Bedford Researcher -- Chapters 1, 2, & 4

Chapter 1

In Chapter 1, it is discussed how to do research for a paper, how one can write confidently, and how you can construct an appropriate topic for a research paper.

To research the topic of your paper, Bedford explains all that is necessary to enable this is personal motivation and willingness to learn. Through your willingness to learn to work with these sources you may come across will come an understanding of the learning process as you immerse yourself in the topic. With personal motivation to express you opinions on the research topic, you as the writer will get a good look at what it will take to write a paper. Timing is a large part to writing and constructing a research paper, as you will more than likely need ample breathing room to check through various drafts you will develop over time. Through this time frame that you construct this research paper, you as the writer will begin to understand more and more of genre and design of various sources, referring to the credibility of the sources you find in your research. For example, a personal writer's blog may have a post written about a very popular news topic in that moment. Although this post may be giving an overview that may be very spot on, this blog would not be as credible as an article from the New York Times newspaper discussing the exact same topic. As the writer, it is up to you to sort through all kinds of sources and choose which ones have enough credibility to use in your paper.

Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, it is discussed how you as the researcher can explore your topic and focus in on specific issues concerning smaller matters lying within.

To start, you can make a plan that will help you dive into your topic further by talking to people who have extensive knowledge on what you're researching, and even keeping book on what information you come across and collect so you will have the ability to check back on past articles, columns, news posts, etc. that you may find helpful. Another way to help you explore you topic is to observe it yourself. Bedford talks about one writer conducting research on young adults' growing interest in metal music by attending a local metal concert and seeing firsthand what all of the commotion was about. This will not only give you your own feel for what things actually look like and how the experience feels while being in the driver's seat, but it enables a new perspective to discuss in your paper that you would not have gotten by only reading books and web articles. One way to focus in on a specific issue concerning your research topic is to, first of all, find an issue lying within the topic itself. This could be dealing with just about anything. From there, you as the writer are needed to assess just how relevant this issue is to your topic. At this point, the relevancy of each issue should try to coincide something of your interest, and whether or not this is something you find interesting.

Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, it is discussed how to read critically by keeping in mind your research question, reading with an attitude, things to look out for as you read critically, and strategies to reading critically.

As the writer, there are many things we have to look out for while composing a research paper. One main step to this is reading critically through each source you come by. Are there any sections in these sources that back your research question? If so, what exactly is the message that this passage is conveying? How can you inquire this into your paper as another part of your research? These are key questions to be thinking about as you cautiously scan possible sources. Another thing you will need to search for throughout your sources is new information. While there may be many different references that all come up with similar facts, what else has one source not discovered yet than another has? This is one of the main tasks of reading critically -- it is there to help bring in & round up more knowledge about the topic or issue at hand that has a new filter or new perspective than other statements already made.