Do's and Don'ts -- Research Tips from Academic Peer Mentors
Do:
- Keep a running annotated bibliography going, sorting facts by source or marking your notes with a coding system so as to remember where individual facts came from. Software like Endnote can help. It is downloadable on the K: drive.
- Divide your paper into sections before you begin researching. Make sure you devote energy and time to finding information about all the topics you want to tackle.
- Remember that the beginning of a research paper generally presents existing knowledge on a topic, whereas towards the end of a paper, you should generally try to develop your own thoughts more.
- Use a variety of sources. Journals, books, e-books, newspaper and magazine articles, legitimate web sites, and course books can all be good sources, but which ones you use will depend on the paper.
- Talk to your professor about his or her expectations and ideas for sources.
- Talk to other students about their strategies for mapping out the research ahead.
Don't:
- Stuff so much information into your head at once that you can’t remember what you learned and where you learned it from. You will lose sight of the point of the research project.
- Cite Wikipedia. Wikipedia is good for getting general information, but find a primary source for your citations.
- Plagiarize. Learn what constitutes plagiarism now.
- Think that any research question is too small or too big to bother a librarian with. You can contact one through chat, e-mail, make an appointment online, or call (x2319 for Frost; x8112 for Science; x2667 for Music; x2299 for Archives & Special Collections). You can find more information about contacting library staff .
Steps to Research:
- Make sure you know what question you’re trying to answer
- Look at all kinds of sources before you narrow in on the ones that will be most useful
- Read and digest – give yourself time to do this
- Think critically about what you’ve just read and how it directly relates to the question
- Evaluate what you’ve got, holes in your research, and where you need to go from here