The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.—Thoma.docx

The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.
—Thomas Kuhn
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you
should be able to:
1. Distinguish between scholarly and
popular sources and decide when and
how to use each type.
2. Analyze your research needs using a
simple mnemonic: BEAM.
3. Write and analyze a research question
that will make it much easier for you
to formulate search terms and find
the best sources for your project.
4. Find, locate, and choose the right
research databases to help you
answer your research questions.
5. Search databases efficiently to pro-
duce useful results.
3Finding Good Sources
Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Thinkstock

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CHAPTER 3Section 3.1 Distinguishing Between Scholarly,
News, Trade, and Popular Sources
During the second phase of your research, you will locate
researchers working on the
essential and supporting research questions you wrote in Phase I
so that you can use their
findings and ideas as evidence in an argument, as well as
contribute to the conversation
they are having.
If you have been working on Phase I, you already have some of
the skills necessary to
locate research conversations using Google Scholar and its
“Cited by” and “Related arti-
cles” links. In Phase II, you will continue working with Google
Scholar and also with more
subject-specific databases available to you through your
university or community library.
We will work on database selection, search strategies, and
search results analysis early in
this chapter. Later in the chapter, we will discuss evaluating and
working with the sources
you find.
With a well-designed research project in hand, it is time to get
down to the nuts and bolts
of one of the most important elements of the research process:
finding useful sources and
working to understand them—and what you can do with them—
once you have them.
In this chapter, you will learn everything you need to know

about library databases and
search construction in order to find, understand, analyze, and
use a coherent set of cred-
ible, relevant, reliable sources with which to work.
3.1 Distinguishing Between Scholarly, News,
Trade, and Popular Sources
As you start the work of the second phase of your research, it is
important to under-stand the difference between two major
types of sources: scholarly sources and news, trade, and popular
sources. While each kind of source can contain useful
information and interesting perspectives, they have different
kinds of authority, which
determine how you can use them in academic research.
Scholarly Sources
Scholarly sources are produced by professional researchers
seeking to advance or evalu-
ate knowledge, who submit their work for peer review. As you
learned in Chapter 1, peer
review certifies the rigor of the research process and the
reasonableness of the researcher’s
argument and interpretations. In order to be scholarly, both
journal articles and books
need to be peer reviewed. Most databases of sources will
provide you with the option to
restrict your searches to scholarly sources. But if not, you can
recognize scholarly sources
by asking yourself the following questions:
1. Is the writer of the source a credentialed professional
researcher writing in his
or her field of expertise?
2. Has the source been successfully reviewed by peers?

dro85866_03_c03.indd 36 10/2/13 2:31 PM
3. Is the purpose of the
source to advance or
evaluate knowledge?
4. Does the source use an
extensive citation system
to document its own
sources of evidence and
its engagement with
other researchers?
5. Is the source published in
an academic journal or by
an academic or university
press?
If you answered “yes” to the ques-
tions on this list, then it is likely that
the source is scholarly. If not, then
likely you have a news, trade, or
popular source.
News, trade, and popular sources are produced by journalists,
freelance writers, colum-
nists, magazine writers, or practitioners of a trade. Unlike
scholarly sources, they are not
subject to scholarly peer review by credentialed experts,

although they may be subject
to editorial review or review by other industry practitioners.
News sources tend to be
published in newspapers or magazines such as the Los Angeles
Times, Time Magazine, or
U.S. News & Weekly Report. Written by journalists, their
purpose is to report and analyze
current events. Trade sources tend to be published in journals or
magazines intended to
be read by executives or practitioners working in a specific
industry. For example, the
trade magazine R&D is read by research and development
executives, project managers,
scientists, and engineers. While trade sources provide useful
information to their read-
ers, they tend to reflect the perspectives of the industry they
serve, rather than seeking to
advance or evaluate knowledge. Popular sources are written to
educate or entertain, by
writers who often are not experts in the field. They tend not to
use specialized language
or require any previous knowledge to read. Magazines such as
People and Reader’s Digest
are examples of popular sources.
You will be able to recognize whether you are working with a
news, trade, or popular
source by asking yourself the following questions:
1. Is the writer a journalist, a freelancer, a columnist, a
practitioner of a trade,
or a magazine staffer?
2. Is the purpose of the source to report news or opinion; to earn
money; to
advertise a product or service; to educate a general audience; to

persuade
readers to hold an opinion, support a policy, or make a
judgment; or to
entertain?
© National Geographic Society/Corbis
Try to seek out reliable sources, such as those written
by scholars or experts in a given subject area. Sir Isaac
Newton’s work in physics and mathematics has been
a reliable source for many important scholars in the
scientific field.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 37 10/2/13 2:31 PM
3. Does the source make assertions without providing readers
with a way to
verify its sources for themselves?
4. Is the source a publication dedicated to news and opinion? A
trade magazine
or journal? A popular magazine?
If you answered “yes” to the questions on this list, then it is
likely that the source is a
news, trade, or popular source. Table 3.1 summarizes the main
characteristics of each type
of source.
Table 3.1: Scholarly and popular sources
Scholarly News, Trade, or Popular

Writer A credentialed professional
researcher writing in his or her field
of expertise.
A journalist, a freelancer, a
columnist or pundit, a practitioner
of a trade, or a magazine staffer.
Peer reviewed Yes No
Purpose To advance or evaluate knowledge. To report news or
opinion; to earn
money; to advertise a product
or service; to educate a general
audience; to persuade readers to
hold an opinion, support a policy, or
make a judgment; to entertain.
Citation system Extensive. Used to document
evidence and engagement with
other sources.
Absent or minimal. Readers have
no or minimal ways of verifying
assertions.
Publication type Academic journal. Book published
by an academic press.
News or opinion. Trade magazine.
Popular magazine.
Keep in mind that if you misidentify what type of source you
have, you will undermine
your credibility as a reliable researcher, you may misuse your

source, and your arguments
will be less persuasive.
Using Scholarly and Popular Sources
Now that you know how to distinguish between scholarly
sources and popular sources,
it is important to understand how to use each kind of source in
your research. Whether
scholarly or popular, sources need to be credible to be used in
your research. Credible
sources, as we discussed in Chapter 1, offer relevant evidence
for their claims and are
offered by well-informed people motivated to pursue the truth.
Since scholarly sources
are designed to be credible from the start, you are on firm
ground using them in a variety
of ways in your research. Be sure, however, to determine
whether the researcher is writ-
ing about his or her field of special expertise. Someone who
holds a Ph.D. in history, for
example, likely does not have the expertise to produce scholarly
research on the environ-
mental causes of Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder. We will
explore more sophisticated
dro85866_03_c03.indd 38 10/2/13 2:31 PM
ways to use scholarly research later in this chapter. But for now,
you should understand
that they can provide you with:

• Authoritative information and data;
• Important concepts and methods to use to analyze and
interpret data;
• Credible, valid, and reliable arguments to consider and to
which to respond;
• Names of other scholars working in the fields and the titles of
their publica-
tions; and
• Criticisms and evaluations of other researchers’ published
work.
In order for popular sources to be credible, you must assess
whether they are biased or
motivated by something other than pursuit of the truth before
you use them. You should
not use sources that are written primarily to advertise a product
or service or to entertain.
Likewise, you should not use sources written by writers whose
deeply held beliefs are
affecting their ability to meet the scholarly standards of
fairness, accuracy, open-minded-
ness, and, therefore, their ability to consider alternative
explanations and points of view.
If you do determine that popular sources are credible, you can
use them in limited ways
in your research, mostly at the beginning of your project, when
you are trying to get up to
speed in a new area of learning.
You can reasonably use popular sources to:
• Represent the conventional wisdom or popular view of a topic,
which your
research will evaluate and replace with a more scholarly view;

• Get a provisional overview of the issues involved in your
topic, with the
expectation that as you learn more, you will replace this
overview with a bet-
ter one drawn from your reading in scholarly sources;
• Get a provisional overview of any history or context that
might be relevant
to your topic, with the expectation that you will replace this
overview with a
better one drawn from your reading in scholarly sources;
• Locate the names of some expert researchers working in fields
relevant to
your topic;
• Learn which fields of study or academic disciplines are
relevant to your topic;
• Learn some of the specialized vocabulary that researchers use
to discuss your
topic;
• Help you ask questions about your topic and determine what
else you need
to learn; and
• Provide you with ideas about what kinds of statistics, data, or
cases you
might need to find to be qualified to write on the topic.
A final word on scholarly and popular sources: For the research
project on which you are
working, you will need to work extensively and critically with
scholarly sources. As you
learn more about your topic and start to think more carefully

about the questions to which
you are seeking answers, you should spend more time working
with scholarly sources
and less with popular sources.
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.2 BEAM: A Commonsense Way of
Thinking About Sources
3.2 BEAM: A Commonsense Way of Thinking About Sources
In order to design the most useful set of sources for your
project, you must have sources that will meet your needs as a
writer, as well as ones that meet your information needs.
Traditionally, students have been taught that they need
“primary” sources and “sec-
ondary” sources. But, as Boston University writing professor
Joseph Bizup (2008) argues,
the traditional “primary” source/”secondary” source language is
too abstract to tell new
researchers very much about what to look for in sources. Bizup
replaces primary and
secondary source types with everyday terms that describe how
writers use sources in
their texts: to provide background, offer exhibits, engage in
arguments, and describe methods.
Bizup collects these uses in the mnemonic BEAM, shown in
Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: Joseph Bizup’s BEAM
The BEAM method of employing sources.
Source: Adapted from Bizup, J. (2008). BEAM: A rhetorical

vocabulary for teaching research-based writing. Rhetoric
Review, 27(1), 72–86.
Ways to
Use Sources
Argument
Background
Exhibit
Method
Gives Context
Defines Initiating Puzzle or Viewpoint
Provides Grounding Facts or Perspectives
Establishes Conversants and Their Positions
Writers Rely on Background: Readers Accept
it Tentatively
Authorize your work
Borrow a Concept, Procedure, or Perspective
Writers Follow Methods; Readers Assess the
Utility and Influence Of Them
Writers Engage Arguments; Readers Evaluate
Them or Consider Their Implications
Acknowledges Previous Conversants, Their
Positions, and Significance
Needs to be Analyzed
Must be Interpreted for Meaning and Significance
Susceptible to Multiple Analyses and Interpretations

