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The following steps outline a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find. Depending on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you may need to rearrange or recycle these steps. Adapt this outline to your needs.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR TOPIC.
Select a topic that is interesting to you. State your topic as a question. For example, if you are interested in finding out about the practice of euthanasia, you might pose the question, "Is euthanasia to relieve suffering morally acceptable?" Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 2: FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
A Reference Source is a book or database which gives brief information or an introduction to a topic. There are many types of reference sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, directories, and sources for statistics. Increasingly many of these sources may be found online. Look up your keywords in the indexes to subject encyclopedias. Read articles in these encyclopedias to set the context for your research. Note any relevant items in the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 3: USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS.
Books are a great source for background reading or historical information. Due to their length topics can be explored in more depth.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 4: FIND MAGAZINE ARTICLES.
Books often do not contain the most recent information. If you a researching a current topic, magazine or journal articles are a good source of information. Articles can be found in indexes which may be in paper or electronic format. An electronic database is a tool used for finding information on recent topics. All indexes, both electronic and paper have a specific focusand a specific range of years which they cover. You must be aware of a databases focus in order to search for a topic effectively.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 5: FIND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.
For accesing the most recent day-to-day events, newspapers are excellent source of information.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 6: FIND INTERNET RESOURCES
The Internet is a vast resource for information. It is self publishing, meaning anyone can (and often does) post a website. Different sites exist to inform, sell, advertise, persuade, entertain, and report research. It is up to you to decide if the information is reliable.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 7: EVALUATE WHAT YOU FIND
Students must learn to evaluate the various sources of information which they find including books, journals and web sites. Authors of scholarly articles are experts in their field of study and generally write articles in one subject area. The authors at Time Magazine write a variety of articles on various subjects. One week they may write an article on AIDS, the next week an article on United States foreign policy. These writers are not usually experts in a particular subject. The Internet is not reliable as there is no editorial control such as we find with books or journals. Special care should be taken when using the Internet for research purposes as there are many web sites of questionable value.
HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER STEP 8: CITE WHAT YOU FIND USING A STANDARD FORMAT
After you formulate your research question, examine various sources of information, and write your paper, the final product should be uniquely yours. If you decide to use the exact words of an author you have to give that person credit. If you do not give the author appropriate credit you are guilty of plagiarism. Webster's Dictionary defines plagiarism as stealing and passing off the ideas and words of another as one's own. "Ideas or words" can include written or spoken material, statistics, lab results, art work, etc. If you have quoted a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; another student at this college or elsewhere; or various Internet sites, you must give appropriate credit in your paper
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