Research Evaluation

Research Evaluation: A Look into the Process

The research process is a step-by-step method of developing a research paper. Moving ahead from one step to the next involves the need to backup, review, add extra information or even modify the subject totally. This will depend on what you learn during the research process. There are many reasons for adjusting during the journey. One reason may be that you may find that your topic is too general and needs to be lessened, sufficient information resources may not be available, what you obtain may not be backing your purpose, or the scope of the project does not fit the requirements of the assignment. The research process I used involved identifying, locating, assessing, analyzing, and then evolving and conveying my ideas. The skills obtained through this research process will not only help me academically, but also highly beneficial in my career, as well.

The topic of school bullying is a topic that I chose and the research process posed some challenges. My first matter of business of my paper was to decide what sources I would want to include supporting my thesis. There are primary and secondary sources that can be used for support. Primary sources are original works such as speeches, auto biographies, and interviews. Secondary sources are sources that describe, analyze, and/or evaluate information found in primary sources such as journals, articles, and encyclopedias. I also incorporated the University of Phoenix's library and the Google Scholar search engine for scholarly sources. Once I knew what kind of sources I wanted to use, I had to begin the actual search process to see what my search would give me.

In the University's library, I conducted a search with the key words school bullying. The search gave me thousands of sources that had those words within them. The sources varied from encyclopedias, news articles, journal articles, and books. I was very overwhelmed by the different options given to me. I started...