Writers Analyze and Interpret Exhibits in Support of
Claims; Readers Test and Think Along with Them
Provides Illustration or Test Case of a More
General Question or Argument
Engage Previous Conversants
and Their Positions
Dissent from Them
Refine Them
Illustrate Them
Take Another Side
from Them
Uncover Their Values
or Assumptions
Borrow Them
Extend or Build
on Them
Affirm Them
dro85866_03_c03.indd 40 10/2/13 2:31 PM
BEAM is useful because it can help you assess your set of
sources to see how well they
meet your needs as a writer. Writers of research essays seek to
persuade readers of the
truth of a proposition by offering context-sensitive, evidence-
supported claims, careful
analysis, and plausible interpretations. You will need to assure
your reader that:

• You understand the larger context in which your work is
situated,
• Your claims are well-supported by evidence,
• You have interpreted your evidence reliably using sound
methods and rel-
evant concepts, and
• You have considered the views, analyses, and interpretations
of other
researchers working in the field.
The “B” in BEAM: Background Sources
Because you will not be the first researcher working on your
topic, you will need sources
that enable you to formulate your research questions against a
background of significant
facts and previous ideas on the subject. According to Bizup,
background sources provide
“materials whose claims a writer accepts as fact, whether these
‘facts’ are taken as gen-
eral information or deployed as evidence to support the writer’s
own assertions” (p. 75).
Background sources enable you to pro-
vide context, show how other research-
ers and public commentators have seen
the problem or issue under study, and
summarize the current state of research
on your topic.
They also enable you to prepare your
reader to understand where your spe-
cific line of inquiry fits in the larger
research conversation. By demonstrat-
ing that you have read and understood

the existing literature, they also help
you establish your qualifications for writing about your topic.
In the following passage
from her research project description, Emma is deploying her
sources as background. In
just two sentences, she establishes the scholarly foundation on
which her research stands:
Recent work by sociologists of technology argues that teens’
use of social
network sites such as Facebook has much more to do with their
develop-
mental needs as emerging adults. According to researchers such
as boyd
(2008), Livingstone (2008), and Stald (2008), teens use social
network sites
to seek status, experiment with identities, and separate from
parental
influence.
At this point in her essay, Emma expects readers simply to
accept the views of these
researchers as authoritative. That is why she provides their
credentials (“sociologists of
technology”) and references to their scholarly papers.
A writer relies on background sources to pro-
vide context and to help delineate an initiat-
ing puzzle or question. Writers expect readers
to accept them as authoritative.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 41 10/2/13 2:31 PM

The “E” in BEAM: Exhibits
Because readers of research essays expect your claims to be
supported with evidence, you
will need to illustrate your ideas and judgments using concrete
data, cases, or examples.
Bizup calls these materials “exhibits” (p. 75). The term
“exhibit” is most often heard in the
world of courtrooms. In criminal courts, prosecutors offer
exhibits (evidence) to a jury in
order to make a case that a particular perpetrator is guilty. In
order to persuade the jury to
see the exhibit as evidence of guilt, the prosecutor will need to
analyze and interpret the
exhibit to help the jury understand its larger significance, or to
enable them to see it as
suggestive of motivations.
Like prosecutors, research writers offer
exhibits to readers as suggestive objects
to think with and about on their way to
drawing a conclusion. Because exhibits
do not speak for themselves, and differ-
ent viewers might see them differently,
writers must analyze, explain, and inter-
pret them for their readers.
To help you better understand what an
exhibit is and how researchers use them
in their writing, consider an example
from a piece of research Emma found on
how young adults relate to their mobile

phones. Researcher Gitte Stald (2008)
asked 16-year-old students to write essays called “My Mobile
and Me.” Then she ana-
lyzed the essays as exhibits in support of her thesis that mobile
phones are more than just
communications tools—they are also personal development
tools. Here is the passage
with Stald’s thesis underlined, her exhibit marked in bold, and
her analysis and interpre-
tation double-underlined:
We should consider the meaning of “mobile” as . . . being ready
for change, ready to
go in new directions. One of the sixteen-year-old participants . .
. had been
considering the ontological meaning of “mobile” and looked it
up in her
mother’s dictionary. . . . She found that it said: “Movable, agile,
able to be
moved or transported easily and fast; ready to march, ready for
battle.”
She was somewhat surprised by the last two translations of
“mobile,” and
concluded that in fact that is exactly what she is with her
mobile [phone]
at hand: “I am easily accessed and I am movable; I am agile and
transport
myself easily and quite fast; I am always ready to receive a
message or a
call; but best of all I am ready to march, ready for battle! . . .”
This girl inter-
prets mobile as more than a matter of physical movement
between locations, she
thinks of herself as physically on the move, supported by her
mobile [phone], but at

the same time she applies the military terminology to her own
situation and her inter-
est in moving forward in life and battling for herself in more
than physical terms.
The mobile [phone] facilitates her social mobility and readiness
to communicate.
Exchange between friends is an important part of the
development of identity. . . .
In this context, being movable, agile and ready to march means
being ready to
move as a person, too. (Stald, 2008, pp. 145–146)
Writers analyze and interpret exhibits to
make them significant and meaningful to
readers. Writers expect readers to think along
with their analysis and interpretation, with
the understanding that readers will think
critically and skeptically about the writer’s
analysis and interpretation.
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Stald’s exhibit is presented in enough detail so that a reader can
quickly see its relevance
to her thesis. Notice also that she does not assume that the girl’s

essay speaks for itself.
Stald follows her exhibit with analysis and interpretation,
calling readers’ attention to the
keywords and significant aspects of the exhibit.
The “A” in BEAM: Argument Sources
Throughout this book, we have asked you to see research as a
conversation. When you
read and write research, you are in dialogue with other
researchers, with whom you must
agree or disagree, and on whose work you build or refute. So
when you look for sources,
you need to look for sources that offer you a perspective on the
topic. Such sources are
called argument sources. Argument sources provide you with
“claims . . . [to] affirm,
dispute, refine, or extend” (Bizup, 2008,
p. 76). Commenting on the usefulness
and limits of other researchers’ claims
(instead of just borrowing their data) not
only helps you refine your own view as
you account for the views of others who
may disagree with you; it also helps
you anticipate potential criticisms of
your interpretation, and to develop the
sophistication of your claims.
In the following passage from Emma’s emerging essay, she
wants to criticize and refine
the ideas of John Palfrey, a writer who believes that today’s
technologically connected
teens are categorically different from the teens of previous
generations. Emma starts by
conveying Palfrey’s idea in a fair and balanced manner, and at
the same time signals her
disagreement, which is highlighted in bold:

Even John Palfrey (2008) admits that teens today “establish and
communi-
cate their identities simultaneously in the physical and digital
worlds” (p.
20). Unfortunately in boiling things down, Palfrey misplaces the
empha-
sis, writing “the net effect of the digital age—paradoxically—is
to decrease
[a girl’s] ability to control her social identity and how others
perceive her”
(pp. 19–20). However, while the Internet has made the
adolescent matu-
ration process more public, it has done little to change how
much control
adolescents have over the essential process of how they
establish and
manage their identities. Teens have always had to negotiate
their identi-
ties in a dynamic social environment where how they are viewed
by oth-
ers shapes their sense of self.
By using transition tags, such as “unfortunately” and
“however,” Emma alerts her reader
to see her perspective as an argument that counters Palfrey’s
view.
Writers engage the arguments (claims, sup-
port, and reasoning) of other writers. Readers
test, evaluate, and consider the implications
of a writer’s argument.

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CHAPTER 3Section 3.3 Finding Sources
The “M” in BEAM: Method Sources
Some of the persuasiveness of a research essay rests on the
assurance that the researcher has
followed a reasonable method of finding, analyzing, and
interpreting exhibits. Research-
ers develop reliable ways of working with data and cases to
draw reasonable conclusions.
According to Bizup, method sources “can offer a set of key
terms, lay out a particular pro-
cedure, or furnish a general model or perspective” (p. 76). They
ensure that the researcher’s
general approach and foundational concepts are sound. When
you want to know whether
another researcher’s claim is statistically significant, you are
asking about his or her meth-
ods. When you analyze a researcher’s survey to see which
populations it represents, and
which it does not, you are assessing his or her methods. As a
researcher, you should not
only adopt and follow a method for analyzing and interpreting
data, but you should
also reflect on the implications of your
own methods, and assess the utility and
influence of other researchers’ method-
ological choices on their conclusions.
For the purposes of your research, your
method is a systematic critical synthesis
of previous research called a literature

review.
As you use BEAM to choose a set of sources that will enable
you to meet your needs as
a writer, keep in mind that you may need multiple examples of
all four kinds of sources,
and that any single source likely provides you with more than
one kind of material for
your project.
3.3 Finding Sources
In our experience, student researchers who struggle to find
sources do so because:1. They are searching some-
what randomly for “gen-
eral information” about a
topic, and/or
2. They are not aware of
the important differ-
ences between search-
ing web portals such as
Google and searching the
subscription databases
found in most academic
libraries.
In this section, you will learn how to
overcome these problems and find
the sources you need.
“Writers follow methods” (Bizup, 2008,
p. 76). Readers assess the utility and influence
of methods.

