Often, the first stage of the writing process is to select a topic of interest. The process of selecting a topic may seem simple, but an important step to developing a topic or research question is to know what information is already available on that topic or what other information is necessary to understand the topic. Thus, an informed topic statement or research question -- a refined version that takes existing information into account but does not expect you to be fully familiar with your sources yet -- requires a process of preliminary research.
There are a few things to keep in mind as you research and begin drafting an informed topic statement or informed research question. The following reminders and the two flowcharts will help direct your thinking throughout this stage of writing.
Reminders about informed topic statements and research questions:
**Remember that your approach to your topic can, and probably should, evolve over time as you encounter new information that changes or challenges your perspective.**
**If you are ever having trouble coming up with a topic to research, the library has a topics guide that can help to spark some directions you might take your ideas, but keep in mind that your best research will come from genuine curiosity (and respond to your actual assignment prompt)!**
Once you have selected a topic or research question, it is time to start searching. The search process can be frustrating at times, so it is important to remember to be patient and flexible! Start by choosing keywords that are connected to your topic/question, but often we need to have some creativity when choosing keywords as our search progresses. If you are having difficulty finding sources, try searching in another database or using different keywords. Here are some keyword tips and tricks that can help you narrow in on your topic:
Keywords are terms that represent the main concepts of your research topic.
These terms are what you will use to search for sources (articles, books, etc.) to support or answer your research question. Keywords can be single terms or a phrase (if using a search engine or database, "put phrases in quotes" to search multiple words as a single term).
The right keywords are "key" to finding good sources.
When you are developing these keywords consider:
Start by identifying the main concepts in your research question:
For example, if my research question is: How is global warming affecting the polar bears of the Arctic?
The main concepts areas here are:
Then brainstorm related terms and synonyms for your concepts:
"Global Warming":
This material is adapted from Charleston Southern University's Rivers Library "Where to Start Your Research" Guide under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
For more practice with developing keywords, see the Developing Keywords tutorial here (required for FYI, also listed on the Home page).
If you are having difficulty finding sources with your original chosen keywords, it can be helpful to take a look at "subject headings". Subject headings are standardized words or phrases that follow the Library of Congress' cataloging conventions in order to help make the source more findable in research databases (kind of the "hashtags" of the library). They also make it easier for researchers to find other materials with the same subject heading.
To find subject headings in OneSearch, first choose a source that fits what you are looking for or is on a similar topic. When you open the catalog entry, you should be able to see a list of blue words partway down the page in the "details" section. Some of these subject headings may be more helpful than others, depending on your research goal.
There are two ways you can use these subject headings. The first is to simply incorporate them into your list of keywords and searches. The second is to click on one of them, which will then open a search for all the materials in the OneSearch catalog that have been assigned that same subject heading. Depending on the heading you choose, it may be helpful to modify that search or to use search filters to narrow back onto your specific search goal.
Boolean operators are words and symbols that we can use while searching to help us limit our search results more precisely.
The Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT can be used to combine two different keywords to make our search more specific when actually searching in a catalog, database, or search engine. We can imagine how these operators work with the following venn diagrams:
AND allows us to search for sources that will have both keyword subjects. For example, if we want an source about cats AND dogs, the search will filter out materials that are only about cats or dogs. This way, our search results will only include sources that are about both animals.
OR allows us to search for sources that will have at least one of the keywords chosen. This operator is often used when there are multiple spellings, names, or words that can be used to search for the same topic. For example, the search Theodor Seuss Geisel OR Dr Seuss will show search results about the famous children's author under both his birth name and pen name, which gives us more search results than if we search with only one of the names.
NOT allows us to narrow down our search results by excluding a related topic or sub-topic from our search. For example, the search Judy Garland NOT Wizard of Oz will limit our search results to materials that are about Judy Garland, but do not include the Wizard of Oz in their catalog information.
For more practice with boolean operators, see the Using Boolean Operators tutorial here (required for FYI, also listed on the Home page).
Once you have a research goal in mind, that can help you select databases and research tools which will be most useful to your needs. The library offers a wide range of databases, and majority of the databases have specific content types or subjects, so it can be difficult to know where to start. In general, there are three main places we recommend going to in order to start your research:
OneSearch is the library's primary catalog database. The library collections include scholarly and popular materials in all of Augustana's academic disciplines and they have been carefully curated by the librarians, so OneSearch is usually a good place to start the research process. Using OneSearch, you will be able to locate not only the physical and virtual materials we offer, but you can also see sources from other schools in Illinois that you can order through I-Share.
The library offers tailored research guides for a majority of Augustana's academic disciplines and for some specific courses, just like the one you're currently using. If you would like some guidance or a single place to access the recommended databases for that subject, the research guides are the place to go. Each guide offers a curated list of databases related to the field of study, research tools, and advice to help you get started. A majority of the resources shared on the research guides can also be found in the A-Z listing, but occasionally there are individual tools that not cross-listed, so it can be helpful to take a peek at the research guide even if you already have a database in mind.
A-Z Resources
The final place to go to find databases and research tools is the A-Z Resources list, which is linked on the library homepage. The A-Z list includes all the library's subscribed databases in alphabetical order, so you can go straight to a specific database if you have one in mind, or you can take some time to explore what all we have to offer.
