What you’ll learn to do: describe research writing and the importance of starting with a research question

Research can be an intimidating but rewarding process. It allows you to gain additional knowledge on a topic, assemble outside support, and provide credibility for your assertions. Think about research as a treasure hunt. Be patient and curious, the two primary qualities you need to be a good researcher.

Creating a research paper can be divided into three main steps: finding sources, evaluating sources, and integrating sources. Before we start those other steps, we first need to establish a research question and know how to begin our search. In this section, we’ll better understand what research writing is and how to narrow down a topic to get started.