Blend Images/SuperStock
Sources can be found in various ways, such as searching
for keywords online or using databases provided by an
academic library.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 44 10/2/13 2:31 PM
Starting Research in a New Field
Starting research on a topic in an entirely new field presents
researchers with a significant
problem—namely, they do not know enough about the topic or
field to know what they
need to learn. In other words, they do not yet know the
questions that other researchers
have asked. They do not know the specialized vocabulary that
has evolved. They do not
yet know what aspect of the topic on which they want to work.
It is very likely that as an
undergraduate, you are facing the same problem with your
current project. It seems natu-
ral that the first thing that you should do is to fire up your
browser, log in to a database,
and search away to find something, anything, to get your feet
wet. But that is a counter-
productive way to start acquiring the basic knowledge that you
will need in order to find
a useful set of sources and frame a set of questions.
Instead, you need to look for a short overview of the topic that
will orient you to some of the
driving concerns of the field. If you are conducting research for

a college course, it is likely
that some of your course materials can provide you with at least
some of what you need.
Course textbooks are especially good resources for surveying
the breadth of a subject and
acquiring the specialized language of the field. Mining them for
concepts and exhibits
can provide you both with search terms you can use right away
and clues for developing
others. Also consult lecture notes, handouts and slides, and
assigned or recommended
readings. If your readings are scholarly, review the sources
listed on their references pages
to locate the names of researchers working in your field and key
concepts. Once you are
searching the databases, try a few searches that include the term
“review of the literature”
with your topic to see if you can find an article that summarizes
and evaluates recent
research in the field.
Besides looking at course materials, you can also consult
specialized encyclopedias,
subject-specific dictionaries, and topic bibliographies. The
reference sections of most aca-
demic libraries stock a wide range of these helpful orienting
texts. Many libraries also
provide librarian-prepared subject guides to often-used fields to
help you identify the
most useful orienting texts, bibliographic tools, and databases.
Fields with subject guides
include anthropology, company/industry research, criminal
justice and law enforcement,
early childhood education, heathcare administration, and
literature. You can find these
and more subject guides in tutorials on your university or local

library websites. Often,
you can also call, email, or chat online with a librarian for help
deciding which ones might
be of most use to you.
Assessing Your Research Needs
Once you have a basic overview of your topic, the first step in
finding a coherent set of
useful sources is to assess your research needs. With Bizup’s
BEAM mnemonic, you know
that you will need (a) background sources, (b) exhibit sources,
(c) argument sources, and
(d) method sources. That is useful as far as it goes, but it does
not go far enough to help
you choose the right databases for your specific project or to
search them effectively. If you
have completed the project design work in Chapter 2 (gathering
an overview of your topic
using course materials, subject-specific encyclopedias and
dictionaries, and topic-specific
bibliographies), you have already performed some of the
preliminary steps necessary to
assess your research needs. In particular, the initial set of
questions you wrote will be a pri-
mary resource for your first targeted foray into the literature. If
you are still in the design
phase of your project, do not worry. This section will help you
get your project started well.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 45 10/2/13 2:31 PM
Developing a Set of Research Questions

The key to finding useful sources for your project is to approach
a database session with
good questions in hand. In Chapter 2, you learned that research
projects tend to have two
different types of questions: essential questions that prompt you
to investigate perplex-
ing phenomenon or solve complex problems, and supporting
questions that guide you to
find the material you need to answer your essential questions.
You also learned that good
questions should have a specific scope, which means they
should clearly specify which
populations, locations, time periods, subtopics, and theories are
relevant to your question.
If you have not written any essential or supporting research
questions, you will need to do
so before approaching the database. Go back to Chapter 2 and
work through the activities
in Section 2.3 to develop your project definition, topic, and
research questions.
Constructing Effective Search Queries
Once you have good research questions, you must learn how to
use them to query the
database. If you have a lot of experience searching the Internet,
you likely use natural
language—language that looks and sounds like the language we
use in everyday situa-
tions—to search for what you want to find. The following
search queries are written in
natural language:
• “What is the best Chinese restaurant in St. Paul?”
• “How can I catch more fish?”
• “What are some ways to help my child who does not like to
read?”

On the Internet, natural language searches tend to work well
enough to allow you to
find what you want without too much effort. But if you query a
research database using
natural language, you will likely find that you get few or no
results. What is more, the few
results you get may be irrelevant because research databases are
organized using the same
categories and logic that organize the content of research
libraries. As a result, databases
“speak” a language that allows you to search and find more than
just the specific title for
which you were looking. It allows you to find clusters of related
content as well. So in
order to search academic library catalogs and academic
databases well, you have to learn
how to construct searches that the system can process.
Search construction involves analyzing your research question
to identify potential search
terms, refining the question by specifying the relationship
between key terms, and finding
synonyms for keywords that may be too imprecise to generate
sources that are relevant to
your project. To learn how to construct effective search queries,
let us discuss each part of
this process by analyzing the last research question on our list:
“What are some ways to
help my child who does not like to read?”
Step 1: Identify keywords or concepts in the research question.
Likely two keywords leap out at you: child, read. So you write
them down on a research
log form like the one shown in the Sample Research Log. While

you could go directly to a
multipurpose database and enter those two terms in a keyword
search, you would likely
get thousands of results. Only a few of them would be closely
relevant to your question
because there are many different possible relationships between
your two keywords,
dro85866_03_c03.indd 46 10/2/13 2:31 PM
and you have not yet specified the relationship between them.
Without specifying the rela-
tionship between them, the database cannot tell if you are an
elementary school teacher
wanting sources on how to teach very young children to learn to
read for the first time, a
memoirist writing about the value of her time spent reading as a
child, or a concerned par-
ent wanting information on how to motivate your adolescent
boy to enjoy reading more.
Step 2: Specify the relationship between keywords.
The first thing to do is to go back to the original question and
see whether you can find
additional keywords that better specify the relationship between
child and read. Here is
the question again: “What are some ways to help my child who
doesn’t like to read?”
A second look at the question reveals two additional key
phrases that indicate a very
specific relationship between child and read: We have a child

who does not like to read, and
a parent who wants ways to help him or her. Notice how this
reformulation of the ques-
tion brings in a new keyword: parent. By finding the additional
phrases that specify the
relationship between our keywords, we have arrived at a better
understanding of what
it is we are looking for. Developing and refining your question
is not only a key strategy
for generating more productive search combinations; it also
helps you better understand
your research needs. If you are lucky, it can help you develop
some other closely related
research questions.
Step 3: Refine imprecise keywords by finding synonyms.
Adding new keywords and phrases to the search seems like it
should help the database
return sources that more specifically address your concerns, and
to a degree it will. But
you will not find everything written on the topic, and you may
find nothing at all. This
is because two of the primary keywords (child and parent) have
multiple synonyms. Fur-
thermore, two of the key phrases (ways to help and does not
like) express relationships in
everyday language that expert researchers would find too
imprecise to use in their arti-
cles. Since researchers try to use language carefully and
precisely to represent accurately
the problems, data, and solutions on which they are working,
you will need to produce
a list of more precise synonyms that researchers might use for
each of your keywords or
phrases. Remember, different writers might choose different

terms to convey the same
idea. So you will need to develop and test several different
combinations of search terms
to locate all of the most relevant sources for your query.
Let us continue with our example by refining our imprecise
terms—ways to help and does
not like. You can use a dictionary or thesaurus to help find
synonyms, but you may get bet-
ter, more efficient results by using the materials you found
earlier during your grounding
research in specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias to guide
your synonym develop-
ment. Here is what a standard thesaurus suggests as potential
synonyms for ways: habits,
conduct, customs, behavior, traditions. None of these terms gets
at what you want to find out.
In everyday language, you are looking for advice or techniques
to motivate your child. In
your grounding research, researchers call teaching techniques
methods or pedagogies. Here
is the cluster of terms we have developed for ways to help:
advice, techniques, methods, peda-
gogies. By stepping through a similar synonym development
process, we can replace does
not like with reluctant, resistant, unenthusiastic, averse,
unwilling.
Child might seem like a specific enough term, but there are
several others that researchers
might use. Youth, adolescent, teen, tween, juvenile, and kids are
just some of the possibilities.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 47 10/2/13 2:31 PM

Considering that more boys than girls seem to become reluctant
readers, your list should
probably include gendered terms for child as well: boy, son,
young man, male.
Sample Research Log
What are your research questions?
“What are some ways to help my child who doesn't like to
read?”
What are the keywords and concepts in your questions?
child, read, ways to help, doesn't like, (parent)
What are some synonyms and related words for the key words
and concepts in your questions?
child: youth, adolescent, teen, tween, juvenile, kids
ways to help: advice, techniques, methods, pedagogies
doesn't like: reluctant, resistant, unenthusiastic, averse,
unwilling
Research Log
After all this question development, we can rewrite our original
question in a much more
specific way:
“What methods, techniques, or pedagogies can parents use to
motivate
teenage male reluctant readers?”

