Research and How to Get Started

In Envision Chapter five, we talk about research. The chapter talks how to use your research in an argument, developing search terms and narrowing your search, sources, evaluating. Some people have trouble writing a research paper because they are not displaying an argument, they are just giving us the facts from their sources. While you need to use the sources that you find, you also need to add on and support the argument that you are trying to give. Another way to look at this is on page 135, it says, “…then we can see the process of gathering and assessing sources as a very social one, a process in which you respect and acknowledge the ideas of others and then seek to add your own voice…” ‘Others’ represents the authors of your sources.

Then we go into developing the search terms. The research part of the research paper can be the hardest part because when you are using the web, there are so many things that pop up and overwhelm you but never actually provide you with the information that you want. For example, you could be doing a research paper on Internet advertising. If you type that in a research engine, too many articles will come up, and some will probably be phony. However, if you type in something more specific, you can narrow your research down to fewer and more helpful articles.

Next, the chapter goes into sources, primary and secondary. Primary sources are ones that are the straight original text, and secondary sources are sources that provide commentary on the primary sources, but the definition of the type of sources that you have can change based on the type of topic you are researching.

Evaluation resources is in my opinion the next hardest thing about a research paper because all you want to do is find sources, cite them, and then call it a day, but the reality is that people can change or add whatever they want, especially if it is on the internet. That is why in class today we saw the YouTube videos of how to find good sources, and Envision would give us the same idea, but it goes into more detail about the websites.

Reading this chapter has definitely given me ideas of where I need to start after I come up with a topic, and I hope it has benefitted you all too.