8 Steps to Success

The following eight steps outline a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper, evaluating it, writing it, and documenting the sources you find.   Adapt this outline to your needs.

  1. Identify Your Topic and Form a Focus.
    State your topic as a question.  For example, if you are interested in finding out about teenagers and smoking, you might pose the question, "What effect does smoking have on the health of teenagers?"  Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question.  In this question the keywords are smoking, and teenagers, and health.
  2. Find Background Information
    Look up your keywords in the indexes to subject encyclopedias.  Read articles in these encyclopedias to set the context for your research.  This will help you focus and narrow your topic.  Note any relevant items in the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles. Grolier Online Passport  
  3. Use Catalogs to Find Books
    Use keyword searching for a narrow or complex search topic.  Use subject searching for a broad subject.  Print or write down the citation (author, title, etc.) and the location information (call number).  Note the circulation status.  When you retrieve the book from the shelf, scan the bibliography for additional sources.   WebPals
  4. Use Indexes to Find Periodical Articles (from Newspapers, Magazines & Journals).
    Use periodical indexes and abstracts to find citations to articles.  The indexes and abstracts may be in print or computer-based  formats or both.  Choose the indexes and format best suited to your particular topic.  Please note that many of our databases have the full text of articles available.  However, when full text is not online, you must record or printout the citation from the index, and then check if Manhattanville owns the title, by looking in the red binder or on our class web page (for periodical collection).  If we do not own the title, interlibrary loan is available.
  5. Use Internet Resources
    The first place to look for accurate Internet sites is our Subject List.  You can also connect to search engines and subject directories to locate information on the web that meets your topic requirement.
  6. Evaluate What You Have Found
    You must evaluate the authority and quality of the books, articles and Internet sites you located (refer to the evaluation documents on our class web site).  Be very wary of Internet documents; evaluate them thoroughly!  If you have found too many or too few sources, you may need to narrow or broaden your topic.
  7. Write Your Paper
  8. Use a Standard Bibliographic Citiation Format
    Our course requires the MLA (Modern Language Association) format.  Other courses may require the APA (American Psychological Association) format.  Guidelines for the above, as well as for citing Internet and online database sources, or writing an annotated bibliography can be found on our class web site.

Research Tips

  • Work from the general to the specific
  • Find background information first, then use more specific and recent sources. 
    Record what you find and where you have found it.
    Write out a complete citation for each source you find; you may need it again.
    *Keep in mind that your homework assignments for our course require that all citations and annotations be typed on a word processor.
  • Translate your topic into the subject language of the indexes and catalogs you use.
  • Check your topic words against a thesaurus or subject heading list.
  • Utilize Bibliographies
    • Read the background information and note any useful sources (books, journals, magazines) listed in the bibliography at the end of the encyclopedia article or dictionary.  The sources cited in the bibliography are excellent starting points for further research.
    • Look up book sources on WEBPals or use our subscription databases to search for articles from journals, magazines and newspapers.  Check the subject headings listed in the subject field of the online record for these books and articles, then do subject searches using those subject headings to locate additional titles.
    • Remember that many of the books and articles you find will themselves have bibliographies.  Check these bibliographies for other relevant sources for your research.
    • By using this technique of routinely following up on sources cited in bibliographies, you can generate a surprisingly large number of books and articles on your topic in a relatively short amount of time.

Adapted from Cornell, http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill1.htm