With such a specific question, you will find a reasonably small
number of sources to
review, and the majority of sources you locate should be
relevant.
Choosing Databases
Once you have identified keywords and phrases and their
variants, you are ready to
approach a research database to do some searching. Before you
can search, you need to
decide which databases to choose to search (see Figure 3.2 for
factors that can help you
choose an appropriate database). Many libraries have made it
simpler for you to know
which ones to choose by listing databases by subject and
describing contents. They have
also provided subject guides to reliable resources for several
disciplines, including anthro-
pology, company and industry research, criminal justice and law
enforcement, early child-
hood education, healthcare administration, and literature. These
subject guides contain
useful database recommendations as well as the names of useful
subject specific resources,
including reference books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and
more.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 48 10/2/13 2:31 PM
Database Categories
For the purposes of your research project, you need to be able to

distinguish between two
major categories of database. The first, known as a general
purpose database (or multidis-
ciplinary database), is often a good place to start your research
because it indexes many
different fields or disciplines. But while this type of database
offers breadth, it can sacri-
fice depth. In order to bring you a wide sample of research
being done in so many fields,
general purpose databases tend to focus on the major journals in
the field. EBSCOhost’s
Academic Search Premier and ProQuest are good examples of
general purpose databases
widely used by college students.
Figure 3.2: Choosing a database
Choosing a
Database
Coverage
Is the database subject specific or general?
Does it emphasize scholarly or popular sources?
Currency
How current are the publications indexed in the database?
How far back into the publication history does the database
cover?
Is access free or fee-based?
Is electronic delivery of materials available?Availability
Does the database offer full text, abstracts, or citations?Record
Types
On the other hand, subject-specific databases (also known as

field-specific databases) aim
to represent the full range of a particular field or subject. If you
do not find what you
need in a general database, or if you suspect there is more to the
topic than is covered in
a general database, you should consult a subject-specific
database such as Westlaw (law
and business), Sage Journals Online (social sciences),
PyschArticles (psychology), ERIC
(education), PubMED (medicine and healthcare), or the MLA
International Bibliography
(literature). It is important to understand that no one database
can serve all your research
needs. You will need to try your searches in multiple databases
to discover the best sources
for your project. Be sure to record on your research log which
databases provide you with
the best results for each of your searches.
Further Considerations When Choosing a Database
As you continue to consider which databases to choose for your
research, the following
questions could influence your choice:
1. Does the database provide full-text access to sources or only
abstracts or citations?
Full text is obviously best, but finding an abstract or citation
can be useful. If
you find a citation or abstract of a useful article, be sure to
record the full cita-
tion information so you can search for the full text in another
database.
2. How current are the publications indexed in the database?
How many years into
the past does the database index? The deeper and more recent

the coverage the
better.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 49 10/2/13 2:31 PM
3. Is access to the contents of the database free or fee-based?
Remember, many fee-
based databases that you find online are free to you when
accessed through
your university or local library.
4. Does the database provide for electronic delivery of sources
and citations? If not,
contact a librarian to learn how to request that an electronic
copy of a source
be sent to you.
Searching Databases
Unlike search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, which
use keyword searches by
default, academic databases work best when you specify the
kind of search you want to
conduct. There are three major kinds of database searches you
can conduct: author/title
searches, keyword searches, and subject searches. Which search
you choose depends on
(a) whether you are searching for unknown sources on a topic or
a specific article or book
written by a specific author, (b) what you know about what
you’re trying to find, (c) how
specifically or broadly your topic is defined, and (d) how field-
or discipline-specific your

topic or research needs are. Table 3.2 is provided as a reference
to help you determine
what type of search you should conduct. Each search type is
discussed in more detail in
the following sections.
Table 3.2: Database search types
Use Author/Title Search when:
• You know the name of the author you want to find.
• You want to find additional articles by a known writer.
• You know the title of an article or book you want to find.
• You know the title of a journal, periodical, or book series that
frequently contains sources
relevant to your topic.
Use Keyword Search when:
• You have a specific research question to answer.
• Your topic has keywords that are distinctive, new, or field
specific.
• Your topic can only be specified with multiple keywords
(methods AND motivate AND adolescent
AND reluctant readers).
• You have multiple synonyms that you want to search
simultaneously (children OR kids OR teens
OR adolescents).
• More than one field or discipline is relevant to your topic

(adolescent psychology AND reading
instruction)
Use Subject Search when:
• Your topic is broad, you are conducting grounding research,
and you don’t yet have specific
research questions to answer.
• You are looking for sources about a person rather than by a
person.
• A keyword in your topic has different meanings in different
fields or disciplines, and you want to
specify which fields or disciplines are relevant.
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Performing Author/Title Searches
Author/title searches are used to acquire specific sources when
you already know the
author’s name and title, or when you want to survey the work of
a particular researcher in
hopes of finding other relevant sources he or she has authored.
Once you have one or two
pieces in hand, consult their references pages for the names of
other researchers working
on your topic and titles of their work. Also, since academic
journals tend to specialize,
take note of the titles of journals that show up repeatedly in
your source list and search by
title for those journals to find other relevant articles and

researchers active in your field. In
her research, Emma found multiple references to the Journal of
Computer-Mediated Commu-
nication and New Media & Society in her results lists. When she
searched for those journals
by title and browsed their tables of contents, she found the
names of several researchers
working in her field and candidate sources for inclusion in her
project.
Performing Keyword Searches
Although keyword searches can quickly supply you with lots of
candidate sources to
assess, they often return irrelevant results if not carefully
constructed using a search term
development process like the one we went through earlier in
this chapter. So, in order to
generate more relevant results, keyword searches are best used
when you have a specific
research question to answer or you are seeking sources on a
topic that can be described with
distinctive or field-specific keywords. They are particularly
helpful when your research
cuts across traditional disciplinary or field lines. You can use
keyword sources for ground-
ing research, but as noted above, you must monitor your search
results for new keywords
and new variants of keywords as you go. Otherwise, your search
will return only the sub-
set of articles that use everyday language to discuss the topic.
In order for your source set
to help you go beyond the obvious, you will have to conduct
additional keyword searches
using the more precise terms you collect as you browse through
your results list.

Keyword searches return the most relevant results when you
combine multiple keywords
with the search term connector AND, which narrows your
search, returning records that
include all of your search terms. If you find that you need to
broaden your search, use the
search term connector OR to return records that include any of
your search terms. While
the specific look of a search interface will vary by provider,
most search interfaces pro-
vide you with the opportunity to enter multiple keywords and to
specify the relationship
between them. You might have to find and click on the
“Advanced Search” link to do so,
but the increase in quality of results makes it well worth the
effort.
Figure 3.3: Using search term connectors
dro85866_03_c03.indd 51 10/2/13 2:31 PM
The search shown in Figure 3.3 returns
all the records that include the term read-
ing problems AND either adolescent OR
teen. Notice the asterisk in our search?
It is a truncation symbol, which can
be thought of as a “wild card” charac-
ter that tells the database to return all
results that include the characters up to
the truncation symbol, no matter what
other characters follow the last one.

Because we searched for adolescent* or teen*, the database
returns records that include
minor variations of my terms: adolescent and adolescents, teen,
teens, teenagers, teenaged.
Notice too that we might have selected “AND NOT” to omit
results—say, on preschool-
ers—that are not relevant to our topic. Using these strategies
helps ensure that our key-
word search returns a reasonably small set of relevant results.
Performing Subject Searches
Subject searches are useful when your topic is broad and has
many dimensions. You can
use subject searches both to survey the range of subtopics in a
field and to narrow down
your results to find only the results containing the subtopics you
want. Unlike keyword
searches, which return results based solely on the presence or
absence of the word in any
field in the record, subject searches search for your term only in
the subject headings field
of the record. Since subject headings are assigned by the
Library of Congress, you need to
formulate your search very precisely to match the assigned
heading, or your search will
return no results. For example, for our topic on how parents can
motivate their adoles-
cents to read, we could try a subject search for reading and
adolescent (see Figure 3.4).
Figure 3.4: A failed subject search
If a subject search fails, the “Search as Words” option will
allow you to search through results close to
your original search terms.

Our search returned no results because the Library of Congress
has not assigned a head-
ing that combines reading and adolescent in sequence. When
you get a result like this, do
not conclude that there are no sources on your topic. There are
many resources available,
but we cannot find them using a subject search without knowing
some of the specific
Although truncation symbols vary by pro-
vider, typical truncation symbols include *, !,
?, #, and $.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 52 10/2/13 2:31 PM
preassigned subject headings. It might seem at first glance that
it would be much easier
to use keyword searching. But once you find the Library of
Congress subject headings
specific to your topic, you will locate a treasure trove of
sources, and most of them will be
relevant.
Strategies for Handling Failed Subject Searches
There are two strategies you can use to turn a failed subject
search into one that allows you
to locate the right subject headings. One way is to click the
“Search as Words” option (see
Figure 3.5) to conduct a keyword search of only the subject
headings fields of the records.

