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Thanks to Peter Milnes
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Here's another way to understand research. Start with a question or a problem. You need to to go over the bridge to get to an answer to the question or a solution to the problem. Click on the steps to get across the bridge.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
Key question: What precisely is the problem?
Task: State the essence of the problem clearly in one sentence.
Key question: What information is relevant?
Task: Find out what kind of facts, information or source material you need to solve the problem.
Key question: What is?
Task: Report or describe the facts, information or source material.
Common student comment: "If I've reported the information, I've done everything necessary for the research."
Response: "No, you still need to use it somehow to get across the bridge."
Key question: What is important?
Task: Identify aspects or elements of the information that are help in solving the problem. This is analysis.
Common student comment: "But all the information is important."
Response: "So what's important about it?"
Key question: What is the relationship between the important issues and themes?
Task: Identify the relationships between the important issues and themes. Find connections.
Common student comment: "They're not related."
Response: "If you've done it right so far, they are related; it's just that you haven't seen it yet."
Key question: Do the relationships between themes and issues form a pattern?
Task: Draw a defensible conclusion, based on relationships between themes and issues.
Congratulations! You should now be on the other side.