Background Reading
Before you dive into the unknown depths of a research project, test the water. That's what background reading helps you do. Background reading can include books, newspaper articles, academic journals, popular magazines, Internet and other electronic resources, and, what is often overlooked, reference sources.
Reference sources can be especially useful at the start of a research project. Reference materials are designed to be consulted rather than read completely. They can acquaint you with a topic, let you check facts and find statistics, or inform you about people and their contributions to a field. Although they often they provide concentrated information on a subject, keep in mind that the information will not be full or complete. Most references are secondary sources, so the authors rely on their information from other sources. Reference materials include dictionaries, encyclopedias, statistical sources, biographical sources, and directories. Here are five different ways background reading can help you.
THE FIRST WAY: Helps you get up to speed
If you don't already know something about the topic, background reading can be a quick way for you to learn some basics. By getting an overview, a few key details, and some cursory descriptions of different elements of the subject, you can get an important preliminary understanding of a subject.
THE SECOND WAY: Lets you know what you've got yourself into
Check the online catalog and some periodical indexes to see if there appears to be enough information on your topic or way too much on the topic without narrowing it down. Do this right away. Discovering that your task is too difficult is not something you want to do at the last minute.
THE THIRD WAY: Shows you how to direct your research
A quick look at several sources will help you see what direction or focus other people have taken in discussing your topic. While getting an overview of subjects, you should be able to see what different approaches you might take when researching the topic more in depth.
THE FOURTH WAY: Clears up some jargon
Almost every field has its own jargon. The jargon serves as a short cut in identifiying things without long and complicated definitions. To the uninitiated, however, the terminology can be almost incomprehensible. Background reading can provide you with a familiarity with the subject and its jargon, so that when you start reading academic journals and other resources, you can better figure out what the authors are talking about.
THE FIFTH WAY: Tells you where to go
One advantage of background reading is that it lets someone else do some of the work for you. Secondary sources will point you primary sources and important people, places, and things involved in the topic area. When different authors refer to the same sources, make special note of them. The repetition should be a clue that these persons or works are important to this field of study.
