Theme: How to do research

Theme: How to do research
It’s 2 am, and you’re on your fifth cup of coffee (or was it your sixth?). You’re crouched at a table in some dark corner of the library surrounded by fifteen open books. Equally as many tabs are open on your laptop, and you still haven’t written a word of the paper that’s due in 7 hours.
Many things can explain how you got to this point, including procrastination, poor organization, and a messy schedule.
Very often, however, the problem is a lack of research skills.
And it’s not your fault. High school does a poor job of teaching you how to do research, and most college classes do little better. It feels like you’re expected to figure it out through trial and error.
I think we can do better than that, however. In this guide, I’m going to show you the 7-step process for researching everything from a 10-page term paper to a final presentation. Not only will you learn how to do better research; you’ll also learn how to research more efficiently.
What Is Research?
Before we go any further, what is research?
At its core, research is an attempt to answer a question. This could be anything from “How can we reduce infant mortality rates?” to “Why does salt make food taste good?”
To answer your question, you consult books, academic papers, newspaper articles, historical records, or anything else that could be helpful. The broad term for these things is “sources.”
And, usually, once you’ve done the research, you present or summarize it in some way. In many cases, this means writing an essay or another type of scholarly paper, but it could also mean giving a presentation or even creating a YouTube video.
Even if you have no interest in academia, research is an extremely useful skill to learn. When you know how to do research, it’s much easier to improve your life and work more effectively. Instead of having to ask someone every time you have a question, research will help you solve problems yourself (and help others in turn).
Note: Research can also mean conducting surveys, performing experiments, or going on archaeological digs. While these activities are crucial for advancing human knowledge, I won’t be discussing them here. This article focuses on the research you can do with only a library and an internet connection.
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.
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.