Research is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions." Throughout college you will be required to do research and write papers for most of your classes providing you with an opportunity to learn a valuable set of skills. The ability to locate, evaluate and reinterpret information, which is the essence of research, is a life skill and large part of what your college experience is about.
There are several steps and hints that can make the research process more manageable. This guide is designed to help you in your quest to find the right sources. Our goal at USC Upstate it to help make people Information Literate, that is people who can use the library and do research effectively. As with most things the more you practice the better you get, research is a skill that must be practiced and developed.
Make sure to write down all of the bibliographical information (author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, page numbers, URLs, creation or modification dates on Web pages, and your date of access) or enter the information into your computer or a citation management software so you can find it later. REMEMBER that any source without bibliographical information is useless - if you can't cite the source you can't use the source.
1. Identifying and developing a topic.
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What are the communication differences between men and women? |
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communication |
differences |
men (man) |
women (woman) |
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discourse |
contrast |
male |
female |
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relationship(s) |
similarities |
gender |
sex |
2. Finding supporting & background information using reference materials.
Try some of our online Reference Materials
Learn about Specialized Reference Sources
3. Finding books using the library catalog.
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4. Using Article Databases to finding articles.
IF your assignment requires that you only use scholarly or peer reviewed articles, save yourself some time by checking any boxes that allow you to limit your search to these types of articles.
Examples of Subject Terms from an article about obesity in school children:
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Subject Terms:
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*OBESITY in children -- Prevention *ACADEMIC medical centers *HEALTH education *MEDICAL cooperation *MEDICAL screening *OBESITY in children *SCHOOL administration *BODY mass index |
5. Internet Resources
Often, starting your research journey with a few Google searches can help you find some basic background information as well as focus your topic. REMEMBER not all professors want you to USE that research in your paper so make sure to check your assignment. If you can use web resources, then cautiously search online for reputable and reliable web sources. The trouble with the Internet is that there is very little control of the content available. Basically anyone can make a website and upload information that may not be accurate or even true.
Make sure to evaluate your resource using either the S.T.A.A.R. or ABC methods and only rely on quality resources. The video below uses the C.R.A.A.P. method to evaluate sources. This is a valid method but I don't want to encourage you to find C.R.A.A.P. I think you should find a S.T.A.A.R.
6. Assembling Research
In your paper/research project you will use sources such as books, articles, government documents, web pages, or other types of sources to gain knowledge of your topic and support the statements you make. You will need to use that information ethically and give credit where credit is due. When you find information from a source, you should rephrase it into your own words and only use exact quotations when a phrase is unique. You should keep a record of all the information you will need from each source for your bibliography. Even if you are unsure whether you will use a resource you should keep the information for the citation, just in case. Citations are designed to show others your research path and gives credit to other people’s work and ideas.
Using someone else’s work from Ethical Use of Information Research Guide
Any time someone else's work is used, it is ethical to give credit to the original creator. This takes the form of a citation which indicates who the original creator is and where the item was found.
When using someone else's work in your own without giving credit, you are essentially indicating that you created it. This is called plagiarism.
Plagiarism Quick-Guide
Terms to Know
Plagiarism: Using other people’s words and ideas without clearly acknowledging the source of the information
Common Knowledge: Facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be widely known.
Example: John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960.
This is generally known information- You do not need to document this fact
Interpretation: You must document facts that are not generally known, or ideas that interpret facts.
Example: Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever to have played the game. This idea is not a fact but an interpretation- You need to cite the source
Quotation: Using someone’s words directly. When you use a quote, place the passage you are using in quotation marks, and document the source according to a standard documenting style.
Example: According to John Smith in The New York Times, “37% of all children under the age of 10 live below the poverty line”.
Paraphrase: Using someone’s ideas, but putting them in your own words. Although you will use your own words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the source of the information
Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism
"Ethical Use of Information." Research Guide. Ed. Margaret Driscoll. John Spoor Broome Library, 7 July 2015. Web 27 Oct. 2015.
USC Upstate has an entire LibGuide to help you recognize plagiarism and how to avoid it.
7. Synthesis of Information – Pulling it all together
Research and sources alone do not make for an effective paper. Facts are just facts. You will want to combine your ideas and research to see how they relate to one another and how they form a new idea or point. Your paper should take the details, information, ideas, and explanations from all of your resources and they should be combined, integrated and mixed with your own thoughts and conclusions about the question you have researched to create a cohesive paper. Keeping your research question in mind, your paper should form a unified whole that conveys your perspective and the evidence from your research that logically supports it.
Once you decide what information to use, you will need to work that information into your paper. There are 3 general ways to do this:
8. Choosing the Appropriate Citation style or Reference System
There are many different citation styles that each address the needs of distinctive disciplines. Each of these styles require the same basic information but the order, syntax, and style of that information varies. Different styles emphasize different elements of a source showing priorities and readability of key information. There are also two major divisions within most citation styles: documentary-note style and parenthetical style. Documentary-note style offers footnotes or endnotes to the information where parenthetical style or “in-text” is where references to sources are made in the body of the work itself, through parentheses.
Seldom will you be the one choosing the reference system you use in your research paper – almost always, your professor will let you know what is. The three most-used reference systems are:
APA (American Psychological Association) is used by Education, Psychology, and Sciences
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used by the Humanities, and English
Chicago / Turabian style is generally used by Business, History, and the Fine Arts
The reference system you must use will control three very important parts of your paper:
For more help using Boolean Searching See the LibGuide Boolean Searching