​Understanding Your Assignment
- Be sure you understand the research assignment and the instructor's expectations, which include:
- Format, including citation style (MLA, APA, etc.)
- Length
- Voice (use of first person, etc.)
- Sources (books, professional journals, popular magazines, websites, etc.)
- Visuals (pictures, graphs, multimedia, etc.)
- Focus your thinking.
- Brainstorm (or use other methods such as mapping or freewriting) to determine what you already know
- Think about what questions you have about the topic
- Get background information and focus more.
- Use your textbook or other class materials to help you look at the subject and how it might be developed
- Use resources like the chapter headings, the table of contents, and the index for guidance
- Use the bibliographies to help you find sources
- Ask a research librarian to help you find a subject dictionary or encyclopedia on your topic
- Use the article's structure to help you develop your topic
- Use the article's bibliography to help you find other sources
- Based on your brainstorming and background research, write a question or statement that you would like to explore in your paper.
- Write out more questions raised by that question/statement
- Focus! You are working toward the thesis of your paper
