By this point in your education, you've probably written at least one research paper--the kind that is full of facts, with sources cited at the end. You may have quite a bit of experience with research projects of this type. But suppose you're given one of these assignments:

	Explain how a particular technology has changed the American way of life.
	Analyze a change in the federal government's approach to public health.
	Explain recent changes in the way scientists describe the universe.
	Describe the impact of social media sites on American advertising.

What kind of thinking do these assignments involve? What role would research play in completing each assignment?

To complete any one of these assignments, you would need to perform the kinds of research you've done before--that is, you would need to find out facts about your topic. However, you would also need to analyze the information you find and draw your own conclusions based on your analysis. The report or presentation that you create to share your research would develop and support an analytical claim rather than simply summarizing the information you found.

Once you leave behind the early years of high school, your instructors will ask you to do more and more of this type of research, and they'll expect you to base your analytical arguments on documented facts as well as sound reasoning.