General Research StrategyThe following steps outline a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find. Depending on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you may need to rearrange or recycle these steps. Adapt this outline to your needs.STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR TOPIC. Select a topic that is interesting to you. State your topic as a question. For example, if you are interested in finding out about the practice of euthanasia, you might pose the question, "Is euthanasia to relieve suffering morally acceptable?" Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. Ideas for topics. STEP 2: FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION. A Reference Source is a book or database which gives brief information or an introduction to a topic. There are many types of reference sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, directories, anmd sources for statistics. Increasingly many of these sources may be found online. Look up your keywords in the indexes to subject encyclopedias. Read articles in these encyclopedias to set the context for your research. Note any relevant items in the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles.
STEP 3: USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS. Books are a great source for background reading or historical information. Due to their length topics can be explored in more depth.
Hartford Public Library Catalog
STEP 4: FIND MAGAZINE ARTICLES. Books often do not contain the most recent information. If you a researching a current topic, magazine or journal articles are a good source of information. Articles can be found in indexes which may be in paper or electronic format. An electronic database is a tool used for finding information on recent topics. All indexes, both electronic and paper have a specific focus and a specific range of years which they cover. You must be aware of a database's focus in order to search for a topic effectively.
STEP 5: FIND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES For accessing the most recent day-to-day events, newspapers are an excellent source of information.
STEP 6: FIND INTERNET RESOURCES. The Internet is a vast resource for information. It is self publishing, meaning anyone can (and often does) post a website. Different sites exist to inform, sell, advertise, persuade, entertain, and report research. It is up to you to decide if the information is reliable.
Search Google Search Yahoo STEP 7: EVALUATE WHAT YOU FIND. Students must learn to evaluate the various sources of information which they find including books, journals and web sites. Authors of scholarly articles are experts in their field of study and generally write articles in one subject area. The authors at Time Magazine write a variety of articles on various subjects. One week they may write an article on AIDS, the next week an article on United States foreign policy. These writers are not usually experts in a particular subject. The Internet is not reliable as there is no editorial control such as we find with books or journals. Special care should be taken when using the Internet for research purposes as there are many web sites of questionable value.
Web Site Evaluation Checklist
STEP 8: CITE WHAT YOU FIND USING A STANDARD FORMAT. WHAT IS A CITATION? A CITATION is a reference to an item from which a quotation or information was taken or to which a person is being directed. Includes enough information to locate the original item. For example: a book citation would include author, title, place of publication, publisher and date of publication; an article citation would include author, title, name of periodical, date, and page reference Citations are generally listed at the end of a research paper. After you formulate your research question, examine various sources of information, and write your paper, the final product should be uniquely yours. If you decide to use the exact words of an author you have to give that person credit. If you do not give the author appropriate credit you are guilty of plagiarism. Webster's Dictionary defines plagiarism as stealing and passing off the ideas and words of another as one's own. "Ideas or words" can include written or spoken material, statistics, lab results, art work, etc. If you have quoted a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; another student at this college or elsewhere; or various Internet sites, you must give appropriate credit in your paper (CCC : A Guide to Research Papers, pages 4-5). The penalty for plagiarism is determined by the professor teaching the course; more often than not, however, it will involve failure for the paper and it could mean failure for the entire course. Repeated infractions of this essential principle of academic responsibility could result in expulsion from the college. Penalties published in Capital's Student Handbook are subject to guidelines determined by the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Community Colleges (CCC : a Guide to Research Papers, pages 4-5). Capital's Guide to Research Papers MLA Format and APA Format give you information concerning gathering materials and documenting your work in the proper format. The guide gives you examples of citing books, encyclopedia articles, journals, newspapers, interviews, audio-visual materials and radio or television broadcasts. Both printed and electronic sources are covered. Print versions of the MLA and APA Guides are available in the library. STEP 9: PREPARING A BIBLIOGRAPHY. WHAT IS A BIBLIOGRAPHY? A BIBLIOGRAPHY is an alphabetic list of all materials (books, journals, newspapers, websites, etc) consulted in the preparation of your assignment written in the form of a citation. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A BIBLIOGRAPHY? A bibliography may serve a number of purposes such as: Reviewing the literature on a particular subject Illustrating the quality of research that you have done Providing examples of the types of sources available Acknowledging and giving credit to sources of materials summarized or paraphrased Showing that you are respectfully borrowing other people's ideas, not stealing them, i.e. to prove that you are not plagiarizing. Giving readers an opportunity to check out your sources for accuracy. Sample paper in MLA format Sample paper in APA format |