This research will lead to related topics but "when, what, and where" are the initial analysis questions. The initial analysis I need to do to create a plan involves learning when the Black Hawk War occurred, what records exist, and where those records are. You may also be researching topics.Īs an example, today I discovered a client had an ancestor that was a Black Hawk War veteran from a certain state.
It's more likely you'll be researching places instead of people. Initial analysis often involves some research but it's usually not the same kind of research we think of doing. the exact records I need to look at FIRST), I have to analyze the project.
If I take on a client project where I don't know the very first question I have to answer (i.e. If you can't quite get your question to be actionably-specific, you need to be doing analysis of your problem.
This is a great, succinct post about asking a specific research question. It's a whole post to explain "specific" but someone else has taken care of that for me. Your research, and, therefore, your research planning, needs to be directed by a specific goal or research question. When I decide whether to take a project from a potential client, I have to know what their question is. Remember I said this form is based on one I use for client work? Now you understand why. The best part is, I don't have to pay someone or be embarrassed by the state of my citations (or lack thereof). Instead, I've realized I should treat these dusty projects like client projects. This is no fun and hard to do if I don't remember what I was thinking when I was doing the research (and impossible if the research is from a relative). I tried creating documents I should have created at the time I researched, in particular, reports. All in all, I have more projects with bad notes and nothing else. Some haven't been worked on since before I even knew I needed good habits. I try to keep good notes/logs/plans/memos as best I can "despite the interruptions." That's great for active projects, but I have many projects I haven't touched in years.
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