The diagram below shows you that writing a paper is not a simple linear process.
There are various aspects that will affect what you look for and what you find. Half way through doing your paper, you might find something that really changes your perspective on the topic and how you want to write about it. So make sure you give yourself enough time for this.
Big Picture
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Situational
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Language
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Information Gathering
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Adapted from: Head, A. J., & Eisenberg, M. B. (2009). Finding context: What today's college students say about conducting research in the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.projectinfolit.org/publications.html
First of all you need to think about what interests you and then brainstorm some ideas. One technique you can use is called concept mapping or mind mapping.
Here are a couple of examples:
Or:
Now take a look at your concept map. If you try to do a presentation about the subject in the middle you will probably be talking for a very, very, long time.
You need to look at the ideas as the side and see which one you like the most.
So I can't write about substance abuse because it is too big a topic. I noticed that I am really interested in the prevention of it, so I am going to focus on that. Prevention is a narrower topic of substance abuse.
Prevention is still quite a big topic but I am going to think about how I can prevent it in my community which makes my topic even narrower. Maybe even too narrow but you need to start somewhere!
Take a look at this video from Las Positas College Library to see how they develop their ideas.
Here's another example:
Adapted from: ENGL 1050 Thought & Writing Research Guide: Deciding on a Topic, Western Michigan University
One of the best ways to start exploring any topic is to create a concept map. A concept map is a visual diagram that can help you:
This video from the UCLA Library describes the process of creating a concept map.
Some key points from the video:
Think about the topic you have chosen and apply these steps.
Look at your topic and pick the important words. Turn them into nouns.
Enter your search and see what results you get.
Here the search was for "family income" "educational attainment" and you will see that maybe searching "academic achievement" "income level" family will be more successful.
Other terms for adult learners can be mature students, nontraditional students, adult students.
Basically I see this whole thing as a vocabulary building exercise. You start with your basic terms and you look at what the academics are using. You might find that "educational attainment" seems to be the right term but when you use "academic achievement," more articles that interest you arise. Now you might have to start your searches again using "academic achievement."
In order to pull out research studies, search your keywords again while including terms like:
Remember that you cannot use all of these different terms in the same search because certain research data collection is mutually exclusive. Case studies will not have methods sections or quantitative data.
When you find an article that you like remember to look at the references. These can give you other papers to look at. Also it is good to see the variety of different papers that the researchers read to write their paper. Sometime we are too literal with our searches. We want a paper that has exactly all the elements of our topic but that might not be possible. Maybe you need to look up poetry or literature appreciation in the broad context and then apply what you read there to the adult education context.
To avoid searching through endless unreliable websites, improve your google searches from the start.
Use these as part of your search:
site:.edu (to search only U.S. universities), e.g. "adult education" "academic achievement" site:.edu
site:.ac.uk (to search only UK Universities), e.g "adult learners" pdf site:.ac.uk
site:.gov (to search the US gov website.)
site:.gc.ca OR site:.canada.ca (to search the Canadian gov website.)
site:.org (to search organizations). Try looking at UNESCO "lifelong learning" site:en.unesco.org
Also include words like disseration, thesis, or pdf to bring up more reliable documents.
Try "aboriginal peoples" retention education pdf site:.gc.ca
While these maps are not organized around specific questions, they demonstrate how a topic can be developed. It is possible to turn the concepts presented here into questions. For example, in the first example below, "Types of Drugs" might become "What types of drugs are most common?" It would even be fruitful to look at a specific geographic area, such as B.C. or the Downtown Eastside. "Prevention" might become "How do we prevent substance abuse?"
Substance Abuse
At-Risk Youth
