With all the information being covered this semester, it would be a good idea to let you know what items the instructor feels are important enough to focus upon in each chapter of the course textbooks. Those items will be pointed out to you in the course content materials. One image that is good to affix in your mind is the Illustration found on page 1-3, Sixteen Steps to Successful Research. This is an overview of what will be covered throughout this semester. It would be a good idea to periodically look over this list and see if you have mastered each step. It is also a handy guide for assessing your progress in the course.

Another handy illustration is that shown on page 1-4 of your text.

While it is good to know what is expected of a student throughout this semester, it is also important to break down each step into its own parts so that you will know how important it is to the entire process. Thus the Research Cycle breaks down those parts.

This cycle is repeated over and over again a thousand times throughout your research experiences. If a step is left out, the results will not be the same. Therefore it is important to study the cycle well enough to know each step.