Intuitive Research

What does intuitive research mean? The idea behind intuitive research is teaching good research habits that build good instincts and patterns for researchers. Experienced researchers understand the various steps of the research process, but have internalized them after countless hours of research to the point where they do not have to check a set of directions to know where to look or how to proceed. This ability is particularly useful for research topics that require a lot of creative research techniques and outside the box thinking. It is also helpful for researchers when reaching hurdles or roadblocks during the research process. Intuitive researchers can glance at a possible source and tell within a few minutes whether the source is useful or not for their research purposes. Choosing to add a source to your resource list is not the same as critically analyzing a source. However, both steps are part of research. Gathering resources and recognizing unusual sources of information for your research is a way to expand the scope and depth of your research. One way to develop intuitive research skills is to spend time studying resources and sources. Learning about various types of resources will help you recognize useful sources. Researchers do not have to limit themselves to books. Articles, interviews, videos, audio recordings, and other media are also worth assessing for their research value.
To provide you with a more specific example of how to build these research skills, I have compiled the following resources to help you
learn more about historical records and resources.


Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing

By Anthony Brundage

Historical Research Using British Newspapers

By Denise Bates

The Family Tree Toolkit

By Kenyatta D. Berry

Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past

By Sam Wineburg
Exploring Big Historical Data: The Historian’s Macroscope
By Shawn Graham

By Shawn Graham

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