Posted: April 22nd, 2016

This overview material may also be used at the beginning of the research paper to offer your audience a general introduction to the topic??

While conducting research, you should move back and forth between the general and the specific. You might begin research by viewing general discussions of the topic found in encyclopedias, bibliographies, and reference materials specific to the discipline. The information found in these resources provides an overview of the topic and immerses you in the ways of thinking and writing about the chosen topic. This overview material may also be used at the beginning of the research paper to offer your audience a general introduction to the topic.

You then should move from the general resources to the more specialized material in scholarly books and journals. These sources represent the threads of academic conversation that typically occur among academics. The more recent the publication, the more recent the conversational thread.

For example, a 1960s New Critical approach might have focused on form and symmetry in William Blake’s poetry because this type of approach was current in 1960s. However, in the 1980s, the same poetry might have been viewed through a feminist or deconstructionist lens. While being current is not necessarily an end in itself, it is important to know what is being said and what has been said.

Moving back and forth between general and specialized sources is a continuous process. In your research you will cite specialized resources and participate with your sources in a conversation. Because you will also be writing to classmates and your instructor, you will want to be familiar with general perspectives, even though the general background material will not constitute major sources of your research.

The purpose of your first assignment is to help you begin engaging in a conversation about your research. Even though your research has only begun, it is important to get into the habit of using writing to think through your topic. For this reason, you need to write WHILE you research rather than AFTER you have done your research.