Accounts
English 312 -- Ngaboh- Smart
Course Specific Resources
3 Research Steps to a Successful Paper
- Explore and pick a topic
2. Learn the basics of your topic: Who, what, when, where, why. You should be able to talk for a minute, without repeating yourself, on your possible topic.
TIP (this is also discussed in your class syllabus): When you participate in research or scholarship, you are entering into an ongoing conversation;
you have to listen or read about that conversation before findin an interesting, relevant question. Many try to skip this step and end up frustrated. You wouldn't want to go up to two strangers on the street and join their conversation before you knew what they were talking about.
3. Find an interesting question--not too easy, not too fuzzy, not too many parts, not too impossible. Should require analysis and thought.
*Sample topics to explore (local, national or global importance.
STEP #1
Resources for Topic Exploration----*Sample topics to explore (local, national or global importance.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
The premier online resource covering all sides of contemporary social issues.
CQ Researcher explores important issues ranging from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology.
Points of View Reference Center
A full-text database designed to provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue.
ProCon.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit nonpartisan public charity that provides well-sourced pro, con, and related research on more than 50 controversial
issues, from gun control and death penalty to illegal immigration and alternative energy.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-- Opinion Columns
Public Agenda Online - Public debates on hot topics offering various views, pro and con. Click on the Priorities tab at the top
Rand Corporation – a nonprofit institution that addresses the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.
Their website contains research and hot topics.
STEP #2 & #3
Background Resources for Topic
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Gale's Virtual Reference Library is a collection of electronic reference books in the areas of history, arts, medicine, and science.
Provides access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content including science encyclopedias, reference books, and periodicals.
You can search the catalog and limit your items to reference entries. On the left, select 'Refine My Entries', then select 'more options', then select 'Reference Entries.'
A large collection of online encyclopedias, Encyclopedia.com provides reference entries from published sources like Oxford University Press and Columbia Encyclopedia.
Wikipedia isn't evil if you're using it just to get acquainted with the basics of your topic, keywords, etc. Then move on and find better sources to use and cite.
Research Databases--Once you have a potential question and focus
Multidisciplinary
Sustainability
Environmental: Environment Complete
Economic: EconLit, Business Source Premier
Social: SocIndex with Full Text
Civic Engagement (Possible search terms: laws, legislation, policy, public policy, regulation)
Search in only Government resources online by adding site:.gov after your search term. For example: voting laws site:.gov
Public Administration Abstracts
Criminal Justice Periodicals Index
More Political Science and Government Databases
Intercultural Knowledge
Session Feedback