This worksheet is designed to help students develop a thoughtful research topic. Students go through a series of steps, questions, and background reading to help them better understand and refine a research topic. Considerations
Skill Term: Planning a Research Project
Video Tutorials
This selection of short videos describes the related processes of finding topics and research questions and figuring out what search terms to use.
Share Your Story
Talk about your own research process and experiences with students. If you use a reference manager, show your students how you have set it up and how you use it. Our own processes might seem obvious to us, but they are often surprising for students.
Share Examples of Success
Provide examples of successful papers. These can be from past students, examples of targets, even something written by you, the professor.
Break Up Deadlines
For big projects, make many smaller deadlines throughout the semester, so that at the end the students are pulling together work. Short circuit procrastination. Hold people to the deadlines or else they will be able to leave it all to the last minute anyway.
Reference Management Tools
For projects that will require keeping track of a lot of sources, reference management tools can be very helpful. We recommend Zotero because it is a well-developed, free, open-source tool that students will continue to have access to even after graduation. Steps Introduce students to one or more of the bibliographic management tools available to […]
Require Iteration
Steps Considerations
Make a Calendar
Grid out the semester by making a semester-long plan. Steps Considerations
Imagining the Research Process
This activity helps direct attention to the research process and can help introduce or reinforce the idea that an iterative process is normal, even desirable. Steps Considerations
Group Discussion
Steps Considerations