Writing & Research Tools: Strategies

This page will offer some tips and strategies for planning and researching your project!

Before You Start Your Project...

• Re-read your assignment guidelines and make sure you understand exactly what you are being asked to do. For example, what type of sources do you need? How many?  What citation style are you being asked to use?
• Make a plan for your project. If you are selecting your own topic, what do you already know about this topic? What types of sources will you need to use to study your topic? You can use Wikipedia and Google to find background information on your topic, but you will not want to include these as scholarly sources.
• Give yourself time! Start looking for sources once you have decided on or know your topic!
• You can also meet with a librarian to go over your assignment and talk about possible sources and strategies for your project

Searching for Sources

• Keep track of the keywords you use when doing searches for your topic, and how helpful they are in finding results on your topic. Keywords in library search tools do not always follow "natural language," or how we speak to our friends about a topic
• Some disciplines have specific language used when talking about something, for example, medicine, economics, and architecture all have specific terminology for a given topic. Your job as a researcher is to make note of these language differences and use them to sharpen your searches!
• If you are having trouble finding sources, make an appointment with a librarian and we can help you brainstorm other search strategies

Evaluating Sources

• When you are reviewing the sources you have found, it helps to take notes about the source and ask yourself some of the following questions:  1. What perspectives are left out? 2. What type of expert is/are the author? 3. How does this source inform me about this topic? 
• One way to analyze sources is using the ACT-UP source evaluation method.
• Keep track of the sources you evaluate! Even if they are not helpful for your project, it's good to make note of what articles you have already reviewed. This can be as simple as saving the citation and making a note that the source was not helpful
• Always grab the citation and permalink (permanent link!) to the source, if available. This will help you when you need to double-check citation or quote information