Research Processes
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Research”?
For many people, the word research conjures images of long papers, endless sources, and complicated databases. But research is much more than collecting evidence to support a thesis—it’s a process rooted in curiosity, exploration, and discovery. It begins not with answers but with questions (hence the title of this textbook!) and grows through thoughtful reading, critical thinking, and strategic searching. The chapters in this section reframe research as a dynamic and creative practice, one that helps you engage with ideas, join academic conversations, and develop your voice as a writer.
We begin with Emilie Zickel’s Analyzing the Genre of Your Readings, which introduces the concept of genre analysis and explains how recognizing a text’s structure and conventions can help readers better interpret and respond to academic writing. Michael Bunn’s How to Read Like a Writer includes advice that can greatly benefit not only comprehension but also developing composition skills. This chapter can aid you in identifying key rhetorical moves that writers make, so that you can add to your writer’s toolkit. Melanie Gagich and Emilie Zickel follow with Reading Rhetorically, presenting strategies for understanding how authors shape meaning for specific audiences and purposes. They emphasize rhetorical awareness as a foundation for effective academic reading and writing.
Karen Rosenberg shares her personal experiences as a student who needed to learn how to read academic material more effectively in Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources. She provides both rationale and instruction for the reading and use of scholarly sources. In this essay, you are given an approach for reading complex texts. MTSU’s Dr. Julie Myatt’s Bad Idea About Writing: “Reading is Not Essential to Writing Instruction” pushes back against the idea that reading and writing can—or should—be taught in isolation. She advocates for a more integrated approach to reading and writing instruction to better support students’ development as readers, writers, and thinkers. In Bad Idea About Writing: “Reading and Writing are not Connected,” Ellen C. Carillo uses research to challenge the belief that one can be an effective writer without routinely engaging in reading activities. She suggests that it is necessary to carefully consider the relationships between these two activities.
From there, the section moves into chapters that center the research process itself. In Bad Idea About Writing: “Research Starts With Answers,” Alison C. Witte encourages students to rethink the idea that research begins with predetermined answers. The chapter makes a case for curiosity-driven inquiry and reminds readers that research often leads to unexpected discoveries. Emily A. Wierszewski’s Bad Idea About Writing: “Research Starts With a Thesis Statement” critiques the common assumption that a thesis must come first in the research process. Instead, she promotes a more flexible approach where questions lead the way and arguments emerge through investigation.
In Developing a Research Question, Emilie Zickel helps you to understand what a research question is and how to devise one, providing brainstorming prompts and tips on how to arrive at a question from topic consideration. In James P. Purdy’s Wikipedia Is Good for You!?, he argues that Wikipedia can be a useful tool at the beginning stages of research. Readers learn how to use the site critically to gain background information and identify additional sources. Coming Up With Research Strategies, by Rashida Mustafa and Emilie Zickel, includes tips on developing a research strategy, as well as notes about where to find sources and how to use Wikipedia as a source for finding usable texts.
The chapters in this section collectively emphasize that research is not a linear checklist but a flexible, reflective process that begins with questions and evolves through exploration. As you read, you’ll encounter strategies for reading critically, framing meaningful questions, locating and evaluating sources, and integrating research into your own writing.
