by George Brosi

The sources on the "Works Cited" page of a research paper represent only the "tip of the iceberg," only a small percentage of the sources actually consulted in creating a paper.

At first, the student simply needs to overcome ignorance on the topic at hand. Without an up-to-date and complete overview of the subject, proper research cannot really begin. At this stage it is important to begin with the simplest, easiest sources. Some student may want to take notes at this stage, but there is no need to note the sources used because most would be an embarrassment on a works cited page. Sources might include junior high school encyclopedias, such as the World Book, and popular magazines written for non-academic audiences, such as Newsweek or U.S. News and World Report and library sources which are poorly documented, like the CQ Researcher.

The second phase begins when the student has a basic overview of the topic and knows a few of the big names in the field. At this point, the student at least has a research question in mind, if not a tentative thesis. This thesis may change several times in the course of completing the paper, but the student has a fair amount of focus and needs to thoroughly and convincingly settle upon some lines of argument to support a thesis. At this stage be sure to write down "works cited" citations for all sources used so you will not have to go back and tediously reconstruct them. Be sure you know the thesis of each article or book you refer to and understand the lines of argument employed. After consulting each source, take time to think about how this information fits in with the information you have already gathered and think about how you need to go beyond it. Be sure to consult sources which both agree and disagree with your tentative thesis so you can take all into account in your paper. This phase will last the longest of any, and you will find that you will do well to alternate researching, thinking, writing, thinking, researching, thinking, writing, thinking, and so forth. It is especially important at this stage to utilize a variety of sources, from as many points of view as possible. Of the sources looked up in this stage, many will be eliminated by reading the conclusion or introduction and discovering that they are not sufficiently on topic or rigorous. Ordinarily less than half of those sources which have been thoroughly digested with lots of notes will actually find a place in the paper as the thesis evolves and more rigorous sources are discovered.

The third and final stage of researching takes place after the student has a good draft of the paper. Now the writer is looking for just the right sources to advance a particular point.