Why is Academic Research Important?
Academic research is a multi-step process aimed at finding the answers to the research question. It involves careful study of a particular subject, field, or issue using correct methodologies and eventually coming to a probable recommendation or suggestion to the problem being studied. Academic Research increases your knowledge, allowing you to build arguments for or against a topic and draw appropriate conclusions about a particular assignment.
The below-mentioned points will give a brief idea of the benefits which one can gain from good academic research:
Enhances knowledge
The basic purpose of academic research is to gather answers to a specified research question or case study. Research helps you in building blocks of knowledge that you can easily use as the base for producing an impressive assignment that worthy of impressing the professors and peers in college/university.
Strengthens research skills
While researching for your assignments, your research skills also get enhanced and developed. It helps you to sharpen your knowledge about the different fields of academics. You become adept at finding the right kind of information suitable for your assignment, and accordingly, support your ideas with the help of appropriate references.
Provides practical approach
Research helps you to apply all your theoretical knowledge to the real-time problems in life. It empowers you to think critically while dealing with your assignments. Research lends knowledge of a fresh breath of air, which is difficult to achieve during classroom discussions and examinations.
Selection of Sources
It is extremely crucial to select the accurate and reliable sources for your research. Selecting the right sources strongly backs up your research and helps in arriving at appropriate conclusions. On the contrary, if the selection of sources is made in an inattentive manner, the entire research is likely to fall flat, and all your hard work behind the designing of the research can go in vain. Hence, the researcher must pay extra attention while selecting the sources of information for his research work.
The sources for academic research can be Journal Articles, Newspapers, Books, and the World Wide Web. The researcher should keep in mind that the sources used are the most recent and relevant ones. The sources, which are cited for the research, should not be older than five years.
The various sources of academic research are as follows:
Journals
Journals are a set of collected articles written by scholars hailing from a particular professional or academic field. You can refer to peer-reviewed journal articles while conducting academic researches and find out what has already been studied regarding the topic of research. You should pay special attention to the peer-reviewed journals, which reflect the authenticity of the sources. Peer-reviewed journals go through a series of filters that reject the journals that are not suitable enough to be used as sources for academic research. Hence, it is always advised that you refer to peer-reviewed journals.
Advantage of using journals:
Academic scholars check and inspect the peer-reviewed articles. Hence, the information is authentic and reliable. Journals are a great source of information when the researcher requires a more recent source of information. They provide deep insights into the subject, giving the writer a close view of the scenario that he is studying. Referring to journal articles is an effective way of linking your studies to the past researches because it provides potential information related to your study with the help of research and statistical data.
Books
Books cover a wide variety of topics, be it fact or fiction. While conducting research, you need to look for books that embody all the related topics related to the research in one book to back the particular thesis or argument. Books are the most substantial sources of information and easily accessible to the researchers. Books contain original research that may embody multiple types of research over many years.
Advantage of using books:
Books provide a descriptive theoretical background on a subject with the help of which the writer can get himself acquainted with the conceptual framework of the topic that he is currently dealing with books. Books provide the writer with the big picture of the given subject of study and provide the conceptual framework, which will define the direction of the research.
Newspapers
Newspapers contain a set of collected articles about the recent events, published daily. They are a great source of reference in an academic research study. You need to note that you cannot use all the newspapers as a source for your academic research. Many newspapers have inclinations towards certain ideologies and tend to be biased. Therefore, you should only be referring to the most reputed newspapers like Washington Post, The Telegraph, The New York Times, The Guardian and Wall Street Journal, etc.
Advantage of using newspapers
Newspapers contain the most recent data, unlike books and journals. It contains up-to-date information, unlike books and journals. For using newspapers as sources, you should always refer to more than one newspaper. Instead of consulting one newspaper to study an event, comparing multiple newspapers is more revealing and interesting.
Websites
Websites can provide you with up-to-date information about the recent trends, events, and topics of conflict. Substantial government information is also available on the internet, which can prove useful to an academic researcher like annual reports, service, and legislation information. The company or institution’s official websites are the most authentic source of information accessible to the writer. Information about their organizational structure, current financial position, social initiatives, and annual reports can be proffered from their official websites.
Advantage of using websites:
The greatest advantage of referring to the World Wide Web is that you can access information anytime, with no hassles at all. Accessing information is also portable because a writer looks up for data on the internet through his laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone.
Things to Avoid
To research assignments, you will have to organize your academic study properly before conducting the research and be careful not to commit certain mistakes that can make the academic research work a dull one, with no proper structure and authenticated sources.
Various points which need to be taken care of in writing academic research are as follows:
Failing to specify the topic
Primarily, you should mention the topic of the research very clearly and try to work out your ways around it while going about the research. You need to describe the points in your academic study coherently and comprehensively. Otherwise, the audience will not be able to conclude your research.
Vaguely defining the research problem
The first and foremost step that is taken before indulging in an academic research process is to formulate a research problem and then conduct your study around it. If there are errors in the preliminary step, then it will be extremely difficult for you to go further with the research work. It is hence imperative on the researcher to clearly define the research problems, and mention the research methods that the researcher intends to use while investigating the problem.