Conducting Research Tips for High Schoolers



It has never been a better time or a worse time for conducting research.

When I was in high school and college, you had to physically go to the library and conduct your research by hand and foot~boots had to be on the ground. Nowadays, research can be conducted with your behind in a chair. But in some ways, this makes research difficult. Where do I begin? In this blog, I hope to help the research student gain a better understanding of what he or she needs to do in order to conduct academic research without the rendering of clothes or wails of grief.

First and foremost: What is your topic? You need to develop your research topic. It needs to be one that is interesting to you, captures your attention, and stimulates your curiosity. Sometimes the topic is given to you by your teacher. If that's the case, then so be it....just pretend that you like the topic. You will approach it the same way.

You will also want to explore some background information. This is called "performing a literature review." I'm currently writing a piece on The Jews in Ethiopia. So, this is my topic. But, as I hope you realize, this topic is a wee bit broad. I need to narrow it down. So I'm going to ask myself some questions about this topic.

  • How did the first Jews get to Ethiopia?
  • Why are the Jews in Ethiopia an important element of Ethiopian history?
  • Who were the famous Jews in Ethiopian history?
Now, this is still a fairly broad topic, but at least I have an idea of where to begin. Remember, it's more important to have too much information that to not have enough.

What types of information are you looking for? Do you want scholarly articles? Do you want research studies? Do you want Biblical references? Do you want only facts or will you also include speculation in your research? Once I've done my literature review and determined what resources are available, I'll get a better grip on the scope of my topic.

Where do you need to look for this information? Will you physically need to go to a library to find some primary sources? Will I use only the Internet? If you choose to only use the Internet, what type of web documents do you want? Academic periodicals? You will want to identify your core resources to begin your research. You need to understand what each resource offers.

How much information do you need? How long is your research? If you're doing this for a high school class, most of the time the teacher will have given you specific length requirements. For example, the latest research assignment that I assigned to my students was a 5-paragraph essay with three major points. Teachers call this the "3-point" essay. 

You'll also want ot take into account when the research paper or project is due. You will need to map out a plan for your research. Are you going to tackle it all on a Saturday and Sunday or are you going to spread out the research?

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