Steps of the Research Process
There are certain steps you should follow:
(1) What is the problem? Select a general topic that interests you in some way and formulate a title.
The first step for any research paper is to formulate a question you want to answer. Being clear on the question makes it easier to formulate a research strategy for finding the best information about this question.
Here are some examples of research questions:
Is obesity in children a form of child abuse?
What are the best interventions for preventing youth violence in Asian urban communities?
How can social workers best meet the needs of children of illegal immigrants?
Are there proven ways to increase trust when urban communities become polarized?
When starting your research you may or may not have a clear question but by starting with an idea and formulating this idea into a question you will be able to review the literature already written on this topic which will likely help you to refine and narrow your questions or give you ideas for new research questions you may not have though about previously.
(2) What is the background?
Start your research with general background resources. This will help you to become familiar with the research history in the area related to your problem/question. Reading general background also helps researchers become familiar with terminology and jargon used in specific research areas. Knowing the words experts use will help you find to craft a better search when you begin searching for information in books and scholarly journals.
Examples of general resources to consider include the following:
Encyclopedias
Google books
Textbooks
Handbooks
Newspapers
Journals
Magazines
(3) Find the past and current research in the field.
Find information in the library and the Internet: videos, archives, special collections, journal titles, books and many other electronic resources.
(4) Find the past & current research - articles.
The next step in the research process is to find scholarly journal articles appropriate to your topic.
(5) Collect, evaluate critically and write. Quote and paraphrase.
(6) Classify information and write references in APA style. To learn how to write references in APA style, study the following:
Basics of APA Style
APA Bibliography Format
APA Citation Guide