Documentary Research Example

Research is the activity that is carried out to obtain knowledge, answer a question, or explain how an event happened.

There are many types of it, among them is the documentary research, which is based on the study of written, sound and graphic records.

The sources of information of the documentary research they are books, encyclopedias, historical archives, films, manuscripts and sound tapes, among others.

To carry it out, you must first develop a work plan that allows you to order the activities in a logical and organized way; This must contain the chosen topic, the justification of the study, the definition of the content to analyze, the antecedents that exist on the case of the same, the tasks that have to be carried out during the documentary research and the agenda, or calendar to be fulfilled in each subject.

After this plan, it is necessary to compile the material, which can be found in archives, libraries, newspaper archives, film archives or sound libraries; For each research source, a bibliographic file and a work file must be made, where both the points raised by the author in his work, as well as those of the researcher, are exposed.

In the case of records, the data and information considered relevant to the subject being investigated; this activity is called fieldwork.

Once this is concluded, the material obtained is organized and analyzed, the research and conclusions are drawn up, and finally the final presentation of the work prepared is made.

Documentary research example:

Edmun Burke's book "Reflections on the Revolution in France" Documentary research on the events that occurred during and after the French Revolution.

Research carried out on demographic studies of a country or population, since historical demographic archives are used to obtain the information.

The social sciences are the ones that use documentary research the most to generate their knowledge, unlike the natural sciences and the exact sciences, which use this type of research as an auxiliary and not as a main one.