In general, when doing research, we recommend use a few different databases in order to expand and diversify your research results. For FYI, it may be more helpful to have a select list of places to go when starting research. To see our recommended multidisciplinary resources for your research in FYI, click on the "Library Resources" tab in the navigation bar. Of course, you are also welcome to explore the many other databases and tools we have to offer through the resources listed above.
Often when we are doing research, we are looking for certain types of sources. We categorize materials in three different ways depending on how they share information: Primary & Secondary Sources, Scholarly & Popular Sources, and Material Type.
The first way we often sort sources is by how they interact with the information they are presenting. Primary sources are written as a firsthand perspective. In a historical source, this would mean that the source would be presenting lived experiences; meanwhile, in a biology source, this would mean that the source is presenting observations or data gathered in the study. Secondary sources are materials that analyze or interpret primary sources. In history, this may be a source that summarizes an event and evaluates the factors and contexts; in biology, this could be a source that summarizes and collates several research studies. There is also a third level of sources when we categorize materials this way: tertiary sources, which are better known as reference materials. These sources provide short entries to introduce a concept or topic. Common reference sources are dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias.
For more information about primary & secondary sources and how to tell the difference, see the Primary vs Secondary Sources tutorial here (optional for most FYI, though required for any sections visiting Special Collections, also listed on the Home page).
A second way we sort sources is by how they share information, often in terms of their audiences and tone. Popular sources usually have a broader audience (often the general public), the purpose is to entertain readers or overview a subject, the design is usually more colorful in order to attract attention, and the language is general and less formal. Common examples of popular sources would be news articles, magazine articles, or social media posts, among others.
Scholarly sources (sometimes referred to as peer-reviewed or refereed sources), on the other hand, are usually intended for a specific audience of scholars and professionals in that field, the purpose is to publish new research and developments, the design will be more professional and plain, and the language will be more scholarly -- often using field-specific jargon and terminology. Common examples of scholarly sources would be journal articles and academic books.
You will often be asked to incorporate scholarly sources into your research while you are a student. There are many ways to ensure you are using scholarly sources, but the two main ways to do so would be to:
1. filter your search results (for example, in OneSearch, select "peer-reviewed journals")
2. evaluate the source yourself, using the above descriptions and distinctions to guide your evaluation (for example, look at the design and language of a source to determine an intended audience, or look at the publisher to determine what materials they publish)
For more information about popular and scholarly sources and how to tell the difference, see the Popular vs Scholarly Sources tutorial here (optional for FYI, also listed on the Home page).
A third way we generally sort sources is by medium or format of the material. This is usually the easiest way to sort sources because we are often already familiar with different types of materials: books, journal articles, news articles, social media posts, films, images, etc. As a student, you may be asked to research a specific medium or format, which will likely impact the research database you choose to complete the research. The library offers several databases that specialize in a specific medium/format, but the general databases and our OneSearch function can all be filtered by resource type as well.
"How do we know what we know, and to what extent can we be sure?"
Information literacy is the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information” and to use the information in an effective, ethical, and legal way once acquired (ALA "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education").
Learning to properly evaluate sources for yourself is an important part of the research process. While the peer-review process provides a clear way to screen materials for quality in an academic context, it is still important to apply evaluation skills to scholarly sources, and especially important to apply to popular sources such as news, social media, and other internet sources. This page will help to build a foundation for you to evaluate what you find on the internet and teach you how to do a basic fact check.
One way we can evaluate a resource is through the CRAAP(S) test, which helps us to determine whether a source is "crap" for your needs or not (ha ha, you can laugh, research is fun). CRAAP(S) stands for:
C-Currency : Is this source up-to-date?
R-Relevance : Is this source relevant to my research goals?
A-Authority : What is the author's background? What is the publisher known for?
A-Accuracy : Is there information I can fact-check?
P-Purpose : What is the motivation behind this research?
(S)-Silent : What information is missing from your research?
To evaluate your sources, review each one in response to each of the letters in CRAAP. You do not have to have positive answers for each question in order for the source to still be useful for your research, but your overall assessment should help guide whether you feel like the source is trustworthy, credible, and relevant to your specific research purposes. The test also helps consumers of information to identify the rhetorical situations (audience, author, purpose, medium, context, and content) of the media that they consume.
For each letter of the acronym, here are some additional questions we could ask ourselves as we take a closer look at a source:
Currency:
Relevance:
Authority:
Accuracy:
Purpose:
The Silent S:
We often tell our students that after the CRAAP test comes the silent S -- the gaps and silences in the source. Example questions you can ask to evaluate the Silences include:
The CRAAP Test was developed by Sarah Blakeslee and other librarians at California State University. Read more via:
Blakeslee, Sarah. "The CRAAP Test." LOEX Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 3, 2004, https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/vol31/iss3/4.
The CRAAP(S) Test is a good way to start learning how to evaluate sources, but it is not the only way. For more information on fact checking strategies, evaluating authority and bias, and other source evaluation techniques and tools, check out the Evaluating Sources tab in our expanded Introduction to Research guide.