As a starting point, consider how the re-sources you can access at your university and the spaces you inhabit in your daily life

Each of these ways of using particular tools to answer a question you have are different kinds of research methods.

In the thesis-first model, a researcher would likely only encounter sources that argue for her pre-existing belief: that harsher penal-ties are needed. She would probably never be exposed to multi-ple perspectives on this complex issue, and the result would just be confirmation of her earlier beliefs. However, a researcher who begins with an open-ended question motivated by curiosity, whose goal is not to prove anything, but to discover salient ideas about a human rights issue, has the chance to explore different thoughts