This course is intended for students at land grant universities studying for the highest degree in their fields. In many cases, the degree you seek is the doctorate of philosophy. To be eligible for the coveted title, Dr., you must produce new knowledge. To produce such knowledge you are expected to conduct research.

Research takes different forms in different fields. In engineering, you may be expected to produce a new software code. In molecular biology, you may have to come up with a novel method to sequence genes. In public administration, you may work to create and interpret a new survey designed to reveal the attitudes of government officials toward state-run lotteries. Whether you are producing a statistical algorithm, a new procedure for determining the function of a gene, an architectural design, or an historical narrative, you are distinguishing yourself and your institution by adding your piece to the immense storehouse of human knowledge, creativity, and invention.

While research is a highly variable enterprise, it is not overly misleading to think of all of these enterprises as a search for generalizable knowledge* or genuinely creative human expression. Often, the products of research in the disciplines of engineering and the applied and theoretical sciences are the result of the testing of hypotheses and the drawing of conclusions, whether the medium is DNA, a software code sequence, or the historical or astronomical past. The expression of the results of successful research results not in arcane bits of trivia or meaningless streams of data, but in ideas and syntheses that cast light on areas of experience beyond themselves. Sometimes, the results of research produce observations or breakthroughs leading to revolutionary new principles or exciting theories.