RESOURCES TO HELP YOU WITH DOING RESEARCH
Norlin Library Research Center
If you’d like some one-on-one assistance from a librarian with any stage of the research process, stop by the Research Center in Norlin Library, Room E111. The Center is open from 2:00-5:00 on Mondays through Thursdays.
Resources on the CU library’s web site
- Research and Subject Guides
- College Writing and Research Guide
- How do I…? (answers to frequently asked questions)
- How do I determine if a source is scholarly vs. popular?
- How do I evaluate sources?
- How do I cite sources?
- Video Tutorial on Using Web of Science Databases
- Video Tutorial on Using the “Find it at CU” Feature
Video Tutorials on YouTube
I found these with a few quick searches. You can also find a variety of related videos by doing your own searching on YouTube or other video sites.
- Using Academic Search Premier
- Google & Wikipedia vs. ProQuest Research Tools
- Searching JSTOR
- Stop! Thief! Avoiding Plagiarism by Paraphrasing
- Cite a Source: How and Why You Should Do It
Research Organizations and Archives
- Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project
- Kaiser Foundation: Media in the Lives of 8 to 18 Year-Olds
- Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Digital Natives Project)
- Internet Society: All About the Internet
- Digital Archives of Books, Media, and More
RESOURCES TO HELP YOU DEVELOP A THESIS AND OUTLINE
Below are some links to handouts that will give you instruction in relevant aspect of writing a research paper. I didn’t require that you buy a textbook for this class because you can find so many good resources for free online, but you have to actually read them to benefit from them.
Don’t limit yourself only to the resources below. If you have a question about a particular aspect of writing a research paper, look it up on Google. However, even when you’re just searching for advice, you should still evaluate your sources. The advice you might find on a web site for a university writing program or writing center is probably relatively safe, although keep in mind that different universities cater to different populations of students, so the advice might be targeted to students whose writing skills are far less advanced than yours or far more advanced. Advice you find on web sites associated with textbooks on writing and rhetoric or composition are probably also relatively safe, although the same caveat applies regarding the intended audience of the site.
What you probably shouldn’t pay attention to is the advice on web sites trying to make money by sharing research tips, particularly if they’re involved in any way in helping students purchase all or parts of a paper. (The papers available for students to purchase online are notoriously terrible in quality, as is the advice given by the sites that sell them. Buying a paper online not only calls a student’s morals into question, it also calls into question his or her ability to read!)
The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) is well-known as being one of the best resources on the web for advice about writing. You can find advice on every stage of the writing and research process as well as on different types of writing. I find that their handouts are sometimes on the short side, leaving out some key details students might appreciate. But they’re certainly a good place to start. These two handouts contain information relevant to helping you figure out what kind of research paper you want to write and how to create a thesis statement.
- Research Papers: Analytical and Argumentative
- Creating a Thesis Statement
The Bedford Research Room is another well-known and reliable source. Students often find the tutorials on the site particularly helpful with various aspects of the research process. Read these short overviews on the Research Guides section of the Bedford Research Room web site:
- How to Develop a Research Question
- How to Evaluate Sources
- How to Develop a Thesis Statement
The Writing Program at Colorado State University (CSU) also has a well-known and comprehensive set of resources to help you with a variety of writing concerns. These links take you to the opening pages of two of the many sections of CSU’s site that will help you with writing a college paper. Be sure to follow the links in the right sidebar menu of each opening page to see all the parts of each handout.
- Building a Thesis Statement (best for argument papers)
- Organization (see all the subsections on the right sidebar menu)
RESOURCES TO HELP YOU DEVELOP YOUR PAPER
Look in our class Google Docs folder for a new sub-folder titled RESOURCES ON WRITING AND REVISING. In that folder I’ve uploaded selections from several writing textbooks that contain information to help you develop your research paper. These selections might be useful to you for other college writing assignments as well, so you might want to download all of them and hang onto them for future reference.
Important Note: When you submit the final version of your paper, you will be required to describe which of the strategies from these readings you applied to your paper, and it’ll be much easier to write that description if you read the strategies before you write your draft, rather than afterwards! You may also use strategies from the online resources I pointed you to earlier, such as the Bedford Research Room, the Purdue OWL Guide to Research Papers, the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, and CSU’s Writing Guides.
- If your paper is an analysis, read and apply relevant portions of Chapter 39: Analysis in the College Writer’s Handbook (CWH-Ch39-Analysis.pdf)
- If your paper is an argument, read and apply relevant portions of Chapter 10: Strategies for Argument in Writing and Revising (WR-Ch10-Strategies-for-Arguing.pdf)
- To learn about strategies for introductions and conclusions, read these two selections:
- Chapter 9: From Introductions to Conclusions in From Inquiry to Academic Writing (FIAW-Ch9-Intros-Conclusions.PDF)
- Chapter 6: Strategies for Drafting (esp. pages 90-95) in Writing and Revising (WR-Ch6-Strategies-Drafting.PDF)
- To review how to avoid plagiarism and refer to source material using paraphrase, summary, and quotation, see these two selections:
- Chapter 11: Strategies for Integrating Sources in Writing and Revising (WR-Ch11-Sources.pdf)
- Chapter 1: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation, in Sequence for Academic Writing (SAW-Ch1-Summary-Paraphrase-Quotation.PDF)
- To learn how to develop your ideas further, read and apply Chapter 7: Strategies for Developing in Writing and Revising (WR-Ch7-Developing-Ideas.PDF)
- To learn how to enhance your appeals to logos and ethos, read Chapter 8: From Ethos to Logos: Appealing To Your Readers in From Inquiry to Academic Writing (FIAW-Ch8-Ethos-Logos-Appeals.pdf)
MORE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU USE AND CITE SOURCES
Using and Citing Sources
- How to Work with Information from Sources (Bedford Research Room)
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (CSU)
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (Purdue OWL)
Avoiding Plagiarism
- Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue OWL)
- Understanding Plagiarism (CSU)
- Straight Talk about Plagiarism (PDF file)
- St. Martin’s Tutorial on Avoiding Plagiarism (Bedford)
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