That will give you a list of books or articles to review. Choose
one that seems to be close
to your topic, open the record, and look at the subject headings
fields (see Figure 3.6 to
locate the subject headings fields on a typical record). Often
you can click on the subject
headings links and be taken directly to a list of sources.
Another way to deal with a failed subject search is to start with
a broader simpler descrip-
tion of the topic: in this case, reading. Doing a subject search
on reading will result in a list
of subject headings similar to the one shown in Figure 3.5.
Figure 3.5: Results of a broad subject search
Broad searches will result in many more subject headings,
which must then be narrowed down to your
specific topic.
The number circled in blue tells us that there are 1,336 subject
headings related to the
word reading in this database. Of course not all of them have
anything to do with the act
of deciphering words on the page. Some have to do with places
named “Reading” in
England, Pennsylvania, Canada, and Australia. You could scroll
through this list of 1,336
subject headings to find ones that are relevant to you. But that
would take a long time, and
you still would not be guaranteed of finding relevant subject
headings that do not begin
with the word reading. A faster and more reliable approach
would be to click on the “Read-
ing” subject heading and quickly browse some of the titles of
the 892 sources on reading

to find one that looks like it might be relevant. For this search,
the very first page of results
includes a book titled 99 Ways to Get Kids to Love Reading and
One Hundred Books They’ll
Love. When you pull up its record, you find two relevant
subject headings you can select,
including one, Reading—Parent participation, that seems spot
on.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 53 10/2/13 2:31 PM
Figure 3.6: Subject headings on a typical record
It is important to keep in mind the different configurations that
a title might be listed under in terms
of subjects.
Clicking through both of the more specific subject headings
leads you indirectly to hun-
dreds of sources, many of which will lead you to other relevant
subject headings. When
you click through Reading—Parent Participation, you are
directed to a list of related subject
headings that provide you with access to relevant sources, as
shown in Figure 3.7.
Figure 3.7: Search results: Reading—Parent Participation
Databases are organized to help maximize searches. In this
instance, the specificity of subject headings
for the search term “Reading—Parent Participation” will allow
the researcher to quickly exclude irrelevant

groupings and instead focus on those pertinent to his or her
topic.
Notice how the subject headings list allows you to specify the
kinds of sources you want
to find (bibliographies, handbooks, case studies), geographic
locations, reading genres,
and more. You will want to select several of these related
subject headings to produce a list
of results to review. Clicking through the Children—Reading
subject heading will produce
another set of sources with additional subject headings to
search. Since subject headings
are uniform across databases, useful subject headings you
discover in one database are
likely to be useful in other databases. So be sure to record
which of the subject headings
you find are the most useful. And as always, be on the lookout
for new search terms, new
dro85866_03_c03.indd 54 10/2/13 2:31 PM
CHAPTER 3Chapter Summary
variants, and the jargon that expert researchers use to describe
their topics and use those
terms in future searches.
Search Narrowing and Search Broadening
One last note on searching: Use search-narrowing strategies
when your searches return
too many results to review or the results are not as relevant as
you’d like them to be. Use
search-broadening strategies when your search returns too few

results or they are too spe-
cialized for your purposes. These strategies are encapsulated in
Table 3.3.
Table 3.3: Search-narrowing and search-broadening strategies
Narrowing Strategies Broadening Strategies
• Using multiple search terms connected by
“AND” or “AND NOT.”
• Using more specific or specialized terms.
• Using available limiters to set scope.
• Searching for multiple terms connected by
“OR.”
• Using more common, less specific, or
broader terms.
• Using truncation to search for word variants.
We have already seen search-narrowing strategies at work
earlier in this chapter when
we looked for synonyms for our search term “child.” We saw
that more specific and spe-
cialized terms such as adolescent, teen, or juvenile return fewer
but more relevant results.
We also saw that combining multiple terms in a search (such as
“parent” AND “reluctant
reader” AND “techniques”) significantly reduced the number of
irrelevant sources we
needed to sift through.
When searches return too few results, you need to expand your
searches. Rewrite your

search using fewer search terms, or by using “OR” as a
connector instead of “AND,” as in a
search for “juvenile” OR “teen” OR “adolescent” AND
“readers”). You can also try replacing
technical or overly specific terms with more common or more
general terms: “reading com-
prehension” might replace “semantic decoding,” for example.
Finally, try using truncation
symbols to search for variations of a term: “read*” to search for
“reading” and “readers.”
Chapter Summary
As you review this chapter, pay particular attention to the
concepts, strategies, and tools
that enable you to see your sources as something more than
containers of information.
Being able to determine whether your source is “scholarly” or
“popular” is a key deter-
minant of the uses to which it may or may not be put. The
BEAM mnemonic can help you
see your sources as a writer does—as resources: to help you
establish the background of
your topic; to provide you with exhibits to analyze and
interpret; to enable you to bor-
row, extend, or counter the arguments of other researchers; and
to certify the rigor of your
research by using reliable methods.
It is vital to remember that success in searching for sources
depends on what questions you
ask and how well you ask them. If you are conducting research
in a new field, be sure to use
the strategies detailed in this chapter to learn the kinds of
questions researchers working in
dro85866_03_c03.indd 55 10/2/13 2:31 PM

CHAPTER 3Key Terms
the field ask and the specialized language they use. Once you
have researchable questions,
remember to analyze your questions to determine their
keywords and the relationships
among them. Do not forget to search for variants or synonyms
of key concepts. Use your
research log to keep track of successful searches so that you can
use them in other databases.
You should also experiment with Google Scholar and the
databases available to you
through your university or local library to become more familiar
with database searching.
As you learned in Chapter 2, be sure to analyze your results list
to discover the names of
researchers working in your area, new terms or concepts, and
subject headings that are
relevant to your topic.
Key Terms
argument source A source that provides
researchers with claims to affirm, dispute,
refine, or extend.
background source A source that pro-
vides researchers with established facts
and accepted ideas, which they use to
establish a significant context for their own
research.
BEAM Joseph Bizup’s memory aid to

help researchers understand four common
sense ways to use sources in research: as
background, exhibit, argument, or method.
exhibit A source that provides research-
ers with examples or cases to analyze and
interpret in support or refutation of a claim.
method A source that provides research-
ers with a reliable process for gathering,
analyzing, and interpreting exhibits.
multidisciplinary database Also known
as a “general purpose database”; a data-
base that indexes many different fields or
disciplines.
natural language Language used by
human beings in the ordinary course of
events, in contrast to computer, database,
or machine languages and the systematic
language of formal logic.
news source A source written by journal-
ists reporting on current issues or events.
popular source A source written primarily
for entertainment or to earn money.
scholarly source A peer reviewed source
produced by credentialed experts seek-
ing the truth and writing in their field of
expertise.
search construction The analytical process
by which researchers transform their ques-

tions into queries of a library database to
find sources.
subject guide A research aid produced
by librarians to provide researchers who
are new to a field with guidance in locat-
ing appropriate databases, journals, and
sources.
subject heading Fields in a library data-
base record that specify the topics and
subtopics addressed in a text.
subject-specific database Also known as
a “field-specific database”; a database that
aims to represent the full range of a par-
ticular field or subject.
trade source A source written by a repre-
sentative of a profession or industry for the
purpose of informing or advising.
truncation symbol A “wild card” charac-
ter that tells a search database to return all
results that include the characters up to the
truncation symbol, no matter what other
characters follow the last one.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 56 10/2/13 2:31 PM
CHAPTER 3Web Sites For Further Reference
Web Sites For Further Reference
http://prezi.com/svjv-nfgka95/intro-to-library-databases/

This “Intro to Library Databases” Prezi by Nancy Bellafante
explains the difference
between the content available via Google and library databases,
as well as how to ana-
lyze a research question and search a database.
http://www.schooltube.com/video/f42863cbb7cb4db6a3f4/Talki
ng%20to%20Databases
This short video on “Talking to a Database” produced at Kent
State University shows
how to turn a research topic into a format that library databases
will understand.
dro85866_03_c03.indd 57 10/2/13 2:31 PM
http://prezi.com/svjv-nfgka95/intro-to-library-databases/
http://www.schooltube.com/video/f42863cbb7cb4db6a3f4/Talki
ng%20to%20Databases
dro85866_03_c03.indd 58 10/2/13 2:31 PM
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds
discoveries is not “Eureka!” (“I found it!”), but rather “hmm . .
.
that’s funny.”
—Isaac Asimov
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you
should be able to:

1. Outline the characteristics of aca-
demic research and describe some of
its main qualities.
2. Describe the three key qualities of
trustworthy research.
3. Understand and explain the concept
of research as a “conversation.”
4. Explain the truth about common
research myths.
1Introduction to Academic Research
Exactostock/SuperStock
dro85866_01_c01.indd 1 10/2/13 3:41 PM
CHAPTER 1Section 1.1 What Is Research?
This chapter introduces you to the research process you will
conduct throughout your
college degree program. We begin by suggesting that you
already know quite a bit about
research from the research you do in your personal life. We also
describe the nature and
purpose of academic research and debunk some commonly held
myths about the chal-
lenges of academic research.
1.1 What Is Research?

