Research Workflow
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Lesson 5 of 8

Research Workflow

A useful research workflow separates question framing, evidence gathering, synthesis and verification.

Active reading
Why this matters

A useful research workflow separates question framing, evidence gathering, synthesis and verification.

Question

Define what decision the research supports.

Evidence

Gather sources before synthesizing.

Verify

Check important claims against original sources.

Understand the working model

Start with a research question that has boundaries: time period, geography, audience and decision. Without boundaries, AI tends to produce a broad summary instead of decision-useful evidence.

Keep claims and sources linked. A research note should let you answer “where did this come from?” before it becomes a final conclusion.

Example
Research question → source list → evidence table → synthesis → contradiction check → final brief with citations.
Practice

Apply the pattern above to one real task you already do. Keep the first version small enough that you can inspect every input and output.

Common mistake

Do not let the synthesis stage introduce facts that never appeared in the evidence stage.

Key takeaway

Research is stronger when evidence is collected first and every important conclusion remains traceable to a source.

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