research

As a history student research paper make up a large portion of my grade every year. This is probably one of the main reasons I am taking this course. Research papers are probably one of the most daunting assignments a student can be handed. I find research papers put a lot of pressure on the student. They require student to use almost every skill. you must be a good at finding in information you must use your analyzing skills, and you must use your creativity to use this information to create a coherent paper. I thought the first two chapters of research strategies were very helpful.
The section of the first chapter that stood out to me was the section on how to start a research paper. Starting the research paper has always been my biggest challenge, I’m often tempted to dive in the meat of the subject. However, as Wiliams point out we often tend to drown if we go straight to the big books when we do this. If we stick rather to broad information and then go deeper it makes the deeper material much easier to understand. The second thing that stood out to me is the preliminary outline. This is a really simple tool which I think will really help research because it allows the writer to structure his research and make it more productive.