A Research Strategy — What Is It?

When you need to write a paper or do a project, planning a research strategy at the start will save you time and effort as you complete the work.

A research strategy (also called a research plan) includes the steps to take in developing a research topic (or thesis statement).

It helps you choose and define your topic and collect needed information on a topic from quality sources.

To create a research strategy, follow these steps:

• Choose a topic.
• State your topic as a question.
• Identify concepts (subjects and keywords) that are a part of your topic.
• Define your topic by broadening and/or narrowing.
• Decide what you need to know about the topic.
• Decide what information sources you will use and find appropriate information in those sources.
• Evaluate, organize, and cite your findings.

The following pages of this chapter will provide an overview of these steps, and the subsequent chapters will explore these topics and others in more detail.