By Sørina Higgins, Consultant
Welcome back! Presumably you’re here because you developed a smashing good Research Question, surveyed the field, downloaded way too many articles, and ordered a bunch of books via ILL. Now you’re ready to really dig into the research. Here again are some strategies that you might find helpful for that whole process.
- If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to figure out a note-taking method that works for you and stick with it throughout the whole process. If you’ve got one that worked all through undergrad, you might need to update it, or it might be just fine and you can stick with it. Whether you add notes in Zotero, hand-write summaries on paper, put stickies all over books, highlight printed documents, or type your thoughts into a file or cloud, just be consistent. Make sure your system allows you to search for what you need and to keep track of what you have and have not read (because you will forget). Always cite using Zotero as you go; researching, writing, and citing are one activity. Do them simultaneously until that becomes an unbreakable habit.
- You probably want to read through your primary sources first (maybe in chronological order), taking detailed notes and citing as you go. This way you’ll develop your own impressions and thoughts about the primary sources first, giving you something to work from when you get to dialoguing with other scholars.
- At some point soon, either now or after doing your secondary research, sketch a rough outline, then develop it into a Fat Outline as soon as you can. Keeping adding to your outline as you learn more. Use Microsoft Word’s hierarchical headings for easy navigation and later re-organization. I like to type my Research Question in red font the footer as a constant reminder; this helps keep me from going down rabbit trails. Or that’s the theory anyway.
- Skim through the relevant secondary sources in reverse chronological order, taking notes only on anything that directly answers the Research Question. Stay focused. Reign in your curiosity, training it just on the one task at hand. Cite as you go! You’ll probably need to rework your question once you find out what other scholars have already done. Don’t be discouraged if you need to shift your focus altogether. Don’t overdo this stage of research. It is quite literally impossible to read all the scholarship on any subject now, even an extremely narrow one. Read abstracts to determine which sources will be relevant, then speed-read those that are both totally relevant and quite recent.
- Take notes and cite as you go, using Zotero. Rework your outline as needed, saving under a new file name or number each time you make a major change (that way you can revert to an earlier version if you change your mind). Keep adding “fat” to your outline: quotes, notes, evidence, and so forth that you plan to use, in more or less the right order. Cite as you go.
- When your Research Question is answered, you can formulate a draft thesis, then get into the real “writing” stage (it’s all writing, but this is when you can finally turn on the caffeine drip, get into a groove, and type away for hours on end like a Shakespearean monkey). Be sure to get up and move around every 20 minutes, drink enough water, do lots of stretches, and look out the window regularly.
- I recommend writing the “close-reading” passages first, where you directly gloss your primary sources. These should be the heart of your paper, and writing them first has many advantages. Doing so will give you an idea of how long they will be, so that you can tighten or loosen your scholarly framework and contextualizing sections as needed. You are also most likely to develop an original argument when you read the scholars before writing but then write your close reading passages first, with the scholarly conversation in the back of your head. You may want to revise your thesis after drafting the close-reading passages.
- Write and rewrite and rewrite! Turn all your rough notes into nice U-shaped paragraphs. Pay attention to transforming outline points into really strong topic sentences. Cite as you go. Save each major change as a new file. I like to type directly into the outline, preserving the headings for easy navigation and re-organization later. I also use various font colors to indicate material that’s more or less complete, and I put an *asterisk next to anything I need to go back and fix later; this makes it easy to find with search features. Develop methods like these that work for your brain and save time later. Of course, keep up with your Zotero citations as you go.
- See if you can finish at least two days before the deadline so that you can take the paper to the Graduate Writing Center, get a colleague or two to comment on it, maybe even have the professor comment on a draft, and then revise thoroughly.
- Always print out the paper and proofread once on hard copy before your final edits.
TL;DR: Figure out your note-taking style and take notes accordingly. If it’s helpful to you, try creating an outline from your notes. Skim through secondary sources, pulling (and citing) only quotes that apply directly to your research question. Use Zotero! Once you have a “fat outline” going, formulate a draft of a thesis statement – now we’re getting to the good stuff! Give yourself lots of time to write, but also take frequent brain breaks. Keep using Zotero! Start with your close reading section first – it will give you confidence and direction. Write, rewrite, and rewrite again! More Zotero! Keep track of sections you need to return to later. Try to finish your draft with a few days of buffer so you can send it to the Graduate Writing Center. Do one final proofread on a printed copy of your paper before submitting. Celebrate and take a deep breath!
I know I haven’t included much advice here about the writing itself—the quality and content of your writing, I mean—but that’s a slightly different topic. Hopefully these suggestions about the logistics and timing of the process have been helpful. What have I left out? What have I included that you can safely skip? What’s different in your specific field? Comment below!