How to Do Research in 3 Simple Steps

The 7 Steps of the Research Process

Research can feel overwhelming, but it’s more manageable when you break it down into steps. In my experience, the research process has seven main steps:

1. 
   Find a topic
   
2. 
   Refine your topic
   
3. 
   Find key sources
   
4. 
   Take notes on your sources
   
5. 
   Create your paper or presentation
   
6. 
   Do additional research as necessary
   
7. 
   Cite your sources
   

Let’s look at each of these steps in more detail.

1. Find a Topic

If you don’t have a topic, your research will be undirected and inefficient. You’ll spend hours reading dozens of sources, all because you didn’t take a few minutes to develop a topic.
How do you come up with a topic? My number one suggestion is to create a mind map.
A mind map is a visual way to generate ideas. Here’s how it works:

1. 
   Get a piece of paper and a pen. Make sure the paper isn’t too small — you want lots of room for your ideas.
   
2. 
   Draw an oval in the center of the paper.
   
3. 
   Inside that oval, write a super vague topic. Start with whatever your professor has assigned you.
   
4. 
   Draw lines from the oval towards the edges of the paper.
   
5. 
   Draw smaller ovals connected to each of these lines.
   
6. 
   Inside the smaller ovals, write more specific ideas/topics related to the central one.
   
7. 
   Repeat until you’ve found 3-5 topic ideas.
   

When I write it out step by step, it sounds kind of strange. But trust me, it works. Anytime I’m stuck on a writing assignment, this method is my go-to. It’s basically magic.
To see what mind mapping looks like in practice, check out this clip:
Want to create a digital mind map like the one Thomas uses in the video? Check out Coggle.

2. Refine Your Topic

Okay, so now you have a list of 3-5 topics. They’re all still pretty general, and you need to narrow them down to one topic that you can research in depth.
To do this, spend 15 minutes doing some general research on each topic. Specifically, take each topic and plug it into your library’s catalog and database search tools.
The details of this process will vary from library to library. This is where consulting a librarian can be super helpful. They can show you how to use the tools I mentioned, as well as point you to some you probably don’t know about.
Furthermore, I suggest you ask your professor for recommendations. In some cases, they may even have created a resource page specifically for your assignment.
Once you’ve found out where to search, type in your topic. I like to use a mixture of the library catalog, a general academic database like EBSCO Host, and a search on Google Scholar.

What exactly are you trying to find? Basically, you’re trying to find a topic with a sufficient quantity and variety of sources.
Ideally, you want something with both journal articles and books, as this demonstrates that lots of scholars are seriously engaging with the topic.
Of course, in some cases (if the topic is very cutting edge, for example), you may be only able to find journal articles. That’s fine, so long as there are enough perspectives available.
Using this technique, you’ll be able to quickly eliminate some topics. Be ruthless. If you’re not finding anything after 15 minutes, move on. And don’t get attached to a topic.
Tip: If you find two topics with equal numbers of sources available, ask your professor to help you break the tie. They can give you insight into which topic is super common (and thus difficult to write about originally), as well as which they find more interesting.
Now that you have your topic, it’s time to narrow down your sources.