arrow
Return

Finding Problems: Before Gathering and Analyzing Data

delete2026-07-01
delete0
PRE
AI
C
Charles Bazerman *
DOI:10.1177/07410883261440263delete
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Finding a research problem is the first and most consequential choice a researcher can make, but making this choice about what is not yet known can leave the researcher in a hazy world of uncertainty until the project takes shape. While each person needs to find their own path through the haze, I have found that four kinds of questions help me locate and design a useful research project: what is in front of me; how I add up what I and others have learned previously; how the project fits in various perspectives in and outside the field of writing studies; and how the study advances knowledge and/or aids with practical problems. Only when the answers to these four different questions come together, am I confident of the value of a particular study. Often it takes, however, some kind of unexpected catalyst to bring the project into focus.
Keywords:
methodology
writing
problem finding
research site
research questions
uncertainty

Journal

W
Written Communication
IF:
2.2
Papers:
25
Citations:
1.4K

Organization

University of California System cover
University of California System
Scholars:
37.5W
Papers: 33.7W
Citations: 6.6K