ABSTRACT
The reason we have accumulated knowledge of any subjectwhether physics, philosophy, or political science-is that others have undertaken systematic investigations of particular topics and reported the results. But why is it important for people who are not professionals in those fields, particularly students, to know about research methodology-that is, how research is done? There are several answers to this question. First of all, students in any subject spend most of their class time and study time learning about the results of past research. They can better understand what those findings mean if they have some familiarity with the methods used to obtain them. When they go beyond textbooks and the classroom, they may have to judge whether a piece of research is valid and whether its results ought to be believed. Second, students are often asked to do some research on their own-the dreaded term paper. Although they may be able to get by with just summarizing what others have said, their papers will be more meaningful and rewarding if they can actually conduct original investigations. In advanced courses-and certainly in graduate school-this is a necessity.
