A 10-STEP GUIDE AND LOG FOR
WRITING A RESEARCHED ARGUMENT
By William Peirce, Prince George’s Community College
©August 2001
STEP 1. UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT AND PLAN HOW TO DO IT
Knowing the purpose of the assignment is the single most important step in doing it. When your instructor assigns you a research paper, you should understand the task and context very clearly. Sometimes when students are asked to build an argument based on research, they mistakenly believe that their task is only to report information on both sides of an issue. Actually, your instructor has probably given you the more difficult task of investigating, evaluating sources, reading, and using other writers’ theories, evidence, arguments, and interpretations and then forming your own argument in support of your position.
Answer these questions about Step 1, Understand the assignment and plan how to do it.
1-1. What does your instructor want you to do? Circle all that apply:
- Accumulate a series of summaries?
- Develop your own argument?
- Find out what experts say about the issue?
- Synthesize the views of several sources?
- Compare/contrast two positions?
- Discover both sides of the issue?
- Support one position and refute the opposing view?
- Write for a specified audience?
- Is there anything in the instructions that should be clarified? If so, ask your instructor.
1-2. On a separate page describe your previous experience writing research papers. Were they primarily informative or argumentative? What successes and difficulties did you experience? What did you learn about the research and writing processes from your previous experience?
1-3. What difficulties do you foresee in completing this research assignment?
1-4. Complete the left column of the Timetable, with time allocated for each of the 10 steps. Bring it to class. Does your planned time schedule allocate enough time for each step, and still allow you to get the final paper done by the deadline?
Have you built in any contingency time if one or more of these steps takes longer than you predict? Explain.
STEP 2. CHOOSE A TOPIC YOU AND YOUR READERS ARE INTERESTED IN
Turn your topic into engaging and significant questions worth your and your readers' time and energy. Consider the advice in your textbook about choosing a topic. On most topics you can find some reason to become engaged and to engage your readers.
Answer these questions about Step 2, Choose a topic you and your readers are interested in.
2-1. Did your instructor assign the topic or a range of topics (thus guaranteeing that he or she is interested)?
2-2. Why did you choose your topic? Did any of the reasons in the Step 2 textbox apply?
STEP 3. TURN TOPICS INTO ISSUES AND QUESTIONS
To write a paper that explores and supports an argument, you need to turn a topic into an issue that people disagree about. Avoid producing a paper that merely reports information about the disagreement. To find this issue, you might need to combine the issue-finding step 3 with step 4, investigating sources by using databases. You can often discover where people disagree about a topic by reading the titles of books and articles uncovered in a database search. Your textbook provides an extensive list of library and Internet references to explore.
Your task is NOT to locate the easiest sources to find and to string together a series of summaries of the position each source has taken on the topic. Instead you should search a variety of databases, narrow your interest by skimming titles, and refocus the issue by raising questions as you browse these databases. For example, if your topic is euthanasia, simply by reading titles, you might learn that euthanasia can be defined as active or passive; that it raises conflicting medical, legal, and ethical issues; that several plays and movies have dealt with the issue; and that proposed legislation in several states entails several political issues. Among them are (1) the First Amendment separation of church and state, (2) the power of government to make laws that require the preservation of life, (3) the right of individuals to decide their own medical treatment, (4) media coverage that oversimplified the issues in recent sensational cases, and (5) differing public opinion polls on the subject.
To turn a topic into an issue, pose questions about topics so that you can investigate the answers. Some questions will occur to you with no special prompting before you start checking databases; others will arise as you read titles. Be ready to modify your topic and issue as you read more sources.
Do the following exercises about Step 3, Turn topics into issues and questions.
3-Ex. 1. Which of the following illustrates a debatable issue suitable for a researched argument, rather than a topic?
a. The life of Malcolm X
b. Why Malcolm X joined Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam
c. Reviews of Spike Lee’s film about Malcolm X
d. Malcolm X’s journey to Mecca
e. None of the above
3-Ex. 2. Which of the following illustrates a debatable issue suitable for a researched argument, rather than a topic?
a. Assisted suicide should be legalized in Maryland.
b. Assisted suicide should not be legal in Maryland.
c. Assisted suicide should be legalized in Maryland only if the patient has a terminal disease, is approved by the spouse and adult children (if any), and is administered by a physician.
d. Assisted suicide should not be legal because it could be abused by greedy inheritors, violates the human right to life, goes against religious beliefs, and is an irrational act of depression not made by a clear-minded person.
e. all of the above.
