What is research?

Research is systematic
investigation into and study
of materials and sources in
order to establish facts and
reach new conclusions.
Here are some research steps:

Step 1: Identify and develop your topic Selecting a topic can be the most challenging
part of a research assignment. Since this is the very first step in writing a paper, it
is vital that it be done correctly.

Here are some tips for selecting a topic:

✓ The research for and writing of a paper will be more enjoyable if you are writing
about something that you find interesting.

✓ Select a topic for which you can find a manageable amount of information. Once you
have identified your topic, it may help to state it as a question. For example, if you
are interested in finding out about the epidemic of COVID 19, you might pose the
question "What are the causes of this epidemic?" By posing your subject as a question
you can more easily identify the main concepts or keywords to be used in your research.
Step 2: Do a preliminary search for information

✓ Before beginning your research in

earnest, do a preliminary search to
determine whether there is enough
information out there for your needs
and to set the context of your research.
Step 3: Locate materials

✓ There are sources of information that can be used to support the

topic you are researching. These can be:
• newspapers
• websites using the search engines like Google, yahoo, etc.
• videos
• images
• podcast (an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files
that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening)
Step 4: Evaluate your sources

✓ Make sure that your sources of

information are credible, truthful, and
reliable. This step is especially
important when using Internet
resources, many of which are regarded
as less than reliable.
Step 5: Make notes

✓ Be sure to document all the sources you

consult, even if you there is a chance
you may not use that particular source.
The author, title, publisher, URL, and
other information will be needed later
when creating a bibliography.
Step 6: Write your paper

✓ Begin by organizing the information you have collected.

Step 7: Cite your sources properly
✓ Give credit where credit is due; cite your sources.
✓ Failure to cite your sources properly is plagiarism.
Plagiarism is avoidable!
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or
without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full
acknowledgement.
Plagiarism is cheating and is viewed as "academic dishonesty"
and therefore, "academic misconduct."

You have plagiarized when you...

● Turn in someone else's paper or essay as your own
● Copy sections from another sources without properly citing
the source
● Copy and paste sections from a web page into your paper
without properly citing the source. Information found on the
Internet is not free
●
You express the ideas of another author and pretend they are
your own original ideas
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit by citing sources whenever you use

● another person’s idea, opinion, or

theory
● any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—
any pieces of information—that are not
common knowledge
● quotations of another person’s actual
spoken or written words
● paraphrase of another person’s spoken or
You don’t need to cite sources when
the information you write about are
common facts, your own original
research, and/or your own opinions
and evaluations.
Step 8: Proofread

✓ The final step in the process is to proofread

the paper you have created.
Read through the text and check for any errors
in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Make sure
the sources you used are cited properly. Make
sure the message that you want to get across to
the reader has been thoroughly stated.