Blog 10: Research

In “Research Starts with Answers” by Alison C Witte, she explains that research is about seeking information and innovation, not just compiling information that already exists. Witte describes the three stages of research “(1) seeking information that is new to the researcher, (2) interpreting, evaluating, and organizing that information, and (3) reporting that information to others to affect some action” (Witte, 226). One of the main points of her article is that research should start with a question, not an answer. Also, the information that someone finds and the process of searching for it should inform their claim/thesis, rather than someone looking for evidence to support their preconceived claim.

The purpose of research is to learn more and to make discoveries. The discovery could be new information for the individual researcher, or a new breakthrough that could change the entire field. Research is also done to add to the field of study. For example, scientific research could be looking for a cure for cancer, historical research could be searching for information about the pyramids of Giza, and there are many other things that could be researched within those fields and in any other field.

Different research methods are used because how someone researches something is heavily dependent on what field they are researching in, what the problem they are trying to solve is, and what their idea is for the best way to find an answer. In her article, Witte describes how adaptability is very important for research, so people can change the way they are looking for information if what they are doing isn’t working. Also, there is different methods for primary and secondary research. Primary research is when a researcher develops the tools for finding the information themselves (such as experiments, survey questions, etc), while secondary research is searching for previously published materials.

In the past, I have written literary criticism research papers, which mainly involved secondary research, where I used published literary journals on a text to back up my claims about the text. I have also done historical research papers, also using secondary research, where I used primary sources from the historical period and secondary sources (such as textbooks) to make claims about the historical event/period. I understand secondary research for the most part, as I have experience with it, but I have less understanding about how primary research is done.