Scholarly Writing: Research Tips

Begin early. Writing a seminar paper is a long process, and you will need plenty of time to finish the project.  You should aim to begin as soon as you are aware of the assignment.  Optimally, you will begin at the beginning of the semester, allowing yourself months to move through the research, writing, revision, and editing process. 

Create a Research Plan. A research plan is your best tool for tackling a research assignment. Research plans help to organize your thoughts, streamline your research, avoid duplication of efforts and record your research process to review later with the professor, if necessary. 

A good research plan contains the following elements:

• an issue statement and legally relevant facts
• the relevant jurisdiction(s)
• a list of search terms and relevant key words
• a list of potential databases and sources to search
• a research log to track where and when you have already searched 
• an account of how time and resources will be allocated to meet the deadline and required outputs

Set up a research and writing schedule.  Use a paper or electronic calendar to block out time you will reserve specifically for this project.  In the beginning, you’ll need to be focused on researching and planning your seminar paper.  That process is likely to include visits to the library, so plan for that necessity.  Carving out a few hours for a few days a week, or one whole afternoon a week will help you manage the process. 

Use a research guide, those available on the ONU Law Library website and elsewhere online.  Subject-based research guides have already pulled together key material on their topics. Consulting them can efficiently point you to the best sources. Oftentimes there will not be a research guide on the specific topic of your paper but there may be a research guide on the larger topic within which your paper falls.

Investigate content on more databases than just Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg. While these are each deep and well-functioning legal databases, it goes without saying that many topics will need material from and citations to materials not available on those databases including monographs, articles, data, interdisciplinary articles, historical sources, and so on. Also, simply stepping out of the Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg Law box may spark crucial new ideas and directions.

Sign up for current awareness services related to your topic. Current awareness services come in many forms--legal newsletters, new publication alerts, search alerts and so on. Alerts can potentially have a big long term payoff for the minimal work of setting up an alert initially. They can give you new ideas and keep you informed of developments as you write your paper. Understanding current developments in the area can also deepen your understanding of the subject area and enrich your insights for your paper. NYU has a great guide on current awareness services, check it out here. 

Keep notes of where you’ve looked & search strings you used. Do this during preemption checks and during the main research stage. This will help you avoid having to duplicate your work unnecessarily. Further, when you are first starting a project, it is easy to not recognize the relevance of something you found that may be helpful upon later realization, given that one might not completely appreciate all the intricacies of the subject matter at that stage. Thus, if you don't maintain notes on your research trajectory, you may have difficulty retracing your steps where needed. We highly encourage you to keep a research log.

Use informal writing to generate ideas. Take time during each of your early research and drafting sessions to write out ideas, generate directions, and consider possibilities.  You can do this in a number of ways:

• Quickwrite. Take 10-20 minutes to write about your current thinking on your topic.  Alternatively, you might decide to write 2 pages about your projects.  You’ll find that writing small amounts adds up overtime.
• 1-Minute essay. In one minute, write out what you currently think the main idea of your paper will be. This process can help you find your argument/thesis.
• Outline. Do you see a possible structure emerging from all of your research? Keep a running outline that you return to after each session to re-consider the direction of your paper. You might also write around the various points in your outline as you go, taking time to develop paragraphs and sections for a first draft.
• Dump Draft. “Dump” all your ideas into a first draft.  While writing a dump draft, don’t be concerned about how good the writing is, simply focus on getting ideas on the page.  You’ll have time to revise and rework your writing later.  A dump draft can help you avoid the feeling that you don’t know where to start.

Update your research. For primary materials, the major legal databases will contain tools to check for currency and validity. These include Westlaw's KeyCite and Lexis's Shepardize. For secondary materials, setting up alerts from current awareness sources on your topic may be helpful.

When are you finished your research? It is often said that when your searches keep yielding the same results you are finished. Another way to think about it: Are you getting so many repeat results that you believe that the chance that there is significant material out there that you haven't found is pretty small? Have you located the full range of primary authorities and authoritative secondary sources for your topic? Also, time permitting you might also continue to search during the writing stage. As your understanding of a topic develops so will your ability to find relevant material. You will gain a better sense of where to search and how to select keywords.