understanding your purpose
Your purpose for conducting research will typically fall in line with the expectations of your audience. In considering your purpose, you may want to ask yourself, "Am I attempting to..."
- Analyze: Do you need to examine your subject or issue in detail? Are you looking to identify essential features, function, causes and effects, evolution, or relationships?
- Comment/evaluate: Do you need to make critical observations or pass judgement on significance, quality or worth?
- Compare/contrast: Do you need to examine the similarities and differences between two or more events, objects or people?
- Discuss: Do you need to present your audience with an array of perspective? Are you looking to consider or examine by means of description, argument and evidence?
- Explain: Do you need to assign or interpret the meaning of a given subject or issue? Are you looking to examine the "why" and "how" behind a given process or idea?
- Review: Do you need to re-examine, analyze and comment on major points of an issue?
- Summarize: Do you need to provide a brief statement or account of key concepts and ideas derived from a longer piece of work or performance?
- Illustrate: Do you need to use specific examples in order to demonstrate a concept, idea, relationship or process?
Your ability to identify your purpose for research is an important one as it will guide how you need to think about your topic. Once established, make sure that you always keep your purpose and audience in mind; this will help you make the best choices concerning the kind of information you search for, and ultimately use.
