Research Strategy, Essay Example

Research strategy is a plan to investigate in order to discover new facts and get additional information about the topic under discussion. Engle (2009) outlines several steps to guide in collecting information for a research. The fist step is to identify a problem or a topic that one would want to research upon. Engle suggests that if the researcher wants to find information about time management, the first thing should be to state it as a question. For instance, one can start by asking a question like, “how effectively have I managed time recently?” The question gives a direction to the person doing the research because he can start by identifying the main concepts in that question so that he can search for the facts using these keywords.

I grew up being told that in order to succeed in life one needs to do what other people are doing and go an extra mile. For instance, know the topic everyone is reading and always read a chapter ahead or study during the day with them and still study at night when they are sleeping. This is what I have been trying to religiously practice and as a result my body has ended up adjusting to two or three hours of sleep every night. This sounds pretty nice for a student who wishes they had twenty six hours in a day when everyone else is getting twenty four. However, it gets bad at some point. I have started to lose concentration in class and people have started suspecting that I am taking drugs because my eyes are always red and I seem to be absentminded every time.

The kind of information that should be gathered to help in solving this problem is to find one or more sources of background information to read. The sources are meant to assist in understanding the larger perspective of the research and provide the common knowledge about the topic in general terms. Engle highlights the most common sources of information to be dictionaries, encyclopedias and class textbooks. Other sources may include journals, books, magazines or websites which are normally cited in the bibliography of the encyclopedia or the dictionary. This is a very good point to guide in conducting a deeper research. One can also make further research with every source use by using the bibliographies of the articles and books used to search for more information. This method can enable the researcher to generate a good number of sources that can be very helpful on the particular topic.

The information gathered will need to be evaluated so that the researcher can know its usefulness, perspective, validity and reliability. Kirk (1996) gives an example of how to evaluate information that is found on the internet. The first thing to consider is the authorship. This will enable one to understand the author as a person and know information on his work and professional background, to derive the base on which he speaks and basically enough details that allow one to be confident enough to rely on his information. The other thing would be the publishing body. This is to ensure that the document has been reviewed to verify that it has met the required standards. The author’s point of view is also a crucial thing to look at because it assesses his neutrality. Writers are known to use only the data that proves his point. It is therefore important to examine and analyze the point of the author or his bias. Other factors that should be considered include the references of the literature, accuracy or verifiability of the details and how current the information is. This helps to ascertain the kind of information acquired.

This information can help me understand the condition I am in and know the different strategies that can curb this problem. I would keenly look at the issues discussed to ensure that it’s the same problem that I am going through. It is cost effective compared to the usual way someone could have approached the problem. I would have instead visited a doctor and paid for both diagnosis and treatment when I can easily follow simple procedures to solve my problem.

References

Engle M. (2009). Research strategy. Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://www.library.cornell.edu/../skill1.htm

Kirk E. E. (1996).The Sheridan Libraries. Evaluating Internet Information. Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://www.library.jhu.edu/../evaluating/