Answer these questions about Step 3, Turn topics into issues and questions.
3-1. Which topic or issue have you chosen?
3-2. List several topics from the list of approved topics that are suitable issues as stated.
3-3. List several topics from the list of approved topics that are not suitable issues until they are turned into debatable issues.
3-4. Your textbook has advice about suitable and unsuitable topics. Does your chosen topic match the advice? Which advice have you followed?
3-5. Use the questions in the textbox below for questions 3-5 and for question 4-4 in Step 4.
3-6. Before you search any databases, which of the questions in the box above can help you turn your topic into an issue about which you can develop an argument in support of your position? (Some of the topics on the list of approved topics are already restricted enough, while others need narrowing.) Is the topic you chose already stated as a narrow issue without the need for further restriction.? On a separate page briefly describe how you have turned a topic into a debatable issue, making reference to the relevant questions above.
STEP 4. PLAN A SEARCH STRATEGY AND USE DATABASES
This step overlaps and extends the previous step. By finding out what databases are available for finding useful sources and by designing a systematic plan to search for them, you can save a lot of time and still make a thorough search. If at first you find too many titles, you can narrow the topic and focus by asking the questions suggested above in step 3. These questions, in turn, will require more searches with different search terms, which will lead to new titles which will inspire more questions until you feel you have a good fix on an interesting and manageable issue.
Use the PGCC Library Databases Efficiently
The most thorough (and time-consuming) search starts at the most general level and continues through more and more specialized resources. Your textbook and the PGCC library provide all the advice you need to design a search strategy for locating useful titles of books and articles in the PGCC library, local libraries, and their databases. The PGCC library subscribes to several comprehensive electronic databases containing hundreds of thousands of articles you can print out at the library (for a fee) or download to your own floppy disk. The most efficient way to search the library databases is by using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) that limit the number of hits you get from your search term. The college library has several helpful handouts that guide your search, so they will not be repeated here.
Use the World Wide Web to Find Sources
If the library shelves and databases don't have enough information, try the World Wide Web. The Web is often referred to as the Information Highway; but if you’re researching a controversial issue, it is more like a garbage dump. Many search engines have been designed to search the portion of the Internet called the World Wide Web. The trouble with using Web search engines is that they often locate thousands of documents and Web pages—many of them repetitious and many just venting someone’s personal prejudices with no reliable evidence to support them. A World Wide Web search in May 2001 using “death penalty” as a search term produced 464,000 hits. A search for "abortion" produced 1,390,000 hits! (A “hit” is a Web page located by the search.) To avoid getting too many hits, you need to refine the search using strategies to reduce their number. The University of California at Berkeley has produced an excellent tutorial for World Wide Web searches at "Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial" < Another fine online tutorial is at the University of Maryland University College Library at < Completing one of these online tutorials should be your first step in searching the Web whether you are a new or experienced Web searcher.
Using conventional search engines to search the Internet is not always a good strategy for finding useful articles. (Click on "Search" in your Web browser for a list of popular search engines.) The problem is that if you are researching a controversial issue, using a search term such as "physician-assisted suicide" will get thousands of hits—although you can reduce that number by using refined search techniques and Boolean operators. For controversial issues you can search the Web more efficiently if you start with Web sites that provide databases designed especially for researching controversial social issues. Some very useful Web sites with plenty of articles on social policy issues are listed in the handout titled "Useful Web Sites for Argument and Persuasion." Start with those Web sites before resorting to a general search of the Web. For academic subjects, your instructors can tell you about specialized databases such as SOSIG, the Social Science Information Gateway. Some of these academic databases are listed in "Useful Web Sites for Argument and Persuasion." A longer list of academic databases can be found in the electronic version of Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age at the Web site of the Bedford Handbook at <
Although the specific instructions might differ for different search engines, most use what are called “logical operators” or “Boolean operators.” Use AND to find documents with all search terms in any order. For example, for a paper investigating whether women should used in direct ground combat, use women AND combat as search terms. Use NOT to exclude documents containing the search term; for example, women AND combat NOT cancer (to eliminate articles about women combating breast cancer). With many search engines, typing the search terms with quotation marks limits the search to documents that contain the search terms only in that order. For example, typing “capital punishment” with quotation marks will eliminate documents that have just the word capital (thus eliminating the thousands of documents that mention the phrase statecapital) and will also eliminate the thousands of documents that mention the phrase punishment but are not about capital punishment. Search engines provide tips at their sites for making your Web search more efficient and for advanced searches; be sure to read them. Greg Notess compares Web search engines at "Search Engine Showdown" <
After a search engine finds Web sites, you will need to evaluate their quality. Step 5, below, shows you how to evaluate the reliability of information on Web sites. Brief reliability guidelines by Esther Grassian of the UCLA College Library can be found at <
Answer these questions about Step 4, Plan a search strategy and use databases.
