Research Basics

Choosing a topic

  1. Select an area of study that really interests you. You will be more motivated to dig deeply into your research and your engagement with the topic will animate and inform the finished product.
  2. Take into account the amount of time you have to complete the project. Allow time to gather background information and to acquaint yourself with terminology and important concepts. Do not expect to get everything you need online and full-text. To save time, contact Rebecca Ohm, library liaison for Music, for an individual appointment to learn about the best databases and other resources for your research. Some of the books or journals that you will need may be unavailable locally; requesting through the Virtual Catalog or Interlibrary Loan can take days or weeks. Start early!!
  3. Avoid topics that are very broad. Topics such as the History of Opera or Rock Music may capture your interest, but you may find yourself overwhelmed with too much material and it will be difficult to decide what to write about. Broad subject areas like these need to be broken down into more manageable parts.
  4. Avoid topics that are too narrow. Material about very narrow or local-interest topics may be very difficult to track down and you may not find enough information in the amount of time that you have.

Developing your research strategy

  1. Determine what disciplines you need to explore to find relevant material. It usually takes research in many different areas to provide good coverage of almost any topic.
  2. Decide whether you want a popular or scholarly treatment of your subject. Popular sources include newspapers and magazines intended for a broad general audience; scholarly sources include journals that are published for a narrow academic or professional readership. In addition, you should decide whether or not you wish to deal only with current issues; you might instead determine that a historical perspective would be more practical. A combination of the two often works well.
  3. Identify the types of reference materials you need and seek help from a reference librarian in locating and using them:

    • background information: subject encyclopedias, specialized dictionaries, bibliographies
    • factual data: handbooks, almanacs, timelines, yearbooks
    • biographical: a wide range of biographical sources is available, including online full-text biographical databases
    • primary sources: firsthand accounts of the subject, issue, or event - these include interviews, eyewitness accounts, research data, etc. Primary sources can include newspapers, manuscripts, testimonies, research reports and some government documents
    • secondary sources: commentary, articles about an event, issues, or reviews. Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, and encyclopedia entries

Evaluating your sources

  • Accuracy: As far as you can tell, is the information presented free of errors and omissions?
  • Authority: Who is the author? What are his/her credentials? Does the publisher have a respected reputation academically? A large publishing house or major university is a safe bet; but look very critically at documents found on personal or organization web pages. Check carefully to see if the item is signed, copyrighted, dated, etc.
  • Objectivity: Is factual information free of bias? Is statistical information so selective as to skew results? Are all sources documented?
  • Currency: How up-to-date is the information presented? Does the time frame covered meet your research needs?
  • Coverage: Is the author's treatment of the material broad or narrow? Are footnotes or references to additional reading provided?