Quick Guide to the Research Process
1. Choose a research topic (hopefully, one
in which you are interested).
Tools that can help:
- 10,000 Topic Ideas Term Papers Projects & Reports (808.02 L232)
- CQ Researcher Index (900.5 E23)
- Newspapers and magazines
- Print periodical indexes
- General encyclopedia indexes
- Discussions with your instructor
- Class lecture notes
- Class Readings on Reserve
2. Narrow focus to a specific aspect of
topic.
Tools that can help:
- General encyclopedia articles
- Relevant items in the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles
- Discussions with your instructor
- Stating your topic as a question.
- Identifying the main concepts or keywords in your topic.
3. Learn basic facts and terminology related
to your topic.
Tools that can help:
- Subject-specific encyclopedias
- Other reference books, such as statistical sources, almanacs, handbooks
4. Search for books to gain a broader and
more in-depth background on the topic.
Tools that can help:
- Use keyword searching with Online Library Catalog at SCC (http://oscar.ctc.edu/library)
- Online catalogs at other libraries
- Printing or writing down the citation (author, title, etc.) and the location information (call number and library)
- When you pull the book from the shelf, scan the bibliography for additional sources
5. Expand search to find current events and
research related to the topic.
Tools that can help:
- Magazine/journals –ProQuest, Ebsco, Ethnic Newswatch, Electric Library (access through SCC Library web – http://oscar.ctc.edu/library)
- World Wide Web - Use search engines and subject directories to locate materials on the Web—then evaluate
6. Evaluate Quality of Sources
Tools that can help:
- Section in English handbooks on source evaluation
- Asking Librarians or instructor about source
- Distinguishing scholarly from non-scholarly sources
- Considering author, date of publication, publisher, and title of source
- Considering content based on intended audience, reasoning, coverage, writing style, and bias.