Heuristic for your Academic Paper

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your academic research paper:

- What was my research question, again? -- As you start reading the thoughts of others, it can be easy to lose sight of exactly what you set out to question. You want to make sure that you don't allow your research paper to simply become a book report about what other people have said on your topic. Ideally, it should enter the conversation already started and lead to some insight that is uniquely yours. Of course, you should review what other people have said in your paper (in fact, this is often called an article's "lit review"). But this should not be your whole paper.

- How do the texts I've found help me answer my question? -- You can engage with other people's writing throughout your research paper, not just in the lit review. The ideas and approaches you find in your research can suggest ways to answer your question. If you don't find that the sources you've found directly address your question, you may either need to find more appropriate sources or you may have to consider what other forms of research (analysis of textual artifacts, interviews, etc.) will provide you the information you need.

- What are the questions that my sources seem to focus on? -- In regards to any issue, there are only certain questions that are being focused on at any one time. For instance, with today's economy, no is asking whether or not government should respond in some way, they're asking exactly how governments should respond. Sometimes, your own research can progress by asking a question that isn't being asked by anyone. At other times, it progresses by finding a new way to answer an existing question. By addressing the questions that other people find engaging, you can add some credibility to your own research (it's also much more likely to get published if someone agrees the question you're addressing is important).

- Are the sources I've found adequate? -- In the process of completing your annotated bibliography, you'll be able to determine what types of conversations are going on about your topic. when you review your sources, you should ask yourself whether you've sought out the types of sources that would help you develop a critical perspective on your topic. Are your sources all advocacy sources (people with an agenda to persuade you one way or another)? Are any of them academic journals or books? Is there a popular perspective on your topic that might be useful? Of course, it's likely that you'll continue to seek out sources beyond your annotated bibliography as you run into issues in your won writing where you need further information.

- Am I finding this interesting? -- It's hard to imagine wanting to spend time researching and writing about a topic that you don't find interesting. If you don't find it engaging, how will readers of your research respond? Intellectual inquiry should be about discovering things and making connections. If you feel like you're forcing yourself to learn about your own topic, maybe you need find a topic you're actually interested in.

- How does my project fit into writing studies? -- This can seem like a tough question if you've chosen a topic that is outside the normal scope of writing studies. But the topic you choose is less important than your method of researching it. Any topic can be studied through the lens of language, representation, persuasion, education, discourse, and so on. Cultural studies is especially good at looking at how we deal with the world from diverse perspectives inflected by issues of race, class, and gender.

- Who cares? -- why should people care about your topic? Often, it's important to establish the need for your research, and to show how your question is worth answering. If you don't believe your research matters, why would anyone else?