you answer the questions and
statements in STEP 3 of the Basic Research process.
● Write down new terms and keywords you find.
● Write down new concepts and key ideas you find.
● Develop your next research “string?” to put in Google.
9. Check the website for validity, accuracy, relevance, thoroughness, and completeness. See guide
below.
10. Valid:
a. There are other sites that comment about and link to the source.
b. The website is accredited. Check who accredited it.
c. Well known news sources. (e.g. CNN, Inquirer, Bulletin, etc.) write about this site.
d. Well known universities local and abroad (e.g. Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Ateneo, UP, De La
Salle) refer to this site.
e. Information from this site is repeated by other verified sources.
f. Teacher can confirm it is a valid source (and tells you why).
Accurate:
a. You have lots of data, facts, terminology, examples, details are given. You probably feel
almost overwhelmed by the amount of information being given.
b. If you have a lot of general statements and non-specific “discussion” then it’s probably not
accurate.
Relevant:
a. When the content addresses all your questions in STEP 3 and none of them are unrelated.
You can be pretty confident that you have a relevant source.
b. When most of the content veer away from either STEP 2 (purpose/goal) or STEP 3, then the
source is probably not relevant.
Thorough:
When you feel confident you can face many questions about the BROAD topic(s) and many detailed

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 and DEEP questions about your specific answers/solution/product - you have probably been
thorough.
Complete:
If you can respond to questions about the Broad Topic (TEP 1) and Core Question (STEP 2). You can
be pretty confident that you have a complete source.

STEP 6: Evaluate your output

Evaluate if your output is thorough and complete. You’ve spent many hours doing your research and
you think you have done enough, but how do you know if you did excellent research work? These
criteria will help you assess the quality of your output. Notice that thoroughness and completeness are
also in this step because this time you are applying the criteria against ALL OF YOUR OUTPUT and not
just on one source.

Thorough
1. When you feel confident you can face many questions about the BROAD topic(s) and many detailed
and DEEP questions about your specific answers/solution/product you have probably been thorough.
2. When you complete these “tests” you can be pretty confident you have completed your research.

Complete
1. When three valid sources are telling you the same things and the 3rd or 4th source is not
communicating anything new you can presume that you probably have complete information.
2. Make sure you can respond to questions about the Broad Topic and Core Question.
3. When you complete all these “tests” you can be pretty confident you have complete research.

In order to evaluate the sources you've used, you may refer to this WIKI:
Evaluating Sources

Additional Resources

How do I start my research?

Cited Resources

Images from:
Central Board of Secondary Education. "Library." N.p., n.d. Web.
Usability. "Focus Groups." N.p., n.d. Web.
West Pacific Medical. "West Pacific Medical Laboratory." N.p., n.d. Web.
Geeky Gadgets. N.p., n.d. Web.

This document/presentation contains proprietary and confidential information. Reproduction, redistribution, or forwarding to any third party, in whole or in part, is
strictly prohibited unless made with prior written consent from AC Education Inc./iPeople, Inc. Violation or noncompliance shall be dealt with according to law.