Before you start searching for information, you need to develop a research plan--a checklist that will help you determine what information you're looking for and where to look for it. Think of your research plan as a recipe. If you don't know what ingredients you need or you haven't checked to see if the ingredients are in your kitchen, you may waste a lot of time before discovering your dish won't be successful. The same is true for research. Without a research plan, you may spend hours collecting the wrong facts from the wrong sources only to learn that you can't answer your research question after all.

This lesson will show you how to create your own research plan, detailing exactly what evidence to gather and what sources are the most appropriate for your research report or project.