Before we get started, you should understand that the academic
environment is not the only environment that values research.
Research skills are also highly valued in policy settings, as well
as in the professions and trades. According to Dr. David
Jonassen (2000), director of the University of Missouri Center
for the Study of Problem
Solving, “Virtually everyone, in their everyday and professional
lives, regularly solves
problems. Few, if any, people, are rewarded in their
professional lives for memorizing
information and completing examinations” (p. 63). Research is
primarily a problem-
solving activity. When you conduct research, you must define
and clarify problems, ask
answerable questions, locate and evaluate resources, and use
sources to make persuasive
arguments and actionable recommendations. By learning to
conduct research, you will
get more out of your education, enhance your career, and
contribute to the success of the
civic and business organizations to which you belong.
You Already Do Research
At the most basic level, research satisfies our need to answer
questions, solve problems,
make choices, or figure out what things mean. Sometimes our
questions are simple or of
personal consequence. In those cases, our answers
depend simply on gathering information or
weighing opinions and evaluating what we find
in terms of our taste or preference. For example,
when we browse the Internet to find restaurants
for a special dinner next weekend, we are in fact
conducting simple informal research. When we
read everything we can find about different types
of automobiles to help us make a decision about

what type of car to purchase, we are seeking reli-
able expert testimony to help us make sense of the
vast amount of information available to us.
Critical Thinking in Everyday Research
Even though the research is simple in these cases,
we are still using some critical thinking skills.
In fact, we are using some of the same ones that
inform academic research. Professional research-
ers always approach their sources of information
skeptically. They know that their conclusions
depend on having high-quality, reliable infor-
mation to think carefully about. So they need
to ensure that they are not misled by irrelevant,
Exactostock/SuperStock
As a researcher, your most basic task will
be to identify problems of interest and ask
the right questions.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 2 10/2/13 3:41 PM
CHAPTER 1Section 1.1 What Is Research?
Criteria for Evaluating Sources
• Relevant
• Credible
• Timely
• Representative
• Appropriate motivation and controlled for bias
inaccurate, or out-of-date information, or by the arguments of
sloppy or unscrupulous

thinkers. The same goes for everyday researchers. In order to
avoid a bad meal or being
dissatisfied with our new car, we need to evaluate whether our
sources are relevant, cred-
ible, and timely; understand their motivation and bias; and make
judgments about how
representative a particular review is in light of what other
reviewers write. In Chapter
4, Evaluating and Working with Sources, you will learn more
about these criteria. But
for now, you can draw on your experience with everyday
research to understand that a
review of a Chinese restaurant is irrelevant or of no use if you
want to eat Thai food.
A review written by the cousin of the owner of the restaurant is
not credible, or believable,
because you cannot be sure that the reviewer is writing to tell
the truth. Perhaps he or she
means to drive more customers to the restaurant with an
excellent review, and therefore
overlooks significant problems in service or quality. He or she
is motivated by his or her
relationship with the owner, and therefore his or her evaluation
is biased in favor of the
restaurant. This review would not then be trustworthy. A review
of the restaurant writ-
ten 5 years ago may no longer accurately reflect the dining
experience; in order to get a
more accurate picture, you will need a more recent, or timely,
review. Finally, you may
have had the experience of reading one or two negative reviews
of a place among a hun-
dred positive reviews. Those negative reviews do not represent
or stand for the general
opinion of the place. To say that a review is not representative

is not to say that it is untrue
necessarily—merely that it is does not fall in line with the
consensus. With a nonrepresen-
tative source, it is good practice to ask why it dissents from the
consensus. A source may
be nonrepresentative because its writer has idiosyncratic or
personal preferences, uses a
different method of arriving at conclusions, looks at things from
a different viewpoint, or
perhaps has made some mistake. You will use these same
criteria to evaluate sources in
the research you will conduct.
The Differences Between Academic or Professional Research
and
Everyday Research
This text is meant to prepare you to use research to answer more
complicated questions:
the kind that you will encounter in academic and workplace
environments. In those set-
tings, questions can be very complex, and expert testimony may
not provide clear guid-
ance. Answers may be partial, not definitive, or dependent on
multiple variables or on the
values of the researcher. Moreover, the stakes can be
considerably higher than choosing a
restaurant or car.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 3 10/2/13 3:41 PM
CHAPTER 1Section 1.2 The Cumulative, Ongoing, and
Critical Nature of Research
Consider these questions:

• In the last 2 decades, honeybee populations have been
decimated by Honeybee
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Since Honeybees pollinate
our food crops,
the collapse of millions of colonies is a threat to the world food
supply. What
is causing this disorder? What can be done to prevent CCD and
restore the
Honeybee population?
• The United States continues to experience high levels of
unemployment
despite an uptick in the economy. Why has job growth not kept
pace with the
increasing gross domestic product (a standard measure of the
productivity of
our national economy)? What factors influence unemployment?
What can the
government do to help businesses create good, well-paying
jobs?
• Your company wants to develop a new product or line of
business. How will
consumers respond to your product, service, or marketing? What
variables
will influence their purchasing decisions for the foreseeable
future? How can
you mitigate risk?
It is not just complexity that distinguishes these questions from
the research questions we
tend to ask and answer in our daily life. It is that they are
emerging, not-yet-fully-under-
stood problems. There are no simple, clear-cut, definitive
answers out there waiting to be

found. Reasonable people in full possession of available data
might reasonably disagree
as to what the data mean, or what the appropriate course of
action should be.
Yet these are pressing matters. We simply cannot wait for all
the information to become
available, and for unclear matters to resolve themselves before
taking action. That is
where research—our most effective means of solving complex
problems—comes in. In
such cases, researchers use a systematic approach that enables
them to begin to ask and
answer these emerging questions. As a result, the work of
research is not always to pro-
vide clear and definitive solutions to problems. Research can
also clarify issues, bring
forward new variables or alternative perspectives for
consideration, reduce uncertainty,
or reveal tacit values.
1.2 The Cumulative, Ongoing, and Critical
Nature of Research
Because of the nature of the problems researchers need to solve,
research tends to be cumulative and ongoing, which is to say
that researchers consider the results of the past and expect that
future research may extend, revise, or refute their own work.
That is why researchers tend to start their work by reviewing
what is already known or
believed to be true. They read journal articles, conference
proceedings, and other forms
of scholarly publication to ground themselves in the ideas and
perspectives of other
researchers. As they read these sources, they want to know:

• What questions other researchers have pursued,
• How other researchers have framed their questions,
• What data exist,
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CHAPTER 1Section 1.2 The Cumulative, Ongoing, and
Critical Nature of Research
• What concepts and ideas previous researchers have used or
created to make
sense of their data,
• What related problems, issues, or phenomenon need to be
taken into account,
• What false starts others have encountered, and
• What remains to be understood about the problem.
The work of review is more than a simple gathering of useful
information, however.
Researchers look critically at earlier work to evaluate its
strengths and weaknesses, as well
as its utility for their own work. As they read the works of other
researchers, they
• Check for errors,
• Look for ideas to refute, borrow, or build on,
• Browse for suggestive data, cases, or examples,
• Seek out unexplored questions or unrecognized implications,
• Uncover problematic assumptions or bias, and
• Consider alternative explanations or perspectives.
As you start to review sources for use in your own research, you
will need to approach

them just as critically. To do so, it is important to have an idea
of what makes sources
trustworthy.
Trustworthy Research Is Selective
Every research study is selective, in the sense that researchers
must focus their study on
a limited number of questions. As a result, researchers tend to
specialize and coordinate
their work. For example, because the problem of Honeybee
Colony Collapse Disorder is
so complex, there are several overlapping communities of
researchers trying to solve it.
Some teams of researchers are trying to isolate an
environmental cause of CCD. Others
are looking at causes in biological pathogens. Still others are
trying to improve methods
for gathering and analyzing relevant data. Yet even others are
looking to the past to find
analogous events that might help us see the problem in a more
familiar light. Each of these
teams comprises experts with different skills and knowledge,
bringing different methods
of generating and interpreting data to the work of solving the
problem of CCD. Without
specialization and focused studies of constituent elements of the
problem, key aspects of
the problem would go unstudied.
Trustworthy Research Tends to Be Peer Reviewed
With specialization, however, comes the prospect of conflicting
results. For example, one
study may show that eating beef has health benefits for humans,
while another study
shows that eating beef is detrimental to our health in some way.
For consumers look-

ing for guidance, this apparent contradiction can be frustrating
because they presume
that one study must be right and the other wrong. Someone must
have gotten the facts
wrong. However, researchers know that each research study
develops different research
questions, studies different populations of people or different
types of beef, or conducts
research in a different manner. So results may vary even when a
study’s facts and fact
handling are correct. In the future, results and the conclusions
drawn from them may vary
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CHAPTER 1Section 1.3 Research as Conversation
as more data are gathered, alternative perspectives or
explanations are considered, and
new ways of framing questions are developed. That is why
researchers’ work is subject to
review by other experts in their field. Peer review certifies that
the research has been car-
ried out carefully and systematically and that interpretations
and conclusions are reason-
ably drawn. This constant, critical peer review process is one
reason research is so reliable,
and such a powerful tool for constructing knowledge.
Research Must Be Synthesized to Be Useful
Over time, as fields of study mature, researchers start the
important work of synthesizing
the current state of knowledge. In synthesis, researchers
assemble the diverse work on

different aspects of the problem and try to create a bigger, more
useful picture of what the
research community knows. But syn-
thesis is more than simple summary.
It is the critical interpretative act of
making meaning out of information.
This makes research useful. As we
have seen in the CCD case, it often
takes multiple strands of research
to help us solve complex problems.
In synthesis, researchers attempt to
weave these strands together into a
more comprehensive explanation for
the purpose of resolving conflicts or
contradictions, and exploring the
implication of what has been learned.
Much of the work you will do in
research projects will be to synthesize
the current state of knowledge in your
field and explore its implications for
an argument you wish to make.
1.3 Research as Conversation
This text focuses on a research process that begins with a
systematic review of the lit-erature produced by other
researchers. In a literature review, your role is primarily to
synthesize, assess, and interpret the existing research in order to
increase clarity,
reduce uncertainty, locate areas for further research or
discussion, and possibly to make
actionable recommendations. Ordinarily we think of “literature”
as referring to the works
of creative writers: poems, plays, stories, and novels. In
research settings, “the literature”
means the set of articles, books, reports, conference

