have you ever gotten a fantastic idea for a research project and were then immediately stumped about what to do next? if so, starting your research with the magical four key points of a structured abstract may help you make sense of the mess you’ve just made for yourself.
- OBJECTIVE
- METHODS
- RESULTS
- CONCLUSIONS
these four steps are essential in conveying to someone what your question was and how you went about answering it, as well as what you found and what the results imply. these steps work no matter how complex or simple your research question is. isn’t that great?
whenever i start a research project the first thing i do is a little brainstorming with myself in microsoft word. i keep this part of the research loose, typing out whatever tangents i have that may relate to the topic i’m interested, as well as all the kinds of questions i can ask about that topic. i don’t judge anything i write at this point. for me, it’s helpful just to let my mind wander around an idea so that eventually, after time, i naturally narrow down my idea to one manageable idea. eventually i’ll decide that of all the questions i’ve written down, that that is the one i want to answer. then i head for the second thing, the first two steps in a structured abstract.
- OBJECTIVE
next to objective i’ll write out what i’m trying to find out by asking the question i’m asking, and why it’s important. it’s amazing how simply writing this out for myself in two or three sentences will either clarify for me that, yes, this is a project i want to spend the next two to three months on or no, i don’t care enough about this question to pursue it. this step also helps me narrow down my idea so that i can understand if my objective is achievable in one paper, or if it needs to be split into several papers; i’ve found it is most useful for an article to contain one main idea that is well considered rather than trying to squish too many ideas into one article. writing down the objective also helps me figure out if i need help with the project i’m outlining. this naturally leads to step 2,
- METHODS
how, specifically, am i going to answer the question i’m asking? do i know enough about x to comment on it confidently, or am i going to need help? is what i’m proposing going to require statistical analysis? if so, who do i know that can help me with that? what are the minimal number of specific things i’m going to need to do to answer my question? the methods step is where that all gets figured out.
from this point on, the real fun starts. then i get to actually go answer the question, and once i’m done i’ll follow up with the last two steps,
- RESULTS
- CONCLUSIONS
