Research Basics
Choosing a topic
- 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.
- 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 Philosophy, for an individual appointment to
learn about the best databases and other resources for you research project.
Start early; some of the books or journals you need may be unavailable locally;
requesting through the Virtual
Catalog or Interlibrary
Loan can take days or weeks.
- Topics that are very broad - e.g., topics such as pragmatism,
Buddhist philosophy, free will, etc., 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.
- By the same token, avoid topics that are too narrow. Material about these 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
- Determine what general fields or disciplines you need
to explore in order to find material that relates to your research; it usually
takes research in many different areas to provide broad coverage of almost
any topic.
- Decide whether you want to focus on 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. Sometimes a combination of the two works well.
- Identify the types of reference materials you will most
likely 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 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 to see if the item
is signed, copyrighted, dated, etc.
- Objectivity: Is factual information free of bias? Is
statistical information not so selective as to skew results? Check to
make sure that all sources are 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?