The document provides guidance on developing an effective research plan in 20 steps. It discusses analyzing the rhetorical situation, choosing a topic, conducting preliminary research, developing research questions, finding and organizing sources, drafting a thesis statement and outline, and keeping track of sources for the bibliography. The overall purpose is to outline the process for conducting successful research and writing a research paper.

1. Developing a Research Plan

2. Research Plan
Objective: Date due:
1. Analyze the rhetorical situation _______
2. Choose a possible subject _______
3. Begin preliminary research _______
4. Complete preliminary research _______
5. Come up with research questions _______
6. Schedule interviews or other field research _______
7. Come up with a tentative thesis and outline _______
8. Begin finding and reading library/Web sources _______
9. Complete library/Web research _______
10. Complete any field research _______
11. Begin writing rough draft _______
12. Finish rough draft _______
13. Get responses (peer reviews) _______
14. Do any additional research _______
15. Prepare final list of Works Cited _______
16. Revise and edit _______
17. Visit the English Corner (tutoring) _______
18. Prepare final draft _______
19. Proofread carefully _______
20. Submit the final draft _______
You need to establish a schedule to
complete tasks. One good way of
doing this is to create reminders or
alerts in your phone. Use Siri or
Cortana to easily set up reminders.
The schedule posted here is a good
list of what you need to complete in
a typical research plan.

3. Purpose: To inform? Argue? Entertain? A
combination?
Audience: Does your audience know about your
topic? Do you need to add background
information? What opinions or attitudes do you
readers likely hold? What kinds of evidence will
your audience find persuasive? How do you want
them to respond? Remember, you are entering
the academic conversation, so write accordingly.
Genre: Research paper? Analysis? Report?
Summary? Proposal? Argument? How does the
genre relate to the types of sources you will
need?
Stance: What is your attitude toward your topic?
How do you want to come across? Curious?
Positive? Something else?
Media/Design: What media will you use? Print?
Spoken? Web? Will you need charts, graphs,
software, slides, or other visuals?
Consider the
rhetorical
situation

4. • Choose a Topic: What topic interests you? Why are
you interested? Write down your reasons for
choosing this topic. Write down any experience
you or anyone you know has with this topic.
• Writing/Listing: Take about five minutes to write
down everything you know about your topic.
Chances are you know quite a bit already. Write
down everything you have ever heard or learned
about your topic, even if you aren’t sure if it’s true
or not. You can always verify it later
• Questioning: What questions do you have about
your topic? What do you want to know? What do
you need to know? What do you want to learn?
Pre-writing

5. • Common knowledge?: Read through the topic
and information on your paper. Think about
what would be considered “common
knowledge” verses information you need to
cite or find support/evidence for in a paper.
Highlight or star all the information your think
will need to be cited. In other words, mark
everything that is NOT common knowledge.
• Sources: The places you marked are good
places to begin your research and find sources
and evidence for your paper!
Finding Sources

6. • Do some preliminary research: To help you refine
and focus your topic, do some exploratory
research. It will save you time and effort in the long
run because you will be able to eliminate
unnecessary topics or unrelated ideas that won’t
help you write your paper.
• Begin with reference works: Encyclopedias are
great places to begin but are not appropriate
sources for college papers. Skimming websites can
be helpful as well. If you already know a lot of
information about your topic, doing preliminary
research can open new avenues or new ways of
seeing and approaching your topic. However,
reference works or dot com websites are not
acceptable as sources for your final paper.
Pre-Research

7. • After you’ve done some preliminary research,
you may discover that your interests have
changed, or your research has led to surprises
or additional research. That’s OK. Now is the
time to refine your topic and focus on a specific
question that you will work to answer in your
research paper.
• Generate a list of questions beginning with
What? When? Where? Who? How? Why?
Would? Could? and Should? About your
tentative topic.
Research Questions

8. What are the
environmental effects
of making and burning
ethanol, gasoline, and
diesel fuel?
When was ethanol
introduced as a
gasoline additive?
Where is ethanol
produced, and how
does this affect the
energy costs of
transporting it?
Who will benefit from
increased ethanol use?
How much energy does
producing ethanol
require?
Why do some
environmental groups
oppose the use of
ethanol?
Would other
alternative energy
sources be more
energy-efficient?
Could ethanol replace
gasoline completely in
passenger vehicles?
Should ethanol use be
increased?
Example
questions

9. • Drafting a tentative thesis: Now that you have
some questions about your research and
possible answers to those questions, try to
formulate a working thesis. Don’t feel trapped by
your thesis at this point. Your thesis may (and
probably will) change as you learn more about
your subject, consider the many points of view
on it, and reconsider your goal.
• A working thesis allows you to move forward by
clarifying your purpose for doing research. As
with a research question, a tentative thesis
should guide your research efforts. Don’t hold
too tightly to your working thesis, or you may
avoid contradicting evidence and make you
paper biased or unconvincing.
Thesis Statements

10. • Creating a rough outline: After you have a
working thesis, create a rough outline. Your
rough outline can simply be a list of subjects or
topics you wish to explore. An outline will help
you structure your research and organize your
notes and materials.
• Organize carefully: Use your rough outline to
organize your thoughts. Label your outline by
number or letter and write the corresponding
letter or number on the matching source
material.
Outlines

11. • Keeping track of your sources: Keep a
working bibliography. Use online sources like
Noodle Tools on the Richland website,
OneNote, Easybib.com. Make an account at
Easybib.com to organize lists of sources by
the name of your paper.
• Label everything: Print articles and write
bibliographic info directly on the printout.
Highlight sections you think you may want to
use. Label sources according to your outline.
• Working bibliography templates: The most
frustrating part of finalizing your paper is
trying to find lost bibliographic information.
Organization is the key to writing a stress-free
paper.
Sources and Works Cited