Analyzing the topic includes information gathering and organization.

When gathering information, 5 aspects should be concerned: currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose.

Currency: The timeliness of the information

Relevance: Refers to the importance of the information for your need

Authority: Who is the author and what are his credentials or organizational affiliations

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content

Purpose: The reason why the information exists

Information Organization

The presentation of information can be divided into introduction, the main body, and conclusion.

Introduction: states the main issues

Main body: develops what you want to say about each of the main points or ideas

Conclusion: repeats the ideas and the purpose

There are 5 common modes of organizing the information.

Temporal organization: includes chronological order, reverse order, and inquiry order. For example, time order is a form of chronological order.

In conclusion, research progress includes the following 7 steps.

Identify and develop your topic, find background information, use catalogs to find books and media, use indexes to find periodical articles, find additional internet resources, evaluate what you find, and finally, cite what you find using a standard format.