4-1. Write a few questions to ask a librarian about using the Prince George’s Community College library databases or searching the Internet.
4-2. Which library databases did you use? List them here, including databases at the PGCC library and any others, such as the county public library or local colleges and universities.
4-3. Which library databases were especially helpful? Which did you use that were not helpful?
4-4. Which questions from Step 3 (turning topics into issues) helped you narrow your search? Briefly describe how you narrowed your search or turned your topic into a debatable issue.
STEP 5. EVALUATE SOURCES FOR SUITABILITY AND FOR RELIABILITY
Preview a source to decide whether to take the time to read it carefully and take notes. Any book or article you can reject without reading it carefully and taking notes will save your valuable time. You can reject some sources without even reading them if they seem unsuitable because they are too old, too long, too short, too technical, oversimplified, unavailable, or irrelevant. You can reject even more after quickly previewing them to see if the author's purpose and intended audience seem too remote from your own, if the author seems to lack expertise, and if the content duplicates information you already have in your notes from other sources.
The chief criterion to apply at the previewing stage is immediate relevance. If the author's information and reasoning are directly relevant to your research task, of course it is worth your time and attention. Look for depth of factual detail and fully explained reasoning.
If you detect biases at the preview stage, consider whether it's worth spending time on the source. (By bias is meant a preconception that blinds an author to the truth; bias in this paragraph does not mean an author writing to support a position, for nearly everyone writes to support a point.) If the purpose of your research is to discover the values, reasoning, and worldview of both sides of an issue, then the source is relevant because it presents one of the points of view you will be considering. The National Rifle Association and the Coalition for Handgun Control are certainly going to argue in favor of their points of view in any article they produce, and you will want to know both sides if you are writing about handgun control. If you are looking for objectivity, then the bias might lessen the usefulness of that source. Bias clouds the eye of the beholder--including you.
Do the following exercise about Step 5, Evaluate sources for suitability and for reliability.
5- Ex. 1. Is each of the following an example of a primary or secondary source?
a. the diary of a Baltimore soldier written during the civil war
b. a 19th-century newspaper account of a Maryland battle during the civil war
c. a book by a historian on the attitude of 19th-century Marylanders toward civil war battles
d. a letter from writer Anne Tyler to her mother
e. the movie Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon
f. a review of Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon
g. the soundtrack of Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon
h. Ken Burns’ 17-hour television documentary program about jazz, which contains original recordings, photographs, quotations from diaries and other accounts from jazz musicians from many years ago, and interviews with living jazz musicians, scholars, and critics.
5- Ex. 2. Authors are considered reliable if they are experts because of education, training, or experience; would you consider each of the following a reliable source to use in a paper supporting a position on the issue of assisted suicide?
a. a physician in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide is legal, arguing in favor of permitting assisted suicide
b. a. a physician in Maryland, where assisted suicide is not legal, arguing in favor of permitting assisted suicide
c. a person whose mother is dying a slow and painful death from terminal cancer arguing in favor of permitting assisted suicide
d. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, who has assisted the suicide of many patients, arguing in favor of permitting assisted suicide
e. a reporter for the Washington Post writing an article about assisted suicide summarizing the arguments on both sides for and against permitting assisted suicide
f. the President of the United States giving an opinion on permitting assisted suicide
g. the president of the American Medical Association giving an opinion on permitting assisted suicide
h. a senator on a committee conducting hearings on permitting assisted suicide
i. a professor of ethics at the University of Maryland giving an opinion on permitting assisted suicide
j. a Baptist minister giving an opinion on permitting assisted suicide
k. your instructor arguing against permitting assisted suicide
5-1 For each source you use in your paper and include in your bibliography, fill out the Printed Source Reliability and Information Worksheet and Web Source Reliability and Information Worksheet. Bring them to the rough draft review, and turn them in when you submit your paper.