Research

Mrs. Sample

Steps to the Research Process

1. Identify and develop your topic: - State your topic as a question. Identify

the main concepts or keywords.

2. Find background information: - Look up your keywords in the indexes of

encyclopedias. Read articles to set up research. Note relevant items in the bibliographies.

Steps to the Research Process

3. Use Media and Books: - Use guided keyword searches to find info.

on topic or subject. Cite the location of information.

4. Find Internet Sources: - Use search engines and any bibliography

info.

Steps to the Research Process

5. Evaluate What You Find: - May need to narrow your topic if you have

too much info. May need to broaden topic if not enough info.

6. Cite Your Sources: - Give credit where credit is due; Give

proper credit to the authors of used material.

Reference Materials• Encyclopedia- multiple volumes; general

information about a variety of subjects • General Biographical References- Info. About

birth date, nationality, major accomplishments of outstanding people

• Atlases- maps and geographical info. • Almanacs- used to be written every year to give

the previous year’s data on weather, records, economy, government, tons of facts; now they are updated regularly on-line.

• Periodicals- Information published on regular basis (newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.

Parts of a Book• Title page- gives full title, author, publisher, and

place of publication• Copyright page- gives date of first publication and

of any revisions• Table of Contents- lists titles of chapters or

sections of the book and their starting page numbers• Appendix- provides additional information about

subjects found in the book• Glossary- in alphabetical order, defines difficult or

technical words found in the book• Bibliography- lists sources used to write the book;

gives titles of works on related topics• Index- lists topics mentioned in the book and page

numbers on which they can be found