I have found that I have a fairly organized approach to\u00a0research papers, although I find if I am too structured in my research, I limit the direction of my paper. I usually like to begin a research topic by rereading the source materials or lecture notes that inspired the essay prompt. I grab a piece of scrap paper, and I write down as many ideas related to the subject as possible. I like to brainstorm prior to using internet search engines because I feel the internet can distract me and delay this portion of the writing process. After I have several different angles I would like to investigate, I begin to use online search engines. Google can be helpful in determining if the subject is widely written about, but I tend to use academic search engines more often, as I am more likely to trust those sources. I then collect my sources and really attempt to wrangle out a thesis. However, \u00a0my initial plan often changes once I actually find research. I usually like to go to office hours and discuss my paper with my professor, and I am often forced to rethink parts of my thesis and argument.<\/p>\n
Reading the\u00a0Methods and Skills\u00a0<\/em>textbook points out the importance of author bias and interpretation, and my biggest problem with research is I tend to rely on a lot of secondary sources. I usually use peer-reviewed sources, although I do need to look more closely into the primary sources. I have become used to accepting a majority of secondary sources at face value, although that is in large part due to the fact that a majority of research papers I have written have been scientific, not historical. I cannot recreate a scientist’s field data on salmon infected with sea lice, although I can read for myself a law passed during the eighteenth century that caused widespread outrage. My strategy for approaching research has been mostly successful, although I need to reframe my approach to match that of a skeptical historian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have found that I have a fairly organized approach to\u00a0research papers, although I find if I am too structured in my research, I limit the direction of my paper. I usually like to begin a research topic by rereading the source materials or lecture notes that inspired the essay prompt. I grab a piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2442,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119924],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-4-doing-history","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist204-fall15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}