Composition II

Professor Burke
Spring 2008

 

The Research Process:
Tips, Tricks and Tools

The beginning of any research project is figuring out what you already know. So take the

Test Your Library Knowledge

quiz and find out what you already know about the A.C. Buehler Library!

You can post the results on your Myspace or Livejournal if you want.

 

What is the Research Process?

The research process usually follows a path from general to specific kinds of information. Most of the time, when you are researching a topic for a project, you start with general knowledge--either things you already know or information you gather from general sources. As you learn more about the topic and find what interests you, you move into more specific kinds of information.

This page will guide you through the research process, as well as giving you links to resources at the A.C. Buehler Library where you can search for the information you need.

     

 

In the beginning...

There are lots of different ways of starting the process of doing research. You will need to use many different kinds of resources in the process of writing your research paper. Different resources can be helpful to you at different points in the process. This website and our library sessions will help you think about your own research and writing process, plan your research and writing strategy, and give you some information that will help you choose the right tools and resources to use at the right steps of the process.

One place to start is with General Resources.

General Resources are encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and other reference sources that give you an overview or broad picture of your topic. You should consider starting your research process with General Sources if:

  • You are starting research on an unfamiliar topic
  • You need some background information on your topic
  • You find "holes" in your information as you do other research and want to fill them in

General Resources In the A.C. Buehler Library

Electronic Sources:

These are searchable online reference book databases. Each collection contains more than one book, and each collection has different books in it. if you don't find what you are looking for in one database, try another.

  • Credo Reference ~ over 275 electronic books, ranging from art to technology. Search across all subjects or select specific subject areas to search in.
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library ~ full text of over 50 reference sources. Do a basic Search to get the bog picture of what's available, or search by subject.
  • Greenwood Digital Collection ~ collection of electronic books, some reference and some not, with a searchable interface.
  • Britannica Online ~ same as the printed version, but searchable.

Print Sources:

Print reference sources can provide you with good general information, as well as an answer to the question "What do I look at next?". The library has an extensive collection of reference books--here's a small sample:

  • American Decades R 973.92 A512
  • Bowling, beatniks, and bell-bottoms : pop culture of 20th-century America R 306.0973 B787
  • The Greenwood guide to American popular culture R 306.40973 G816
  • St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, R973.9 S143
  • The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, R781.6403 E56 1998
  • Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history R 973.0496073 E56
  • Encyclopedia of American Immigration R 304.87303 E56
  • The Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism, R 306.4460973 E56
  • Encyclopedia of Sociology R 301.03 E56S
  • Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America R323.1196 E56
  • Encyclopedia of crime and punishment R 346.03 E56
  • Encyclopedia of Science and Technology R503 M147D 2007
  • Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, R 306.703 H918
  • Eating Disorders Sourcebook, R616.8526E14d
  • Encyclopedia of Education R 370.3 E56g
  • Encyclopedia of Marriage and the Family, R 306.803 E56
  • The Encyclopedia of Religion, R200.3 E56
  • Greenwood encyclopedia of women’s issues worldwide R 305.4203 G816
  • Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, R305.403 R869
  • International encyclopedia of women and sports R 796.082 I61
  • Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, R956.003 E56me

 

Remember that a good reference source will be able to help you do your research in 3 ways:

  • You will get familiar with topic-specific words, names, etc, that you can use while searching for more specific sources
  • Good reference works have bibliographies--you can always look those sources up yourself
  • You will get an idea about the breadth of a topic and how you should plan your next research step

 

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Books, to be more specific...

Once you have a good general background in your topic, it's time to look for more specific information. One good source for more specific information is books.

I-Share is the A.C. Buehler Library's online library catalog. You can search there for books (both "real life" and electronic books), videos, paper copies of journals and magazines (electronic versions are available thru online database sources), music recordings and other resources in the library. You can also search the catalogs of 71 other college and university libraries in the state.

Some tips for effective I-Share Searching:

There are 2 main types of searches you can do in I-Share:

  • Quick Searches: A good way to start looking.
    • You can either look for particular items (such as a particular title--select "Title" in the "Search By" box), or use the main words describing your topic.
    • For example, to find books about divorce, type the word divorce (with or without capitals), select "Any words, anywhere" in the "Search by" box.
    • The word divorce can be anywhere in the description of the item, like the name of the publisher.
    • To do a more focused search on, say, the effects of divorce on children, select Boolean, and type in divorce and children.
  • Advanced Searches: Click on the tab that says "Advanced "
    • You can search for more complex ideas easily here
    • For example, to search for books on women's rights in Saudi Arabia, type women's rights in one box, and Saudi Arabia in the next
    • This kind of search often works better for complex ideas than the Quick Search option

What should you select in the "Search By" box? It depends on what you are looking for....

  • Title Searches: Use when you are looking for a specific book: ie To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Author Searches: Use when you are looking for books written by a particular author: ie William Shakespeare
    • Remember to always search for authors by last name, first name--Shakespeare, William
    • If you are looking for books written about an author, do a Subject search
  • Call Number Searches: Use this if you know the call number of a specific book
  • Journal/magazine titles: use this when you want to see if the library has the paper copy of a journal or magazine
    • Remember that you won't find articles from journals or magazines in I-Share
    • You need to search for those in an online database (there's information on that further down this page)

There are two kinds of searches you will probably use more than the others:

  • "Any word, anywhere " Searches: Use when you are first starting out with a search and you're not sure what you will find.
    • This is essentially a keyword search, similar to Google (except it's just searching the catalog)
    • An "Any word, anywhere" search can be a good way to get at more specific words that will help you find more useful information
    • This can be frustrating if the words you are using are not the "right" ones
  • Subject Searches: Use these when you know (or would like to find out) the Subject headings that pertain to your topic.
    • Subject Searching can be an extremely efficient way to find information on a topic
    • The catalog can "help" you figure out what Subject headings are
    • The catalog can "help" you use Subject headings to find more books--you can click on the subject heading and ge to more titles

 

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A pause for a "process" thought:

One of the things about doing research is that you may start out thinking you are researching one topic, only to discover through the process of research and thinking about the topic that you are really looking at a slightly different topic. Or that you are really more interested in a slightly different topic. Or that there really isn't the kind of information available on your topic--the way you were thinking about it--that you were hoping for.