presentations, and other publications
that contain the current state of knowledge. “Reviewing the
literature” means finding and
reading those publications to see what is known, what questions
and issues are currently
being discussed, and where you can make a contribution to the
discussion.
Jason Hawkes/The Image Bank/Getty Images
Synthesis is the process of taking multiple strands of
research and creating a bigger, more useful picture of
what the research community knows about an issue.
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CHAPTER 1Section 1.3 Research as Conversation
Before we get started understanding the research
process you will use in this text, it is important
to make a subtle shift in the way you think about
research. Most of us tend to think about research
primarily in terms of information and what we do
with it: We gather information, evaluate it, ana-
lyze it, summarize it. However, such a view of
research tends to make student researchers pas-
sive conduits of information produced by others.
Furthermore, it encourages them to see the pre-
sentation of information itself as their chief work
in writing. In professional settings, research-
ers make progress by constantly exchanging
and testing ideas and building on one another’s
work. In order for their work to be useful to oth-
ers, researchers must do more than just deliver
information. One point of research is to contrib-

ute to the collective work of problem solving.
Researchers must demonstrate the relevance and
utility of their ideas by showing how it relates to
previous work, whether by adding nuance, alter-
ing conclusions, or provoking reconsideration of
issues once thought settled. Throughout this text,
you will be expected to take a more active role in
research, one that approximates what researchers
do. You will be asked to go beyond collecting and reporting
facts, to formulate your own
researched response to what researchers have written.
Research as an Evidence-Based Conversation Among People
In order to take a more active approach to research, it can be
helpful to think of your pur-
pose in research as joining the conversation of an established
community of thinkers. Here
is how philosopher, critic, and researcher Kenneth Burke (1973)
describes what it is like to
join the conversation of other thinkers:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you
arrive, others
have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated
discussion, a dis-
cussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it
is about.
In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of
them got there,
so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the
steps that had
gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you
have caught
the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone
answers;

you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns
himself
against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your
opponent,
depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However,
the discus-
sion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And
you do
depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (pp.
110–111)
Stephen Simpson/Stone/Getty Images
The goal of research is not to make a
definitive final statement on a subject
but to engage in discussion with existing
research in order to pose new questions
and further impel the dialogue.
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CHAPTER 1Section 1.4 If the Idea of Research Sounds Scary
to You, Read on
Part of what is so compelling about this passage is the way that
it captures the persistent
exchange of ideas and positions that is characteristic of
research. It also suggests that in
order to join the conversation, it is your responsibility to figure
out for yourself what others
are saying, why they are saying it, and what importance it has
for you.
Research Articles Make Contributions to a Conversation
One implication of seeing research as a conversation that

preexists you, and that will
continue on after you, is that you must approach a piece of
researched writing with an
eye toward understanding what work that piece of writing is
doing in the conversation.
Instead of an article standing on its own and simply reporting
information, you must
make an effort to see how an article fulfills a researcher’s intent
to make some specific con-
tribution to the conversation: to support another’s view, to
resolve an open question, to
add a new dimension to the problem, to correct an error or
misinterpretation, or to argue
that the conversation itself is based on faulty assumptions.
Another implication of this conversational view of research is
that it relieves you of the
pressure and responsibility of having the final word, or to base
your response on origi-
nal findings of your own. Your goal is simply to use other
researchers’ data and ideas to
make a useful contribution to the conversation, to “push it
forward, to say something new,
something that seems to call for further talk and writing,” as
Duke University writing
professor Joseph Harris puts it (2006, pp. 35–36). You bring
your critical thinking skills,
the interpretive act of synthesis, your ability to see
implications, and your own considered
perspective to the conversation of research.
This idea that the purpose of research and the writing based on
research is to join in and
contribute to a preexisting conversation will shape your
research process. Instead of look-
ing for pieces of information that support your view, you will

be looking for communities
of researchers actively engaged in conversation with one
another. In Burke’s language,
you will conduct research to “listen” in on their conversation,
and then “put your oar
in” to respond to some researchers in order to contribute to
some specific branch of the
conversation.
1.4 If the Idea of Research Sounds Scary to You, Read on
Many people approach academic research apprehensively or
fearfully, thinking that it is complex, difficult, and fraught with
danger. If you are one of these people, remember that you do
not bear the burden of producing a “Eureka!” dis-
covery in your research. Your job is to notice something
unusual or interesting about your
topic and contribute to the conversation others are having using
reason, evidence drawn
from other researchers’ work, and your own careful judicious
thinking.
Even though we might not be aware of them, many of us hold
anxiety-producing beliefs
about research. Many of those beliefs are not founded on fact or
experience. And what
is worse, many of them work to our disadvantage when we
actually try to do academic
research. In this section of the chapter, we will debunk some of
the more common myths
about research, and encourage you to see yourself as well
prepared to start and complete
your project.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 8 10/2/13 3:41 PM

to You, Read on
Myth 1: Research is too time consuming to be done in a first-
year
writing course.
It is true that some research projects take a long time to develop
and complete. But we
can design many worthwhile research projects to be completed
in a short time. The key to
designing a short research project is to define the focus of your
research narrowly enough
to allow it to be completed in the time allotted, while at the
same time doing justice to the
topic. Chapters 2 and 3 will help you go through a process of
project definition that will
enable you to locate a small area of interest to you, and learn
enough about it to ask a small
set of answerable questions.
Myth 2: I have to have extensive knowledge of a subject to do
research.
Actually all you need is the desire to know more about a
subject. Using the exploratory
research techniques provided in Chapter 2, you will quickly
learn enough to know what
questions need answers. After that, it only takes curiosity,
persistence, and a few relatively
simple search and reading strategies to pursue the answer.
Myth 3: The experts who conduct research and write research
articles
are beyond criticism, so what can a newcomer to the field
possibly

think or write about their findings?
Because most of us think that research is done by experts with
advanced degrees and
using sophisticated techniques, most of us are reluctant to
consider that published pro-
fessional research might by unreli-
able, or even simply wrong. But since
professional researchers are work-
ing to solve complex problems—like
Honeybee Colony Collapse Disor-
der—even experts make mistakes,
draw conclusions that their evidence
does not support, or produce find-
ings that conflict with other studies.
Researchers working at all levels—
from professional to student—expect
their work to be subject to scrutiny.
For many topics, student researchers
have more than enough knowledge,
experience, and perspective to pose
questions, extend thoughts, and oth-
erwise respond to the works of pro-
fessional researchers.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
While research may seem daunting, as a student
researcher, you have plenty of knowledge and experience
that will enable you to pose questions and enter the
conversation surrounding many topics.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 9 10/2/13 3:41 PM
to You, Read on

Myth 4: Research always produces big insights and new
knowledge.
The vast majority of research being done is small scale. Most
researchers aim to add small
insights or nuances to existing knowledge. One form of really
useful research—synthesis—
looks at other researchers’ findings and combines them in
innovative ways to produce new
insights. Other forms of research aim to improve clarity, reduce
uncertainty, or justify posi-
tions or beliefs. Still others seek to find other uses for ideas or
processes, or to reevaluate an
issue from a new perspective. For college purposes, research
can be what writing specialist
Ken Macrorie (1988) calls “I-search,” a search for ideas,
insights, and information that enables
you to create knowledge and perspectives that are new to you.
Myth 5: Research is super-systematic and analytical; logical,
linear
thinkers are better at it than intuitive or “messy” thinkers.
It is true that once researchers have a clear idea of the questions
they are asking and the
data they need, they tend to work systematically, analytically,
and in a disciplined manner.
However, in order to arrive at those questions, and in order to
understand the implica-
tions of their findings, researchers must think creatively and be
open to new perspec-
tives. Researchers depend as much on associative thinking,
serendipity, and other forms
of messy-but-productive creative thinking as they do on
rigorous systematic thinking.
Myth 6: Research has to be totally fact based and objective;

there is
no room in my project for my ideas or values.
While researchers do tend to privilege reason over emotion, and
try to ensure that their
strictly personal beliefs do not unduly influence their work,
most of the potential research
topics you will encounter will be researchable from a wide
range of perspectives. You
will need to be open minded in your research to prevent
yourself from introducing bias,
but your ideas and values will influence your choice of topic,
the set of questions you
pursue, your selection of evidence, and your response to the
ideas and findings of other
researchers.
If you can put these myths aside and embrace the truth about
academic research, you
can be more confident in your ability to start and complete a
research project. Remember
Joseph Harris’s advice:
The goal of [academic] writing is not to have the final word on
a subject,
to bring the discussion to a close, but to push it forward, to say
something
new, something that seems to call for further talk and writing. .
. . A dia-
logue is not a debate. You don’t win a conversation, you add to
it, push it
ahead, keep it going, “put your oar in,” and maybe even
sometimes redi-
rect or divert the flow of talk. (2006, pp. 35–36)
When you think of conducting research to join a preexisting
conversation, you realize

that you are not alone. Other researchers have gone before you
and have shared the paths
they followed. They have dropped “breadcrumbs” along the
way, in the form of sources
and ideas for you to follow. As you pick up these breadcrumbs
and examine them, you
dro85866_01_c01.indd 10 10/2/13 3:41 PM
to You, Read on
will encounter many surprises and learn something fascinating
about yourself and about
your world.
At times, making your way through a thick forest of ideas
without getting lost, or side-
tracked, can be challenging. It can also be frustrating when you
struggle to find the right
direction or learn you are on a dead-end trail. However, you
have your instructor and
many other resources—including this text—to help you find
your way and show you how
to forge ahead again. Figure 1.1 represents the approach to
research that this text takes,
including the steps of the research process.
Figure 1.1: The process of writing a researched essay
Those writing a researched essay can consider themselves in
dialogue with the current body of research
on the topic. Allow sufficient time in your writing process to
move through each of these phases, from

planning to drafting to refining your paper.
You will encounter pitfalls along the way. Nonetheless, as you
work your way through
the thick brush, you will eventually come to a clearing, where
ideas begin to take form
and conclusions begin to suggest
themselves.
The treasure at the end of this journey
is a new perspective or an answer to
the question you asked when you
started your quest, the satisfaction of
adding to your own knowledge and
the knowledge of others about this
subject, and the reward of develop-
ing a valuable set of research skills
that will serve you well in future
areas of your personal and profes-
sional life. But the most important
outcome of this process is that you
will have learned what it takes to add
your voice to the research work of
others in the community of scholars.
Phase I—Design:
Project Definition,
Grounding Research,
& Topic Development
Phase V—Finish:
Polish, Present, Publish
Phase II—Review the Literature:
Construct a Model of the Existing

