I’ve never really enjoyed the research part of research papers or any other papers that require a certain amount of outside evidence. I feel as if there are so many rules that I must follow and an abundance of information that may or may not be credible. Then finding a way to use the information, quote it, and cite it stresses me out. Once I get writing it’s fairly easy, but I’m not a big fan of the research that must go into it.

Although I don’t like researching, I have gotten significantly better at it. I took a communications class last quarter in which I learned the “Funnel Search Strategy.” This strategy applies to research, filtering information, and determining credibility. Essentially it says that when researching, one should start out broad and get narrower and narrower with information. For example, if I were doing a research project on the “Black Lives Matter Movement” I would google it and work my way through the first page of sources to find out what it is and it’s background. I would then narrow my research to recent news sources explaining what has gone on with the movement lately. Continuing, I’d look through pictures and videos of the movement and so on and so forth. This strategy has been very helpful for me and keeps me from being overwhelmed by the amount of information on the topic I am researching.

I really enjoyed the article “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary” and the categories for sources that the author proposes. I do agree with the article that sometimes I find myself trying to find a wide range of sources to meet the requirement rather than focusing on the content of the information itself. I also like how the author explains that the research paper is not a genre of writing and there should be no one right way to attack it. We are all different as writers and therefore must take our own individualized approach to research to produce our best literary work possible.