English: Research Tips & Tricks

Research can be intimidating when you first start out. Below are some tips and tricks to help you begin your journey!

Deciding on a topic:

• Look at your assignment guidelines
  • Are there topic restrictions?
    • Is this a persuasive or informative assignment?
    • Can you only talk about something from the past 5 years?
  • Does the instructor require a certain kind or number of sources?
    • Ex: 6 sources total, 3 must be books, 3 must be scholarly/peer-reviewed articles.
  • How long does the finished product have to be?
    • 5 pages? 8? 20?
    • If it's a speech, does it have to be a certain amount of time?
  • How long do you have to complete this assignment?
    • A week? A month? All semester?

Once you have your topic, start with broad keywords and gradually become more specific. For example:

• "Endangered Species"
• "United States Endangered Species"
• "Colorado Endangered Species"
• "Colorado Endangered Species 2000 - 2021"

As you read through your potential sources, don't forget to look at the sources they used in writing their article/chapter/book!

• You might be able to use one or two in your own paper, and could find more specific information than the original source gave you.

All of these questions will inform how you conduct your research. If you don't have a lot of time to complete an assignment, you're not going to be able to spend a lot of time researching. On the other hand, if you have a lot of time to work on the assignment but need a significant number of sources, you'll have to spend a little more time researching than writing.

Research also has its own set of specific terms (or "jargon") that can be confusing at first. Below are those terms and their definitions.

Abstract - An introduction to a scholarly article. This covers the main points of research, methods, and conclusions. These provide a fantastic overview of the language used in the article and tell readers if the article will fit their research question.

Annotate/Annotation/Annotated - Often followed by the word "bibliography" (see below), all of these mean "to add notes with context" to the citations you provide. Basically, you're going to be adding a brief overview to the source.

Bibliography - Used in CHICAGO style citation, this is the title of the page that appears at the end of a research paper listing all sources used.

Citation - Providing a source for a direct or indirect quote, paraphrase, or mention of a source's material.

Peer Reviewed - often used in conjunction with "scholarly" when referring to sources, this term means that the article, chapter, or book has been reviewed by someone else of similar credentials as the author (a peer) and proven to be accurate. Find more information here.

Primary Source - An original work; something a researcher examines first-hand. Examples include diaries, interviews, eyewitness accounts, lab studies, etc.

Reference List - The APA style citation page that appears at the end of a research paper with a complete list of sources used.

Secondary Source - Works that interpret or discuss primary sources. Examples include scholarly books and articles, reviews, and biographies.

Source - A body of work used to support the writer's conclusions.

Works Cited - The MLA style citation page at the end of a research paper listing all sources used.