Research Methods

1. YOUR LOI

2. QUICK REVIEW/REMINDERS…WHAT INQUIRY
ISN’T…
1) Reporting
2) Research a question you already know the answer or to which you
are not open to ALL information.
3) Research that only skims the surface
4) Research that follows a straight line
5) Research that doesn’t produce new questions and knowledge.
6) Planning an argument
7) Hunting for a Single Answer
8) Focusing your Search on Opinions

3. BRAINSTORMING FOCUS
QUESTIONS
1. FIRST-- Write your LOI in a few concrete sentences. Explain what the issue is and what you want to discover about the
issue.
2. NEXT-- Brainstorm at least EIGHT smaller questions to begin your research that you need to answer in order to
understand different aspects of the issue:
 Remember that these help you focus on finding out information you don’t know about the issue. Don’t focus on
opinions; focus on finding answers to your questions.
 DIVIDE YOUR QUESTIONS TO FOCUS AREAS TO HELP GENERATE MORE IDEAS. Here are some ideas--
1. History of the Issue
2. Current Situation or Examples-- Events/Problems/News
3. Questions about People Involved
4. Questions about Organizations
5. Specific Terms or Phrases you don’t know
6. Current Policies or Laws
7. Types of Information (Studies, Interviews, Statistics)
8. Wondering Questions– How? Why? When? Who? What?
9. Important Groups Involved in the conversation (Researchers, Scientists, Lawmakers, Educators, Parents,
Politicians, etc.)
10. Questions about the Reasons or Motivation of Certain Groups

4.  Ex. From Earlier Presentation (Standardized Testing)--
 What are they meant to accomplish?
 How has their use risen in recent decades and why has it risen?
 How has their use been affected by NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?
 What are some examples of standardized tests and when are they
used?
 How does testing differ in private schools or alternative education?
 Does it correlate with negative learning outcomes?
 Does it correlate to positive learning outcomes?
 Do educators think they are helpful or hurtful? Researchers?
 Are they really associated with Attention Deficit Disorder?
 What are the alternatives for measuring learning?

5. KEY WORD BRAINSTORMING
FOR YOUR LOI
STEP 1
Pull out and list the search terms you see (as many as
you can think of).
You can also consider words that are often appearing as you
read (common vocabulary, names, and terms) and words in
your smaller questions.

6. STEP 2
List as many synonyms for
any of those words as you can
think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 6 words.

7. List as many specific terms, names,
or examples that correlate to your
LOI as you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at least
4 words.

8. List as many general terms
that correlate to your LOI as
you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 4 words.

9. Think of different ways you can group
these words together to create different
search results.
Write at least 8 search sentences (2-4
words) that focus on different questions
you listed. You may add new words if
you need them.

10. 1. Avoid evaluative terms– good, bad, right, wrong, effective, ineffective, etc.
2. Add source types and domains to your search (documentary, .org)
3. Add a “-” to remove domains & words from your results (-.com, -documentary, -blog, -teen)
4. Add quotation marks for exact phrases that you need to search for verbatim.
5. Avoid common words and punctuation unless searching for a specific phrase inside quotes.
[a, the, which, that, of] Both are typically ignored… but not always; this can mess up your
intended results.
6. Search base words only (walk not walks or walked, cat not cats) except for gerunds (verb
spelling used as a noun).
7. Order search sentences from general to specific in the search box will maximize your
Autocomplete so that you can get new sentences and ideas.
8. Include a tilde (~) in front of a word to return results that include synonyms.
9. Use the (OR) or (|) to return results with either of two terms. Ex. result outcome will
return pages with both result and outcome, while result | outcome will return pages with
either result or outcome.
10. Find Related Sites -- Ex. related:www.youtube.com can be used to find sites similar to
YouTube.

11. TAKE ABOUT 15 MINUTES ON YOUR OWN TO
START SEARCHING YOUR WORD GROUPS AND
SEE WHAT YOU CAN FIND.
Try to find at least 5 potential new sources.
Tip: Try one search sentence and look for 1-2
sources that look good. Then move on to the next.