Research: Step By Step

Adapted from the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf.

  

Step 1: KNOW  

a)      Select and define your research topic.

  • Academic Freedom
  • The Role of Women

b)      Express your topic or research question in a sentence.

  • Should academic freedom for teachers and students be limited by law?
  • I want information on the role of women in the family in 19th century Canada.
  

Step 2: ACCESS

a)      Identify and locate the best resources and research tools:

  • Directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks.
  • Books (check the Library Catalogue).
  • Journal articles (check the Electronic Databases).
  • World Wide Web.

b)      Construct an effective search strategy, including the identification of keywords and synonyms, and the use of Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT).
  

Step 3: EVALUATE

a)      Evaluate each source to see if it is appropriate for academic research.

  • Evaluate information to determine its reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, point of view or bias.
  • Determine if information is scholarly or popular and primary or secondary.
  • See relationships between concepts.
  • Investigate differing viewpoints.
  

Step 4: USE

a)      Use the information to plan and create a product, using paraphrases and direct quotes to support the project.

  • Writing Assignment: (Expository essay, persuasive essay, informal essay, review, research essay, literary essay, compare/contrast essay, cause/effect essay . . .)
  • Scientific Report
  • Oral Presentation
  • Poster presentation
  

Step 5: ETHICAL/LEGAL

a)      Understand the ethical and legal uses of information.

  • Understand issues related to privacy and security, censorship, intellectual property and copyright.
  • Understand plagiarism and how to avoid it, including documenting sources.
  • Understand how to cite your sources properly for endnotes/footnotes and the works cited/bibliography.

  

Remember:

Research is a cycle. The first time you go through these steps, you’ll probably be looking for a couple of general resources on your topic. Each time you repeat the process, you will learn more, enabling you to:

  • make your topic more focused, or
  • work with a different index or research tool, or
  • try a different search query, using synonyms and related terms.

Be patient! Research done properly takes a lot of time, but the more you do it the easier it gets : )

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