Choose & Refine Your Topic

The order of the steps you go through to choose a topic may vary, but some things are fundamental to the process.

Analyze Your Assignment

• Has the instructor assigned a topic? How specific or general is it?
• What type of result are you expected to produce: a research paper, a speech or presentation, an essay or opinion piece, a literature review or annotated bibliography, etc.?
• Are there any specific conditions on types of materials to include or exclude, e.g. scholarly journals, current news, primary sources, internet sources, law cases, etc.?
• What are the limits on your time and effort? When is the paper due? How many sources will you need and how soon will you need them?

Evaluate What You Already Know

• What issues have you been reading and talking about in class? Do any of these things interest you enough to warrant further investigation?
• What issues haven't been covered in the course, but seem related and are of interest to you.

Look for Background Information

• Ask a librarian to help you locate an overview of the general topic in an encyclopedia, handbook, or other source.
• Write down distinctive concepts and unique keywords used to describe the topic. Note names of people, places, dates, and significant events. Some of these will turn into important search terms when you begin your literature search.
• Select the issues that seem the most significant and interesting.

Ask Questions

• State the questions you have about these issues. Add to your list of keywords.
• Talk to your professor or members of your class to refine your list of questions.
• Can you limit your topic by time period or geographic region? Is there a specific approach to the topic that seems most interesting, e.g. historical, psychological, public policy, biographical?
• Ask a librarian to recommend the types of materials and the specific search tools most likely to produce results in your research.

Research Begins Here

Finding the right material to support your papers is not hard when you know where to look!

Look Here -- To Look For |	Your Library's Home Page	Journal Indexes Online or Paper	Full-text Databases	Web	Ask a Reference Librarian
Books	BEST Your Library's Catalog or MaineCat or NExpress			Some literary classics and poetry	To recommend subject headings & teach search technique
Journal Articles	Check periodical title holdings after index search	BEST			Which index is the best for your topic
Newspapers: Current Articles			BEST (e.g., LexisNexis)	Today's newspapers
Newspapers: Historical Articles		BEST	Possibly some
Books and Film Reviews		BEST			Which index or reference work to use
Government Documents		Marcive (U.S. 1976+) or Catalog of U.S. Gov't. Pub'ns.		BEST since 1994	No clear trail for all types - ask Librarian
Primary Resources	BEST	Check subject specific indexes		Check appropriate .edu and .org sites	For ideas in your subject area
Statistics		Indexes to U.S. government & International statistics	Stat USA, Matter of Fact, or LexisNexis Statistical	BEST	Which reference or document sources to use
Biographies	Diaries, biographies, and autobiographies			unpredictable results	BEST
| To Look For Look Here --	Your Library's Home Page	Journal Indexes Online or Paper	Full-text Databases	Web	Ask a Reference Librarian

Primary & Secondary Sources

A primary source is first-hand information from a person who witnessed or participated in an event. It may also be scientific data, statistics, or an official transcript of a government proceeding. A secondary source is a description by a person usually not present at the event and relying on primary source documents for information. Secondary sources usually analyze and interpret.

The distinctions between primary and secondary sources can be ambiguous. An individual document may be a primary source in one context and a secondary source in another. Time is a defining element. For example, a recent newspaper article is not usually a primary source; but a newspaper article from the 1860's may be a primary source for civil war research.

Some examples of primary sources:

Diaries, memoirs, letters

Official documents and records

Original manuscripts

Period newspapers

Legal cases, transcripts, minutes, hearings

Interviews, oral histories, personal narratives

Research data and reports

Statistics

To locate primary sources in the library

• Do background reading in a specialized encyclopedia for your place/time period to locate key names, vocabulary or events.
• Search the Library Catalog by Keyword, using a primary source format word as one term and an event or person as another term. Truncating the format word is helpful to obtain both singular and plural:

letter* and Lincoln
diar* and Civil War

• Find primary sources in the footnotes and bibliographies of secondary source books and articles.
• Browse the shelves in your subject area.
• To locate research data and reports in the sciences and social sciences, use one of the subject specific databases or indexes for that discipline.
• Consult a reference librarian for assistance

See http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/ for an excellent discussion on reading primary and secondary sources.

