Cog468 Cognitive Science Capstone Seminar Craft of Research (CoR) Study/Discussion Guide Chapter 5: From Problems to Sources Top Ten Salient Sentences 1. “ The more you plan by determining exactly what you need to know, the more efficiently you will get what you need.” 2. “Its not that books written for general readers about brains or black holes are necessarily wrong… But they sometimes oversimplify the research, and their work usually dates quickly.” 3. “At one extreme, we know a graduate student who met his adviser every day before breakfast... at the other extreme are those who disappear into the bowels of the library and don't emerge until they've completed their project, sometimes years later. Most researchers take the middle way, relying on regular conversations to guide their reading, which stimulate more questions and hunches to try out on others. ” 4. “If you found nothing, your topic may be too narrow or too far off the beaten track to yield quick results. But you could also be on to an important question that nobody has thought about, at least not for awhile. ” 5. “When you look beyond the standard kinds of references relevant to your question, you enrich not only your analysis but your range of intellectual reference and your ability to synthesize diverse kinds of data, a crucial competence of an inquiring mind. ” 6. “Chances are you'll make something of a neglected topic only through your own hard thinking... but it won't work for a paper due in a few weeks. ” 7. “If you have a question and at least one promising answer, you can start looking for data to test it” 8. “ A secondary source becomes a primary source when you study its argument as part of a debate in a field. ” 9. “ As you narrow your topic, state your problem so that your librarian understands exactly what is needed. ” 10. “ Don't restrict yourself to books nearest your interest target. Invest the time to browse widely. ”