Finding information is easy. Most of us are online every day interacting with information: finding old and new friends on social media, shopping & paying bills, attending classes. downloading driving directions, weather forecasts, song lyrics, recipes, and all the other information that gets us through the day in one piece.
But information retrieval is not research! Research requires that you find information, of course, but it also demands much more from you. The MLA Handbook defines research in terms of exploring ideas, probing issues, solving problems, or making arguments relating to existing ideas. Yes, students need information to complete these tasks, but the depth and breadth of information needed moves far beyond a single source. Within the research process students also need considerable time to read the information they find, time to reflect on and synthesize new information, apply it to new situations and be cognizant of how new information changes the way we view the world and ourselves in it.
Research is a process, and that process involves several crucial steps/
