The first step in any research process is to articulate your information need to help you keep the requirements of your assignment, such as length, type of paper, topic, and type and number of sources, in mind.

You made similar decisions about your information need when you researched buying a car. You had to decide what kind of sources you needed to find, how much information was enough, and how you would present your findings to whoever was funding your purchase.

In many college courses, you may have to make decisions about these aspects of the information need for yourself. For example, a teacher may ask you to research an issue related to the course and tell you to "discuss" it. You would then need to figure out topic, length, sources, etc. However in most undergraduate courses, these decisions are made for you by the teacher in the way s/he presents the assignment.

And so, based on your assignment, you can state your information need in this way:

I need to write a 6-8-page informative paper on global warming. I have to use at least six sources, four of which have to be from scholarly books and articles. The paper is due in 6 weeks.

The page count (which in Times New Roman at 12 point would be between 1800 and 2400 words) gives the researcher an idea of how broad the topic can be.

The type of sources points the researcher in the direction of certain kinds of databases for information.

The due date lets the researcher figure out a research schedule that allows time to work on the analysis of the research and the synthesis of the sources. It is also important to allow sufficient time for getting books and journal articles that the Mason libraries do not have through Interlibrary loan.

 

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