• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PART 1: THE START
• PART 2: THE CLASS
• PART 3: THE EXAM
• PART 4: THE PAPER
  • Understand the Assgnt.
  • Analysis, Research
  • See the Professor
  • The Perfect Paper
• PART 5: THE LAST MONTH
• AFTERWORD
• READERS' REVIEWS
• MEET THE AUTHORS

chapter 11

Doing the Analysis, Doing the Research

And now the fun begins. It's time to work, not on the college paper but on your college paper. Not just to think about what the question is asking and what kind of question it is, but to begin to figure out the answer to the question -- and to do the analysis, do the research (or both). But you've barely got your mind around what analysis even is. And, as for research, it'd be easier to find your counterpart at a Nepalese university (after all, everyone is separated by only six degrees of separation) than to find some monograph or article on that super-obscure topic your professor has assigned. Luckily (as always) we've got hard-hitting tips for you -- first our best strategies for the analytical paper, then knock-em-dead tips for the research paper. Continue straightaway...

PART ONE

Top 10 Tips for Doing the Analysis

Here are our best ideas for doing analysis:

1: Work in Your Head

This is one of the easiest steps to take. It requires no action on your part (unless resistance is an action). Resist the temptation to do research. When you feel yourself thinking, "I oughta go to the library, or to the internet, to find the answer," stop and think "don’t go there, the answer isn’t there." As amazing as this might seem, you’re being asked to answer the question or solve the problem wholly on your own. No brownie points or extra credit for unearthing and quoting hordes of distinguished authors. No, this is the lonely task of working in your head. Be sure you stay there....

Chapter 12 »