Strategies for Developing Your Ideas

What counts as evidence is disciplinary specific. A quote from a novel is evidence, is development. A research study is evidence. Observational research is evidence. So, yes, we always develop our arguments, but the ways in which we develop in various disciplines are going to be radically different.

Cause/Effect

Consider this strategy if you need to show your readers why something happened or the consequences of a decision or event. For example, company executives decide to use electronic mail because employees are not communicating job tasks with one another (cause). As a result, employees not only increase work production, but they also use the mail system to advertise social events (effects).

Compare/Contrast

If you are writing about a complex topic, you might consider using a comparison or a contrast. This will help your readers understand your topic by reminding them of something they already know. For instance, electronic mail is similar to hand delivered mail in that both require an address to deliver a message. However, they are different because one is delivered more quickly than the other, one may seem more personal than the other, etc. This type of strategy is also known as an analogy.

Interviews

Interviewing is an excellent way to gather information that would not otherwise be available in written form. It may be required that you conduct an interview with an expert in a particular field as the main reference for your essay or as a supplement to other books and short texts that you have gathered in your research. 

Library

Libraries are the preeminent physical repositories for the results of human research and learning and continue to be the primary locations at which information on a multitude of subjects will be found. Therefore, understanding how information is cataloged in your library and how to search and browse its stacks, special collections and journal rooms is very important.

World Wide Web

Chances are, the World Wide Web will be your most valuable Internet research tool. While you can go to literally billions of different “pages” or sites on the Web that might be useful for your research, finding them can be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. This is one of the major drawbacks of the World Wide Web. Unlike the library, where the materials are strictly organized, cataloged, and cared for, the Web is more of a jumble of files that can be difficult to find or that are missing altogether.

Your Experiences

Using personal experiences may not have scientific merit or statistical clout, but it can be very convincing. Reading the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano — the story of his capture in Africa, his transport to America and his life as a slave— is convincing,  much more readily of the evils of slavery than a whole volume of statistics and demographics about the Atlantic slave trade could do. Still, personal experience can accompany or reinforce an otherwise sound argument, but it is seldom entirely persuasive in itself.

Strategies for Developing Your Ideas

What counts as evidence is disciplinary specific. A quote from a novel is evidence, is development. A research study is evidence. Observational research is evidence. So, yes, we always develop our arguments, but the ways in which we develop in various disciplines are going to be radically different.

Cause/Effect

Consider this strategy if you need to show your readers why something happened or the consequences of a decision or event. For example, company executives decide to use electronic mail because employees are not communicating job tasks with one another (cause). As a result, employees not only increase work production, but they also use the mail system to advertise social events (effects).

Compare/Contrast

If you are writing about a complex topic, you might consider using a comparison or a contrast. This will help your readers understand your topic by reminding them of something they already know. For instance, electronic mail is similar to hand delivered mail in that both require an address to deliver a message. However, they are different because one is delivered more quickly than the other, one may seem more personal than the other, etc. This type of strategy is also known as an analogy.

Interviews

Interviewing is an excellent way to gather information that would not otherwise be available in written form. It may be required that you conduct an interview with an expert in a particular field as the main reference for your essay or as a supplement to other books and short texts that you have gathered in your research. 

Library

Libraries are the preeminent physical repositories for the results of human research and learning and continue to be the primary locations at which information on a multitude of subjects will be found. Therefore, understanding how information is cataloged in your library and how to search and browse its stacks, special collections and journal rooms is very important.

World Wide Web

Chances are, the World Wide Web will be your most valuable Internet research tool. While you can go to literally billions of different “pages” or sites on the Web that might be useful for your research, finding them can be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. This is one of the major drawbacks of the World Wide Web. Unlike the library, where the materials are strictly organized, cataloged, and cared for, the Web is more of a jumble of files that can be difficult to find or that are missing altogether.

Your Experiences

Using personal experiences may not have scientific merit or statistical clout, but it can be very convincing. Reading the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano — the story of his capture in Africa, his transport to America and his life as a slave— is convincing,  much more readily of the evils of slavery than a whole volume of statistics and demographics about the Atlantic slave trade could do. Still, personal experience can accompany or reinforce an otherwise sound argument, but it is seldom entirely persuasive in itself.