ENGL 101 - Introduction to Writing
Library Research Tutorial
Library Research Tutorial
1. Choosing & Developing a TopicChoosing a topic. Choose one that fits the assignment and that interests you. Do not choose a topic so narrow that little information is available, or so broad that the amount of information available is overwhelming. Be sure to consult with your ENGL 101 instructor about your topic before you begin your research. Developing a topic: Let's say that you choose to do your research about health care. You will have to decide what you want to know about health care. Health care is a huge topic and contains many sub-topics, such as health care reform, health care insurance, health care for children or senior citizens, electronic health records, etc.. One strategy to narrow your topic is to perform preliminary searches on health care in general. That way you can see what is being written about this topic; this will help you determine what aspects of health care you would be interested in pursuing. Another approach is to read an encyclopedia entry or other general background information in order to discover the issues surrounding the topic. 2. BREAKING DOWN THE TOPICLibrary resources like the catalog and databases will not usually return any results if the entire research question is typed into the search box. If you do happen to get any results, they will not be as specific, and will not provide as much ethos for your argument. For this example the research question is : What are the health benefits of eating chocolate? You will want to start by searching the catalog. What is a library catalog? A catalog is simply an electronic list, or inventory, of all the materials owned by a library. Our catalog allows you to search all of the materials owned by the 8 UMCP libraries and also the other University of Maryland campuses. If you type the entire question into the catalog search box and hit enter, this is what appears:
The above screen capture shows that the individual words were found, 24,537 records contain the word “what” and 44,523 records that contain the word “are,” etc. However, there was not one record that included all of the words. In order to improve your results you will need to distill your topic into its main concepts. Then you will use those concepts to try your search again. For this example topic the main concepts will be: If you are having trouble picking out the main concepts from your research question, try starting the process by crossing out the following types of words:
3. Brainstorming for SynonymsIf you are not finding results that answer your on your research question it is suggested you brainstorm alternate keywords. These alternate keywords, also called synonyms or related words, are useful to incorporate into your search in order to find more results. An example of why this can be helpful is that you may use the word teenager, but the author of some useful information may use the term adolescent; by brainstorming keywords you are more likely to be able to find that useful information. For example: If you are not finding good search results with the words health benefits & chocolate then brainstorm for synonyms.
To find even more keywords and synonyms look at the words used in: the abstract, subject terms, and titles of the relevant results. 4. Using Databases in Research PortBeyond finding books on your topic, what other information do you need to find? There are a lot of different resources available and each one offers different types of information you could use. Here are a few of many options: Continuing with the topic, the health benefits of eating chocolate you can use:
In this section we will focus on databases and the types of information you can find there. As you do the research for your ENGL 101 assignments, you will find that there is not one perfect book, journal article, encyclopedia or Web site that has all the information you need. Research is more of an art than a science and requires exploration and patience. A good research papers is often supported based on the evidence found in a number of articles, books, authoritative web sites, reports and more.
5. Library Resources "Quick Guide"General Library Resources:
Research Port's Specialized Databases / Subject Databases: NOTE: The format, or platform, of some of the databases below may look the same Academic Search Premier or other databases. However, the content, the types of articles within the databases, is different.
6. Time Saving Search TechniquesStop looking and start finding quality resources . Use the following search techniques in any search engine, which includes Google, the Libraries’ catalog and the subscription databases linked in Research Port. Boolean
operators are used to connect keywords in a way that all search engines understand.
The most commonly used ones are are: AND & OR.
Use AND to connect different concepts or ideas together in the same record. For example, a search for, Maryland AND Terrapins, will produce results that include both terms in every record found. This is a time saver if you are only interested in finding information that contains both of these concepts.
Using OR Will make your search more inclusive/ broader. By using OR the number of your search results will increase. It is useful to use OR when you are unsure which keyword would work best. For example, the search engine will understand the terms: underage OR adoloescent OR teenager, to mean that you want results that include any or all of those terms. The results may include one, two or all three of your keywords. For example, a search for, Terps OR Terrapins, will produce results that include either term, or both terms within the same record.
Be careful combining AND and OR in the same search sentence as the search engine may not interpret your search the way you intend because of the order of operations (like in math class). Use parentheses to keep OR's together. Examples: Maryland AND (Terps OR Terrapins) (underage OR adolescent) AND (drinking OR alcohol) Examples: "social networking." "underage drinking" "college football" Truncation is when you use a symbol that tells the search engine to search the root of the word. This is useful when you are interested in increasing the number of results retrieved. You start by typing in the root of the word and then add the truncation symbol used in that search engine. Generally, this symbol is the asterisk, *. For example, if you type in: photo* into a search engine the results will include: photo s , photography , photographing , photographer, etc.
7. Using Find It
8. What About Google Scholar?Some researchers like to use Google Scholar. It is recommended that you only use Google Scholar as one possible resource to use, but not the only one. Library resources can provide a more complete picture of your topic which will allow you to create stronger arguments within your papers. 9. Evaluating SourcesAnyone with some computer skills can publish a web site. In most cases no one has evaluated the quality or accuracy of the information found on the web. This does not mean that you cannot use information found on the web to support your research. It does mean that you will have to evaluate the authority, purpose, content and currency of the information before using it. Questions you should ask yourself to determine credibility:
For more information, consult: 10. Research & Writing Help
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