Research as an Iterative Process
Channel: Claire Nickerson
Date: 08/09/2016

Research is an iterative process. That means that it involves repetition; its steps occur in a cycle. 

At any point in the cycle, you may have to go back to a previous step. For instance, say that you've already identified a research question and done a search for relevant sources. You're in the process of organizing your sources--maybe you're taking notes on them, putting them into an annotated bibliography, or writing an outline for your paper--and you realize that there's a gap in your research. You want to go back and do another search for a source that will fill in that gap, right?

Or maybe you're in the middle of writing your paper. You could find that your writing is going in a different direction than you planned, which will necessitate both some new searching and some reorganization to incorporate the new sources you've found. 

Maybe you're even done writing the first draft of your paper and you're working on revising it when you notice that gap or decide to go in that different direction. The point is, it's never too late to go back to a previous step in the cycle.