Welcome to Your Guide for Research from WRHS Library
DEVELOP A TOPIC (worksheet)
Developing a Research Question (4 min)
How to Develop a Good Research Topic (4 min)
IDENTIFY POTENTIAL RESOURCES
DEVELOP, USE & REVISE SEARCH STRATEGY
EVALUATE SOURCES & INFORMATION
USE INFORMATION RESPONSIBLY, ETHICALLY & LEGALLY
- Recognize need for information to address assignment.
- Develop questions to clarify and focus topic.
- Identify individuals and resources to help develop manageable topic based on the parameters of an assignment.
- Recognize the hierarchical relationships of broader and narrower topics to aid in revising the topic.
Developing a Research Question (4 min)
How to Develop a Good Research Topic (4 min)
IDENTIFY POTENTIAL RESOURCES
- Understand information comes in various forms: textual, visual, audio, or data. Appreciate that each form offers differing types of information sources produced in a variety of formats (e.g., print or electronic books, film or streaming video).
- Understand the roles and limitations of differing types of information sources and the finding tools needed to access them (e.g., libraries, search engines, online catalogs).
- Select the most appropriate information sources and finding tools to address a given information need.
DEVELOP, USE & REVISE SEARCH STRATEGY
- Create and revise search strategies.
- Understand how to use the features of an information source in order to retrieve the information needed (e.g., index and table of contents in a book, database filters).
- Develop a search strategy fitting for the given finding tool.
- Choose appropriate terms and keywords for searching a topic.
- Understand how to use search expanders and search limiters (e.g., logical operators) when too few, too many, or irrelevant results are returned.
- EBSCO search limiter examples & Video Tutorial (3 min)
- Gale: In Context resources tutorials
EVALUATE SOURCES & INFORMATION
- Be able to determine the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of information or information sources.
- Recognize divergent perspectives.
- Recognize bias.
- Differentiate between fact and opinion.
USE INFORMATION RESPONSIBLY, ETHICALLY & LEGALLY
- Understand the concepts of intellectual property (especially copyright, fair use, and plagiarism) and of intellectual freedom.
- Understand how to cite and list sources using an appropriate style manual.
- Recognize how to take notes and paraphrase correctly.