The Bedford Researcher. Chapter one.

         This chapter talks about how to get started on an academic research project.

First of all, in order to be successful, the individual will need personal investment, understanding of research writing, willingness to learn to work with sources, and interest in taking a position on an issue. Once these are established chapter one starts to talk about choosing a topic and the writing process. When choosing a topic there are three steps to follow: Step one, analyze your assignment, for instance ask yourself questions about who will be reading this, and why would anyone read this. Step two, generate ideas about appropriate topics, such as brainstorming, pre-writing, free writing, clustering, and looping. Step three, consider you writing situation, for example, select the strongest candidate and think of the level of interest you and your writers might have in the topic. These steps have helped me choose a topic for my research project this quarter in English 102. My topic will be about Native Americans, however, I do need to narrow it down. Last but not least, at the end of chapter one, a good rule of thumb about choosing a topic is not about the size of your readers but your interest in the topic.