When first trying to write a research paper, I remember not knowing where to start. While reading Envision, Chapter 4, the introduction gave me the idea that it might be easier to start out with small unspecific questions first, and research those. Later, you will find that you are asking more specific questions, and this will lead to finding a focused research topic. It also says that the way to make things easier and more organized is to have a research log. When I did my first research paper, I remember having a folder containing all the articles I found, and book titles with page numbers, and it definitely helped me stay in order, especially when I highlighted important information.
Having a research topic is what you are researching and writing about, so you should be able to make the topic your own, and make it not so limited.
The next step that can help, after you have chosen your research topic and have a list of questions is to prewrite. When I prewrite, it is normally called my “first draft” and then I edit it later as I go, but it makes it harder to create better drafts when you are not positive or knowledgeable on the topic that you have chosen. Therefore, I end up just starting all over and wasting extra time and effort.
There are many different strategies that can help you come up with a topic, and one way that I learned about was brainstorming with pictures. You first grab an idea, and then find pictures about that idea. Once you have pictures, ask questions that relate to the pictures, and eventually narrow it down to a focused topic.
Although there are three different ways to plan your research process in writing, I prefer to just start somewhere and edit later on. For many people the hardest thing for writing a paper is getting started on one. So maybe planning your research process would work out best, but I do know that this chapter was extremely helpful and I will definitely be using these ideas on the next research project.
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