Lesson 1: What is Research?

Before learning how to determine your research needs, let’s first define exactly what research is.

Research is the investigation of a particular topic using a variety of reliable, scholarly resources. The three major goals of research are establishing facts, analyzing information, and reaching new conclusions. The three main acts of doing research are searching for, reviewing, and evaluating information.

Learning what research is not may help you fully grasp the concept. Randomly selecting books from the library is not research, nor is surfing the Internet. On the contrary, research requires organization, resourcefulness, reflection, synthesis, and above all, time.

Now that you know what research is, let’s define the research process.

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