Overview
It's a good idea to keep detailed research notes throughout the process. This can often save lots of time in the end.
Step 1: Identify your topic
- With what topics are you already familiar?
- In what topics do you have a genuine interest?
- In what topics do you already have a strong opinion; positive or negative?
Step 2: Find background information
- Identify keywords related to your topic.
- Search encyclopedia and other general sources.
- Collect additional keywords that you can use to search later.
- Generally, it is ok to use Wikipedia in this step, but remember Wikipedia is like your really smart older sibling; they may provide you with lots of great bits of information to get started, but you would never use them as a source for your project.
Step 3: Search for your sources
- Library catalogs for books
- Databases for periodical articles
- Additional Internet resources.
Step 4: Evaluate what you’ve found
- CARS Checklist
- Credibility: Is this source believable and trustworthy?
- Accuracy: Is the information correct and current?
- Reasonableness: Is the information fair and objective?
- Support: Is the information verifiable?
Step 5: Make notes
Step 6: Write your paper
- Narrow your original topic into a research question.
- Consider:
- Is the research question researchable in terms of the available timeframe and required resources?
- Is the research question too broad or too narrow?
Step 7: Cite your sources
- Gives credit to the authors and materials you’ve used
- Provides your writing with credibility