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Should you research first or write as you research

One of the biggest things I have struggled with when it comes to academic writing or even taking personal CPD courses.

I have always struggled to know how to balance researching & taking research notes and then actually writing the assignment or research paper

The dilemma of should I research everything and have all the notes ready or should I research and write the actual assignment at the same time.

One of the biggest issues I always fell into when trying to research everything first was

- writing too much research notes/reading for too long
- writing allowing the research process to take too long
-and discovering after some time as a lapse that perhaps some of the research notes and the readings were irrelevant/not relevant

How could one avoid these things
I have heard of some people that take the approach of they literally research as they write each sentence in order to ensure that they actually get it done

But I feel this sometimes runs the risk of meaning you haven't read enough to build a good foundation / you may show in the assignment that you haven't "read enough around the topics"

It's really difficult for me to know when carrying out preliminary research how to select and collate the correct resources and how to read them efficiently and how to ensure I have enough resources

How to sort of develop a step-by-step process like read this alignment brief / thesis question and thoroughly understand the tasks and marking criteria, identify and collate resources through skim and scamming and relating it to your brief, breaking down the topics / question . Read more specifically for the topics by highlighting things???

I don't really know what to do or how to do anything when it comes to completing academic things or personal CPD things in the most efficient way?

And to make sure that I balance reading and note-taking with actually getting things done like getting things written and completed??

Reply 1

gjd800

I do a bit of both, there's no one answer really.

You need to learn to skim/scan read. Read conclusions first and skim the rest after for any key phrases. It's a skill you can develop.

Reply 2

morningcheese23

Original post by gjd800

I do a bit of both, there's no one answer really.
You need to learn to skim/scan read. Read conclusions first and skim the rest after for any key phrases. It's a skill you can develop.

It's a bit of a challenge for me to not get really muddled up part way through the process of doing something academic like that. I try and give myself like a step by step but sometimes it it changes and expectedly and I get a bit muddled up

Reply 3

gjd800

Original post by morningcheese23

I think this is normal, you know. It's not something that most people can instinctively do - it takes practice and getting it wrong every now and again is part of the process!