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Research Tips: How To Start

This guide provides an introductory overview of tips for researching information and how to use library resources as well as.

 

Finding Academic Research Online

Source: Purdue Global

Starting your research

Start your research by selecting your topic.

When researching a topic, you need to investigate a variety of sources to gather information. Types of sources include:

  • books
  • reference books (dictionaries, encyclopedias)
  • periodicals (magazines, newspapers, journals)
  • websites, blogs, and social media

Identify the terms or keywords in your topic and use them to research sources.

Consult the "Evaluating sources" page to help in assessing sources.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab from Purdue University has an excellent free guide to writing research papers.

Watch these short videos to learn how to narrow or broaden your topic:

Source: “Picking Your Topic IS Research!” by North Carolina State University Libraries

Source: Wilfrid Laurier University Library

Your Librarian

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Sheila Makala
Contact:
John Patrick University of Health and Applied Sciences
100 E Wayne Street, Suite 140
South Bend, Indiana 46601

Literature Review

According to Purdue OWL a Literature review is defined as " a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis)."

 

 

For detailed information on how to write a literature review click below:

Source: Purdue OWL

How to Write a Literature Review: 3 Minute Step-by-step Guide | Scribbr

Source: Scribbr