Conducting+Research

During this course you will need to be able to effectively research, synthesize this research, and use this to support your own findings. You may of course include citations from the required and/or suggested readings for this class in your work. You may also chose to conduct your own research if you do not find something that specifically supports your thinking.

If you wish to conduct your own research...first of all, congrats. You should be conducting your own research and expanding your grasp of the materials. Second, you have many options to support you on your way.

Our University library is here to assist:

"Almost all of the library databases (containing journal articles, etc.) can be searched remotely with your username and password (first part of your email address before @ and the password you use to sign into your account). Most databases allow you to specify if you would like to search for items that are available full text within that resource, the items may be either HTML/PDF or both. Or if you don’t use that limit on your search, in your results list there is usually a link that you can follow to try and access the full text. This link will check to see if we have the full text electronically in another resource and link you to the journal page it is in, or let you know if we only have the item in a physical copy (paper or microform). If we don’t have what you are looking for full text electronically or in physical form, you can place an Interlibrary Loan request through our website and we will try to get the item for you from another library.

I have included a link to an “Introduction to the Library for Graduate Students” which explains accessing databases and using Interlibrary Loan in more detail and has some brief videos." - Andrea Sicari, Information Literacy Librarian - Marvin K. Peterson Library

You can also conduct a large amount of research online. I suggest that if you chose to research online, you first conduct a couple basic searches using various keywords in Google, or whatever search engine you trust most. I am also a proponent of Wikipedia as a starting point for your research. It is a "self-cleaning oven" and can provide an overview of a topic, ways in which it interconnects, and most of all a robust list of citations. media type="youtube" key="TJTxn_tvV1E?rel=0" height="480" width="640"

After you know some of the keywords, authors, and possible titles you would like to view, I suggest you use Google Scholar to identify research and readings you would like to learn more about. media type="youtube" key="BK85W6begqA?rel=0" height="480" width="640"

You might also be interested in using Mendeley to conduct, save, and synthesize your research. If so, please review the materials at my Digital Sandbox.