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Finding the Information You Need — Research Tips for Your Family, Business, or Personal Pursuits

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RESEARCH? WHO, ME?

What Research Is

Often when we think of research, we think of science labs or history papers. But most of us do some kind of research regularly — we may not call it research, but that's what we're doing any time we track down information. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary includes the following among several definitions of research:

n. "the collecting of information about a particular subject," and

v. "to search or investigate exhaustively <research a problem>."

Sometimes — such as when we're trying to learn all we can about a loved one's frightening medical diagnosis — the research is serious and extensive.

Other times — such as when we're trying to remember a famous quote — the research is fun and easy.

Often it's somewhere between the two extremes.

Here are some examples of things you may research:

• Moving, home buying, or renting

• Home maintenance, repair, and decorating

• Comparison shopping, saving money, vacation planning

• Child development, family relationships

• Pet care, gardening, auto maintenance

• Recipes, special events planning, hobbies

• Medical conditions, medication side-effects and interactions

• Genealogy

• Homeschooling curriculum

• School projects

• Job openings, career development

• Toasts, farewell speeches, eulogies

• Quotes, song lyrics, poems, movie titles or characters

• Business management techniques

• Taxes, regulations, insurance

• Employee benefits

• Marketing strategies, competition

What You'll Learn from This Report

You can read this and typical articles from Your Information Center in half an hour or less, so obviously you can't expect to learn everything there is to know about researching. What you can expect is an overview — how to get organized, different places to find information, and examples of ways to research for specific purposes.

If your project is a simple one, this may be all you need. However, if you're undertaking a complex project, this e-book should get you started, and the Resources listed at the end should keep you going.

GET ORGANIZED

First, Decide What You Want to Know

At Your Information Center, we begin planning our reports by coming up with the question the report will answer. Then we can focus our research on that specific question.

For example, the question this report will answer is: Where can I find reliable information for my family, business, or personal interests?

This limits the focus of the article to where to find information — not what to do with the information after we find it. We intend to answer the question in less than half an hour of reading time, and we couldn't do that if we expanded the question.

Here are some hypothetical examples of things you might want to know and suggestions for how you can narrow the focus of your research:

• If you've been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, research "Type 2 diabetes" rather than "diabetes." Looking up information on "diabetes" will give you lots of information on Type 1 diabetes, which is a different disease.

• If you're a business owner in the market for a new health insurance plan for your employees, search for "employee health insurance plan" and the name of your state or country rather than "employee benefits," which covers many items other than insurance.

• If you're comparison shopping, decide what's most important to you: the best price on a refrigerator, flight times that fit your convention schedule, certain brand-name jeans, etc. Otherwise, you’ll get a lot of extraneous information that won’t help you make your choice.

Next, Decide How Much You Want to Know

Sometimes you won't need to make a decision on how much you want to know — the answer will be obvious. If you're looking for the rest of a famous quotation you can remember only partially, of course you want to know all the words you can't recall.

However, most of the time, you'll have to decide how much is enough. When do you have enough recipes for your party? When are you confident that you've got a good enough deal on your airline tickets to make reservations?

Some research may never end. Are you ever satisfied that you know enough about your medical condition? As long as scientists continue to search for new treatments, you'll probably want to research the topic periodically to see if they've found any since the last time you checked.

Then, Prepare to Record the Information You Find

If you're looking up the words of a song just for the fun of it, you don't have to take notes — although you may want to write the words down or bookmark the Web site where you found them, in case you forget them again.

Decide what to use to take notes based on how extensive you expect them to be and how long you expect to keep them.

• For an event like a party, you may want to take notes on index cards. Cards are convenient to use and can be filed in a recipe box after the party for later use.

• For ongoing research, such as on a chronic medical condition, you can use a spiral notebook with dividers so you can record different kinds of information in various sections and continue to add information as you gather it. You can also maintain the files on a computer in a word processing program, spreadsheet, or database.

• For extensive Internet research, you can download files directly to your computer or handheld device, or you can maintain a folder of bookmarks in your browser favorites.

• For business research that needs to be accessed and analyzed, you can enter the information into a searchable database.

Beware of Plagiarism

When taking notes, be sure to record the source of your information. You may need to refer to the source at a later date to verify or update the information, and it's much easier if you have all the details recorded. If you're doing research for a school or work project that requires attribution in a particular way, be sure you follow the proper attribution format.

Be careful not to copy material word for word from books or Web sites, except for very short quotes. Whenever you copy directly, use quotation marks and note the source.

Even though you're probably doing the research primarily for your own benefit, someday you may be glad you took these precautions. You might want to use a tidbit of information or a quote you discovered in your research on your personal Web site or in a speech at work.

The copyright laws are designed to protect the intellectual property of writers, artists, and other creative people, and it's illegal to use someone's work — even a small part of it — without permission. If you failed to put the quotation marks in your notes, you might not remember that you copied the words verbatim and accidentally use them without attribution. A little care in your note-taking now can prevent a problem down the line.

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