The Research Process and Planning
The experience of gathering, interpreting, and documenting information, developing and organizing ideas and conclusions, and communicating them clearly will prove to be an important and satisfying part of your education.
As with any business project, planning is an essential element for success. Following are the steps in the research process:
- Topic selection: topics should be of interest to the student, manageable in scope, and have research available in the topic area.
- Topic analysis: determine how much you already know about the topic and what you would like to know or need to know.
- Preliminary research: this is a broad review of the information available on the topic
- Redefining topic scope: after a broad review, you will beginning narrowing the scope of your topic to a manageable level.
- Additional research: this is targeted research directed at the redefined topic.
- Analysis and interpretation: involves reviewing the research sources, gaining an understanding of the concepts and ideas, comparing with existing personal knowledge, critically analyzing each research source, and selecting.
- Planning the report: begin outlining the logical flow of ideas from the research.
- First draft: the first draft enables you to put down on paper your interpretation of the sources that you have selected. This includes paraphrasing and summarizing the sources, and the exact words of authorities. It is demonstrates your comprehension of the material as well as your analysis of it. The important aspect of the first draft is to record your interpretations and analysis.
- Revision and editing: some believe that this stage of the process is the most important. This is where you shape your organization of ideas, sharpen your interpretations, and critically review your choice of words, sentences, and structure.
- Final draft: This is the outcome of your research. It is formatted in an acceptable manner and contains all the elements required by an instructor.
A number of resources are available to help you with the research process. It is highly recommended that you review the Student Academic Research Tutorial (START) on the MSOE Library Web page.
Conducting Credible Research
When conducting research for an MSEM report or paper, you should endeavor to use scholarly or academic journals. With access to the Internet and access to the full-text of publications through MSOE’s online databases, students have an abundance of research information available. As was noted in the Student Academic Research Tutorial (START), credibility can vary. An article in the Journal of Business Strategy is highly credible, while an article in The Business Journal of Portland is not. You are urged to review that section of START.
Critical Examination of Research
In addition to discovering credible research, you need to critically examine that research. A guide to reading and writing academic reports can be found at: http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/guides/guidec.shtml
Another resource on critically examining research can be found at: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill26.htm