ACWR303 - Academic Writing for Nursing

Although you may view writing as the final step in the research process, writing can be a useful tool for exploring topics, formulating a research focus, and organizing ideas. Here are a few strategies that can be helpful when exploring topics for research:
 

• Brainstorming. List all the ideas and information about your topic that you can think of; try to get as many ideas on paper as you can, without worrying about the quality of those ideas. One useful brainstorming tool is the KWLF (what I Know, what I Want to know…) approach. By focusing on what you want to know, you may identify a promising topic for research and inquiry.

• Focused freewriting. Write non-stop on your topic for 10 or 15 minutes without worrying about content or grammar. Then highlight ideas and passages to explore further through another round of freewriting. As you continue looping through this process, you may see a fruitful line of inquiry emerging for your research.

• Writing a discovery draft. Another good way to explore a topic is to write a discovery draft.

• Mind mapping / webbing. For a visual approach to generating and exploring ideas, try mind mapping. For examples, visit here.  When mapping ideas, try to keep related ideas together, experiment with the use of colour coding, and add questions that occur to you.

• Exploring various perspectives on your topic. Systematically brainstorming questions related to various perspectives may lead you to interesting research questions. Here’s an example of how this strategy might work to develop research questions on intellectual property (IP) rights

Social / Cultural – How do IP norms and laws differ among countries and cultures?
Economic – What are the economic costs of illegal music downloading and what approach would work best to address these costs?
Political / legal – Are IP laws adequate?…enforceable? Are stricter laws politically feasible?
Educational – What educational practices discourage (or encourage) IP violations?
Geographical – What national barriers exist to IP rights in a globalized economy?
Historical – What is the history of the concept of IP? … of IP law?
Medical – Do IP laws related to pharmaceuticals have negative medical repercussions?
Technological – What IP issues have developed with the growth of the internet?
Communication – How is the notion of IP portrayed in mass media? …in blogs?
Philosophical / Ethical / Religious– In what situations, if any, can using someone’s ideas or artistic creations without attribution be viewed as an ethical act?
Artistic – How are musicians or visual artists protected by or constrained by IP laws?

• Using the journalist’s 5W questions-- Who, What, When, Where, Why, plus How. This strategy is described as a Writing Strategy under Phase 2, Prefocus Exploration.