COMM U490 - Senior Seminar in Communication: What is the justification of research?

Research is a process, an exhaustive and meticulous process to find answers.  It is the in-depth and systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions. The goal of professional research is to create new knowledge about a topic or explain an old idea in new ways.  

The goal of research is to find something new or different about a subject. The Justification is the "WHY" of your research topic or the "RATIONALE".  The Justification comes as you are doing your in-depth analysis of the topic, as you begin your literature review.  With the beginning steps into research, you should begin to see what others were asking as their Research Question, and begin to recognize gaps in other articles that may be where you want to take your research.  The justification may also come from a new perspective on an old trope or idea that is outdated.

This portion of your research process is just the beginning it is where you do enough research to know that there is a problem that you find interesting and others have researched the topic too.  At this point in the process you should have already:

1. Picked a general area of interest / Idea of the direction
2. Done some brief background reading (textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.)
3. Established a problem or topic you find interesting and want to live with for the next few months
4. Begun to collect, and read at least the introduction portion of some articles on the topic

NOTE: The justification portion of your paper and your thesis question may change over the process of writing a paper.  As you gain insight into the deeper elements of the topic you may find the need to reconnoiter (rework, requestion, reframe) your ideas.