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 to acquaint
yourself with terminology and important concepts. Do not expect to get everything
you need online in full-text. To save time, contact Rebecca Ohm, library liaison for Religion, for an individual appointment to
find which library databases and other resources are the best for your research
project. Keep in mind that some of the books or journals that you need may
be unavailable locally; requesting through the Virtual
Catalog or Interlibrary
Loan can take days or weeks. Start early!!
- Topics that are very broad - e.g., topics such as cults,
fundamentalism, free will, etc., may capture your interest, but you may
find yourself overwhelmed with too much material. Broad subject areas like
these need to be broken down into more manageable parts.
- By the same token, avoid topics that are too narrow or of only
local interest. The 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. A paper
for Religion also may involve the fields of Sociology, History or even Political
Science!
- Decide whether you want to focus on popular or scholarly
treatments of your subject. Popular sources include newspapers and magazines
intended for broad general audiences; scholarly sources include journals
that are published for an 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.
- 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 carefully to see if the item is signed, copyrighted, dated,
etc.
- Objectivity: Check to see that factual information
is free of bias and that statistical information is not so selective as
to skew results. Are 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?