This is perfectly normal. It is part of the process.
Don't panic.

One of the reasons to think about research as a process of "general to specific" or "bigger to smaller" is that when you get to one of these points--where your interest shifts or things need clarification--it's easy to pull your focus back out. Go back to the general resources. Fill in the blanks. Get some background information on the slightly different topic. Dive back in. It's part of the fun.

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Narrowing your focus: journal and magazine articles

Once you have gained a good background in your topic, and gotten some perspectives from books, the next place you may want to look for information is journal or magazine articles. Sometimes students begin their research with this step. It may be that if you are researching a topic you have some familiarity with, going straight for articles is an appropriate strategy. But keep an open mind about needing to go back to more general sources to fill in any holes in your knowledge as you do so.

 

But before we get to the "where do I get articles" question -- Did you know there are more than one kind of article?

Most publications that come out with new issues on some timetable (librarians call them "periodicals") can be put into one of two, broad categories: Scholarly journals or Popular magazines. These publications have some big differences, and the kinds of information you get from each of them will be different. What are some of these differences?

Popular articles
Scholarly Articles
Are written for a general audience--not specialists
Are written for professionals or specialists in a field
Are written by journalists
Are written by specialists or professionals in a field
Are stories typically assigned to writers by an editor
Are written by scholars who are sharing their research with fellow scholars. These articles go through a process of peer-review
Are written in language aimed at non specialists--"anyone" can understand
May be written using highly specialized or technical language--the "jargon" of a field
Can be short, to the point, summaries of a story or idea
Are more lengthy, explore a topic in depth
Magazines are often filled with pictures, advertising for general products
Journals rarely have pictures (though there may be graphs of data) and only have ads for professional tools, if any at all
Never have a bibliography or list of references
Always have a bibliography or list of references

Mostly your teachers will make it clear whether they expect you to use scholarly sources, popular sources, or a combination. if you have a question about whether a source you are looking at is scholarly or popular, you can read this to learn how to distinguish scholarly journals from other periodicals.

 

Using Online Databases to find articles: good places to start

These are some of our most general database sources for articles. We also have databases that have more topic-specific sources in them. If your research topic falls under that category and you are having trouble finding good information in the more general databases, try looking at our Databases by Topic page.

Here are the most commonly useful databases for magazine and journal articles:

  • CQ Researcher ~ An excellent source for current hot topics. Each individual issue contains historical background, a timeline, current status, and potential future developments. The bibliographies are especially helpful in finding useful sources.
  • Academic Search Complete ~ A good place to start. Includes references to scholarly as well as popular periodicals.
  • Periodical Abstracts ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for magazine and journal articles.
  • WilsonSelectPlus ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a variety of magazines and journals.

You can also search for articles in newspapers in some of the above databases, or in these specialty-newspaper databases:

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Some more subject-specific sources you may find useful:

Since you are choosing your paper topic by what interests you, you may find researching in some subject-specific databases useful. Here are a couple of examples:

Also try searching using Webfeat (make sure you select your subject area before clicking on Search). You can also try looking on our Databases by Topic page to find an appropriate database.

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Hey! What about the Internet?

A word about Google and Wikipedia.

Google and Wikipedia are 2 tools that are available to help you find information on the Internet. Google is an Internet search engine. It will find websites for you. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia.It contains lots of information about lots of topics. But you need to be careful when using these 2 tools.

Google will just find sites for you. It will not tell you whether or not those sites are accurate, or unbiased, or current. Google also cannot tell you whether or not a website is useful to you--for your project. Just because a website comes up in a top-ten Google result list doesn't mean that information is useful to you. You have to evaluate websites--see the links below to help you think about how to do that.

Wikipedia can be useful to help you get started finding information. But because anybody can edit a Wikipedia page, you have to take information you find there with a grain of salt. Wikipedia should never be used as more than a starting place for getting some background information, and then only as one of many. Always check Wikipedia facts against what you are finding elsewhere.

For a funny take on why you should be careful about using Wikipedia, watch this clip from the Colbert Report TV show.

 

 

Actually writing the paper...

Here are some resources to help you with that:

For help with writing your papers and bibliographies, try the Elmhurst College Writing Center online help page.

You can also try these online resources:

College Writing and Citing
Citing Electronic Resources
ONLINE! Citation Styles
Citing Sources from the Duke University Libraries

If you need any help finding articles or writing, you can also contact the Reference Desk any time the library is open:

Reference: 630-617-3173
Email: ref[at[elmhurst[dot]edu
AIM: elmhrstcollibref   |   Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryreference   |   MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu

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This page was created by Peg Cook, Assistant Reference Librarian, A.C. Buehler Library, Elmhurst College on October 9th 2007, and last updated on March 13, 2008. It was adapted from a page created by Jennifer Paliatka .

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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