Writer's Blog: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of The Bedford Researcher takes your paper to the next level. In chapter 1, you were thinking about your paper and what you could write about and now in chapter 2, you will take a topic that you have chosen and begin to work with it. In order to succeed on a writing assignment, you must know your topic well. The first step you need to do is come up with a plan for yourself about how you will explore your topic. Then you will use your plan to hone in on your topic. You will discuss it with other people including people who are knowledgeable about your topic, a librarian, or an instructor. You will also observe situations or events that will help you find more information.After you have done your own research by talking with others and by observation, you can use other sources to your advantage to gain even more knowledge about your topic. The book suggests that you search an online library catalogue, bookstores, the web, databases, and/or blogs to get you started. Sources that you may find will include books, online articles, magazines, scholarly journals, and DVD's. Make sure that you keep record of the searches you used and the sources that you found. Briefly look at and review sources and if it looks like it could be helpful, take note of that so you know where to find it later and so you can out all your sources together to help. The next thing chapter 2 tells you to do is to focus on an issue within your topic. Most topics will have multiple issues that can be used. How do you find an issue? Start by finding the central ideas, themes, and conversations in all of the sources that you have found. Then see if any of those spark an interest in you. If one or more do, decide which one has the most personal connections to you and that will keep your interest throughout the paper process. After you decide your issue in your topic, make sure that it will help achieve your goal for the paper including requirements, the type of document you must write, and the context in which you will be writing for (in this case, it will be for an English class). This chapter has been and will be a very big help for me as I am trying to decide what my topic and issue for my paper will be.