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The Key Steps When Conducting Research And Writing A Research

Satisfactory Essays

There are several key steps when conducting research and writing a research paper. You need to identify and develop your theory, do a preliminary search for information and define your variables, locate materials and develop your hypothesis, evaluate your sources and assure standardization, select subjects, test and make notes. Then analyze your results, determine their significance and write your paper. Lastly cite your sources properly and locate similar results, this replication of findings is what strengthens your paper. Selecting a topic can be the most challenging part of the research assignment. Since this is the very first step in writing a paper, it is critical that it be done thoughtfully. Once you have identified your topic, it may help to state it as a question or hypothesis. An hypothesis is a specific statement of prediction. It describes in concrete terms what you expect will happen. For example, if you are interested in finding out about the relationship of violent video games and violent behavior in children, you might pose the question "Do adult themed action video games influence children to act violently?" By posing it as a question you can more easily identify the main concepts or keywords to be used in your research. Before beginning to do research in earnest, a preliminary search to determine whether there is enough information out there on your topic and, to set the parameters of your research, is needed. It may be necessary to adjust the

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