This general overview can help you get started on your college research assignment. Research is a process, and we are here to help! Need research advice? Ask a librarian.
In the research process, you will be like a detective, going from source to source to discover information. You will probably take twists and turns and end up learning something new.
Before you start, make sure you —
Sometimes the hardest part is choosing your topic or research question. Review your assignment instructions for guidance on topics. Choose a topic that is interesting to you or that you are curious about. It makes the research process more fun.
Where to get topic ideas:
For students writing argumentative research papers, you may find the topic lists in Issues & Controversies (Infobase) or CQ Researcher helpful.
Picking a topic is part of the research process. It is okay to change your mind and switch topics.
Before you can look for sources like books, articles, videos, or websites to use in your assignment, you need to make a list of keywords. Keywords are words that describe your topic or a part of your topic. You will try different keyword combinations when you search for sources.
Having a list of keywords gives you lots of options to try and makes searching for sources less stressful. There are three steps to making a keyword list.
On a piece of paper, write down your topic. Next, write down your topic as a series of questions. What do you want to know?
Example:
Topic: pay for college athletes
Question: Why don’t college athletes get paid?
Question: How much money are colleges making off of college athletes?
Question: What are the recent court decisions regarding college athletes?
Identify the main idea words in your topic and your questions. Make a list of those words on your paper.
Example:
Keyword list: college athletes, pay, money, court decisions
Add synonyms and related words to your list.
Example:
Keyword list: college athletes, student athletes, college basketball players, college football players, NCAA, pay, money, compensation, profits, exploitation, name image likeness, court decisions, rulings.
If you need help thinking of keywords, ask a librarian. We can help you form questions, identify main terms, and create lists of synonyms.
Now that you have keywords, you will search for sources. You are used to searching for information online with Google. In college-level research, you will mostly use library databases.
A database is an electronic collection of information that is searchable. Google is a database of the webpages it is able to find online. Library databases are smaller and more selective than Google. They include lots of content that Google does not. When Google does have the same content, it is often behind website paywalls.
The Library pays for databases with millions of articles, ebooks, videos, and images that we think will be useful for your assignments. Library databases are “free” for you to use because your tuition dollars already paid for them.
Takeaway: Library databases are great for finding scholarly articles and ebooks, high-quality documentaries, and magazine and newspaper articles from well-respected publications.
Takeaway: Google is great for verifying terms and spellings, finding government and organization websites and reports, and doing source evaluation research like finding out the reputation of a publication or author.
Google Scholar is a specialized Google search of academic articles, reports, dissertations, and conference papers. It can be a helpful tool at times, especially if you are not finding what you are looking for in library databases.
But Google Scholar has significant limitations. There is no way to show only results for articles from peer-reviewed journals or results that link to the full text of the article. Google does not give a clear definition of what it judges as scholarly, and some of the results vary in quality. Lots of Google Scholar results link to publisher websites that require payment to view the article!
If you use it, access Google Scholar through the Library website. When you do that, your Google Scholar search results will include Article @ Normandale Lib. links whenever we have an article available in a library database. (The link to access Google Scholar through the Library also appears on the General (All Topics) Databases page.)
If you find an article in Google Scholar that we do not have access to in the Library, submit an interlibrary loan request. We can borrow it for you from another library.
Which databases to use depends on your topic and what kinds of information you need. If you aren’t sure which database to use, try our Library Combined Search to start. It includes content from many of our databases in one search. See results for books in the Library, ebooks, articles from scholarly journals and magazines, and some streaming videos. To use Combined Search, go to the Library homepage.
Or, choose a database from our lists of databases by name, subject/discipline, and source type: Library Databases. (Depending on the topic, searching a specific database may be more successful than using Combined Search.)
The different databases have different content. It is often helpful to try more than one. Need advice on which database to use? Just ask!
The real trick to searching is patient trial and error. Use your keyword list to try searching with different word combinations.
Example:
Search 1: college athlete profits exploitation
Search 2: NCAA court ruling pay athlete
And so on..
Each search will likely get different results. Some searches will be more successful than others. Use what you learn from one search to improve the next. And don’t forget, librarians are here to help!
It is important to evaluate your sources for credibility (trustworthiness) and usefulness for your assignment. Evaluating a sources requires you to look at the information the source provides and also look for information outside of the source. For example, which person or organization created or published the source? What is their reputation or knowledge on the topic?
Normandale librarians recommend students use the CAPPS framework to help you evaluate any source. See our CAPPS Source Evaluation handout.
When evaluating websites, consider these Dos and Don'ts for Evaluating Information on Websites in addition to CAPPS.
When you use the ideas of others in your work, you need to give them credit. There are different methods for noting which sources you are borrowing ideas from called citation styles. Use the citation style required by your instructor.
Check out our MLA, APA and other citation guides to get started.
Confused about citations? Stop by the Library and ask a librarian for help.
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