 

For more information:

Defining Primary and Secondary Sources, by Michael Eamon, historian and archivist, Library and Archives Canada

Scholarly and Popular: Types of Periodicals

Publishers of magazines, newspapers, and journals write and market their material for many different audiences. Being aware of these differences helps you select the most appropriate sources for your research needs.

In addition to the Scholarly and Popular types charted below, there are:

Trade/Professional Journals

Written for and by people in specific industries or professions.

Examples:Advertising Age Chemical Week Macworld Stereo Review Antiques InfoWorld Chronicle of Higher Education

Newspapers

Written by journalists for immediate news coverage

Examples:
New York Times Boston Globe Wall St. Journal Le Monde

	Scholarly Journals	Popular Magazines
Examples	Sociological Review Economic Botany Journal of Asian Studies New England Journal of Medicine	PC World Newsweek Psychology Today Natural History
Value and Uses	Reports of original research In-depth analysis of topics Lengthy, signed articles Statistical information Referred/peer reviewed Substantial book reviews	Current events and news Brief, factual information Short articles, sometimes signed Interviews Some brief book reviews
Language	College-level vocabulary Specialized language of the discipline	Non-technical vocabulary Often simple language
Authors	Researchers, academics, scholars	Journalists
Sources	Footnotes and bibliographies Extensive documentation	Few footnotes Frequently no bibliography
Publishers	Professional organizations, universities, research institutes, and scholarly presses	Commercial/trade publisher
Graphics	Graphs, charts, and tables Ads are very rare	Many graphics and photos Many full-page color ads
	Scholarly Journals	Popular Magazines

Database Search Tips

 

Check the Obvious

• Always know the dates of coverage.
• Know what kind of literature is covered -- English Literature, Art, Science, Popular or Scholarly, etc.

Searching

• Know the language of the database. Does it have controlled vocabulary? Who controls the vocabulary used in the database?
• Know in which fields the database is searching for your terms.
• Use keyword searches to give an overview of the literature, or for general information.
• Use subject searches to obtain more specific information.
• Think about your perception of the meanings of the words in your search terms, and in what context they may be used. Use alternative terms.
• Look at the complete records. Does it tell you if the citation is from a book, a journal article, or a conference paper? What volumes of the journal will you need?

Moving Around and Printing

• Use the navigational buttons provided by the database, rather than the ones in the web browser. Results will be more accurate.
• Check to see if records can be reformatted for printing. This will save everyone paper!
• Check to see if you can download or email yourself the results of your searches. This may be handy if you are in a hurry, or if the printers are not working. 

Evaluating Internet Sources

 

"The Web is an electronic repository for books, data collections, encyclopedias, libraries, and any disparate piece of text, graphic, or sound byte that someone chose to put on-line. And some of it is inaccurate, biased, out-of-date, shallow, and inappropriate for academic use."   Lida Larsen--Information Literacy.

Ask These Questions

Authority

Who is the author of the page? Can you identify their qualifications for providing this information?

Accuracy

Are the sources of factual information easy to verify? Is the information itself verifiable from another source?

Objectivity

Are there biases of opinion in the material, and are they clearly stated?

Currency

Are there dates on the page that indicate when the page was written? Are there some indications that the information is kept current or has the page been abandoned?

Coverage

How complete is the information on the page?  Is the treatment superficial and broad, or in-depth? Are there links to other information sources from this page?

Other Considerations

Permanence--is the information likely to STAY up for a reasonable amount of time?
Purpose--is the information there to serve as a vehicle for advertisements?
Origin--is the page from an educational institution, the government, or a non-profit organization?

Internet Evaluation Resources

Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/college/help/critical/

Evaluating Information on the Internet Selected Resources http://www.marquette.edu/library/search/evaluatingweb.html