1 What is a deep dive?

We do deep dives all the time in our personal, academic, and professional lives. A deep dive is the process of gaining knowledge or creating answers to important questions.

When people use the term research they actually can mean many different things. In most academic disciplines “doing research” means making an original contribution through work with primary documents such as letters or diaries, conducting experiments, collecting and analyzing data or working through unsolved problems. However, the term research is also  is used to mean gathering and synthesizing information from published sources. This meaning of research is one you will be asked to do in many classes.  It is also the kind of research that you need to do to be an informed participant in society.

A deep dive may fit what people casually call research, but it is a different, less formal process that is typically done to increase your knowledge or answer a question you have for your life (personal, academic, or professional).

We do deep dives for many reasons. Sometimes in a deep dive, we want to know more. Sometimes we need to. Sometimes, topics are assigned. And other times, we have a deep need that affects ourselves and those around us. We might also want to do a deep dive into something fun and interesting (like vacations, hobbies, sports, and music) or something we are just curious about.

We are all faced with questions and problems that require careful, critical thought based on reliable evidence.

• In your personal life, you may find that you have questions related to health, finances, and family matters.
• In your career, you will be faced with tough decisions.
• In dealing with the world around you, you will be asked or called to take action.
• In a class, you could be assigned a topic that needs deep understanding.

All of these require careful consideration. To be prepared to answer complex questions and make tough decisions, you’ll need to take a deep dive into specific topics- not based on what the latest celebrity or newscast has to say or what you think you already know. Instead, you need to work from reliable evidence that you evaluate yourself.

The goal of this is for you to dive deeply into a topic.  But before you can,  you may need to widen your knowledge base. A wide knowledge base means you know the vocabulary, basic ideas, and key theories in whatever the deep dive area is. Once you have a wide knowledge base, you’ll need more to complete the deep dive. You will need specific, reliable sources that go deeper than the general ideas you have or can easily add to your knowledge base.

We use structured steps to complete a deep dive. The steps of a deep dive are similar regardless of why you are doing the dive itself.

In a deep dive, you work to:

Understand: Gain a general understanding of the topic or idea, including vocabulary, theories, and ideas.

Source: Determine sources to help you understand the issues and answer the parts of the question.

Read: Read sources carefully, closely, and critically. Take notes so that you can work without rereading unless absolutely necessary.

Synthesize: Combine and assess the material in your sources and how they mix to answer your question (and identify more questions to dive into).

Evaluate: Determine if and how the information answers your question or informs your decision and actions.

Assess: Determine if your answers, decisions, or actions are accurate, practical, and consistent with what you know.

This guide can help you in any deep dives you do but is geared towards doing an academic deep dive.