Conversation. Discover Your
Stance
Phase IV—Reconsider:
Review, Revisit, Rethink,
Rewrite
Phase III—Draft:
Join the Conversation
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
A thesis must be situated among the arguments of other
researchers. Good arguments gain their strength by
responding to and acknowledging existing ideas.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 11 10/2/13 3:41 PM
CHAPTER 1Key Terms
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, you learned that academic or professional
research is simply a more
systematic and rigorous version of the research process you use
to answer questions in
everyday life. Because academic research is a cumulative,
ongoing conversation among
skeptical participants, it can answer complex questions. Because
it is selective and peer
reviewed, it tends to be highly reliable.
You have also learned that some of the beliefs about research
that some students hold
can hinder their ability to complete their research projects well.
It is important to believe

that you can complete your project in the time allotted with the
resources available to
you. Remember, most research deals with the particulars of a
small set of questions. You
should also believe that newcomers to a field (or even to
research itself) can contribute
valuable insights. While the ability to think analytically and
systematically can be use-
ful to researchers, so too is the ability to think creatively and
intuitively. Finally, every
researcher’s work is informed by his or her values. While it is
important to seek the truth
in research, many questions (especially in the humanities and
social sciences) demand that
researchers make value judgments. The key to integrating your
values into your research
is to be sure to remain open to new data, ideas, and
perspectives.
Key Terms
bias Assumptions, attitudes or disposi-
tions that cause a researcher to be closed to
new evidence, ideas, or perspectives.
credible Sources that are written by certi-
fied experts writing in their field of exper-
tise; they offer reasons and evidence to
support claims, consider all available and
relevant information, and fairly and accu-
rately represent the views of other writers.
literature review A critical summary and
evaluation of sources relevant to the ques-
tions a researcher is seeking to answer.
motivation The needs or purposes that

inspire a researcher to conduct research
and write about it.
peer review The process by which new
research is certified as reliable, rigorous,
and worthy of consideration. During peer
review, experts anonymously evaluate
pieces of research for errors of fact, logic,
judgment, or omission. They also evaluate
the significance and value of the research.
relevant Sources that provide resources to
answer your research questions and share
concepts, vocabulary, cases, and methods
with other researchers in the field.
representative Sources that illustrate a
view or position in a field of study, or a
significant earlier view that is still relevant.
selective Research that seeks to answer
a limited set of questions on the basis of
available evidence.
synthesis The evaluative and interpretive
process of combining diverse strands of
research conducted by different research-
ers into a coherent argument.
timely Sources that take into account a
field’s most recent information, ideas, and
theories.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 12 10/2/13 3:41 PM

CHAPTER 1Web Sites for Further Reference
Web Sites for Further Reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bByHhUa5_A
Jamie McKenzie discusses how to approach research when, like
most researchers, you
begin your project “not knowing what you don’t know.” The
key is to take a cyclical
approach to research in which you “muck about” with ideas for
a while, then sort and
sift through them to develop essential questions of your own.
http://fno.org/dec99/rcycle.html
An article by McKenzie detailing the research cycle.
dro85866_01_c01.indd 13 10/2/13 3:41 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bByHhUa5_A
http://fno.org/dec99/rcycle.html
dro85866_01_c01.indd 14 10/2/13 3:41 PM
“You can’t keep it all in your head.”
—Louis Fried
Student writers often approach the start of a research project
with mixed emotions. Excited
by the prospect of discovery, they can also be daunted by what
seems a complicated set of
tasks to complete. Interested in learning more about a real world

topic, they worry about
not finding enough of the right kinds of sources. Ready to
develop deeper understanding
by thinking along with the experts, students fear not knowing
how to comment on or use
the work of experts in ways that their teachers expect. This
book aims to kindle your inter-
est by helping you tame the complexities of a research project.
In this appendix, you will
learn how to deploy proven project management skills to help
you efficiently navigate
your way through the process.
Even student researchers who understand the nature of research
sometimes fear that they
will be unable to successfully project manage their research.
Like them, you may find
yourself wondering how you will find and keep track of
multiple sources of informa-
tion. You may be concerned about how you will avoid
procrastination, overcome some
of the admittedly tedious tasks entailed in research, and ensure
steady progress toward
completion.
There is no getting around it: Writing a research paper is a
sizable project. In some colleges
and universities, you may have a 15- to 18-week semester to
complete such a project. In
accelerated programs, your research assignments are structured
to be achievable in only
a few weeks. In courses having a research assignment, you will
usually be assigned the
paper early in the course, and you may be required to prepare
and submit intermediate
sections of the assignment each week, with the final paper due

at the end of the course.
These intermediate assignments can help you stay on track with
your research assignment
because they will be drafts of the final paper you are writing in
advance, which you then
revise and edit before the final paper is due. In these cases,
some of the project manage-
ment work has been done for you. But you will still need to
manage your progress from
week to week and throughout the course.
Appendix A: How to Project Manage
Your Research Project
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APPENDIX A
Key Project Management Strategies
The key to productivity in research, as in life, and at work, is
project management. In order to be successful, you have to
1. Approach the project with the right mindset in the right
environment;
2. Formulate a reasonable plan to complete your project by
breaking it up into
smaller sequences of tasks;
3. Set clear, concrete, achievable goals for each working session
and work until
you achieve them;
4. Monitor your progress to assess your execution of your plan
and make

changes as necessary; and
5. Keep a research notebook.
We will look at each of these strategies in more detail, so that
you can better understand
how to implement them in your research project.
Approach the Project With the Right Mindset in
the Right Environment
If you believe any of the myths about research we discussed in
Chapter 1, try to work
actively to minimize their impact on your project. Keep
reminding yourself that academic
research is just an extension of research behaviors that you do
in your daily life. Write
project milestones on a calendar to demonstrate to yourself that
you can complete the
project in the time allotted. Trust that your existing knowledge,
experience, and curiosity
can initiate a fabulous research project. Aspire to enhance your
own understanding and
develop small insights into your topic rather than trying to solve
a big problem. Embrace
both your creative mind and your analytical one. Try to find an
area of interest in the topic
that resonates with your values and experience—one that you
will want to share with
friends and family, as well as classmates.
Because research projects require you to carry out somewhat
unfamiliar and fairly com-
plex tasks, it is critical that you do not try to multitask when
you are working on your proj-
ect. If you are like most people, you need to get a lot of things
done in a short span of time.

Multitasking seems like a necessity. But recent scientific
research reveals that multitask-
ing comes with high efficiency costs (Kuchinskas, 2007).
Moreover, it is only productive
when you are switching between two or more fairly routine
tasks that occupy different
channels of your brain (Anderson, 2009). So, it is true that you
can fold laundry (a manual
task) while watching American Idol (a visual task) and be pretty
productive. Likewise,
you can mow the lawn and listen to a baseball game at the same
time and pay fair atten-
tion to both. However, when the tasks are even moderately
complicated, rapid switching
between them drastically reduces your efficiency up to 40% and
compromises the results
(Anderson, 2009). Consequently, while it is possible to cook
dinner while helping your
fourth-grader with homework, your multitasking significantly
increases the chance that
you botch both dinner and homework.
dro85866_09_appA.indd 170 10/2/13 2:50 PM
APPENDIX A
Working on your research project will require your full
attention. You will need to cre-
ate a single-tasking environment in which to work—one that
minimizes distractions and
enables you to enter into that hyper-focused state of mind
necessary to work efficiently and
think productively. Here are some concrete tips for creating a
single-tasking environment.

• Put a door between you and everyone with whom you live, and
make it very
clear that you are unavailable. Workplace research shows that,
on average,
it takes workers 25 minutes to return to tasks once they have
been disturbed
(Anderson, 2009).
• Limit your channels of communication to the outer world. Sam
Anderson
(2009) reports that Americans who work on computers “keep an
average of
eight windows open on our computer screens at one time and
skip between
them every twenty seconds” (para. 14). Effective research
requires more sus-
tained attention than that. So shut down Facebook, close your
web browser
(except for research purposes), log out of chat, set your email
program not to
notify you when new mail arrives, silence your phone, and turn
off the radio
or TV. If you have to listen to music, make sure it is music
without words
(you do not want the language center of your brain to multitask
in the back-
ground when you are working on new or complex material made
entirely out
of words). Better yet, try playing a white noise loop through ear
buds to shut
out distracting sounds.
• Plan working sessions of about 2 consecutive hours at a time
and try to
change your activity within sessions (for example, from reading

The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.—Thoma.docx

The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.—Thoma.docx

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