You may need to undertake some research in the form of a literature review or you may want to identify a topic for a thesis. Where do you start? Here we describe two approaches: ‘general to specific’ and ‘specific to general’:
General to specific
This approach would be useful if you are able to decide your own research question and you are starting with a broad area of study.
- Gather together all your relevant information.
- Use an elicitation technique to break down your area of study into smaller inter-related concepts.
- Create a visual record of this process.
- Identify any gaps or areas of uncertainty.
- Create a list of possible research questions.
Specific to general
This approach would be useful if you have a narrowly defined research question in place, such as those provided by industrial sponsors.
- Gather together all your relevant information.
- Use an elicitation technique to expand the argument surrounding the original question.
- Create a visual record of this process.
- Identify any gaps or areas of uncertainty.
- Create a list of possible research questions, maintaining the focus on your original concept.
In both these approaches we suggest using elicitation techniques and visual records. This is because these techniques are designed to enable a user to see an area of study from a global, holistic and non-linear perspective. Looking at an area of study in this manner can provide unique insights – essential for creating an original research question.
There are many elicitation techniques that you might find useful. Try techniques that involve creating a visual record of your area of study, as these are particularly good at showing relationships between different aspects of a subject and for identifying any gaps in your information. Mind Mapping and brainstorming are both useful techniques.