The Research Paper

An academic research paper should offer more than just information on a topic (unlike those "reports" you wrote in high school). Usually it answers a question readers might reasonably be expected to take an interest in, or it supports a thesis* about which there might be informed disagreement.

*Thesis: an assertion to be proved or disproved by (factual) evidence and (coherent) argument.

Ask yourself: What are the costs of not knowing the answer to this question or the validity of this thesis? What are the potential benefits of finding out?

And remember: Good papers are harder to fake than you might think. If you're just going through the motions, it will show. Always choose a topic that actually interests you or find a personal angle on an assigned topic.

Defining Your topic

There are no rules for defining a good topic, but here's a three-step approach that might prove helpful.

1. Make a list of general topics that are appropriate to the course and potentially of interest to you. (What are important at this stage are the nouns.)

--capital punishment
--tabloid television
--George Bush
--professional sports
--Ahab in Moby-Dick

2. Make what seem to you plausible claims (or thesis statements) about these topics. (In other words, add the verbs.)

--Capital punishment deters crime.
--Tabloid television may benefit its viewers.
--George Bush was right to go to war with Iraq.
--Commercial sponsors are destroying professional sports.
--Captain Ahab should be viewed as a tragic figure.

3. For the purpose of your research, turn your particular thesis into a general question. If you set out only to support your claim, you'll ignore all contrary evidence-and this will weaken your argument.

--Does capital punishment deter crime?
--Can tabloid television benefit its viewers?
--Was George Bush right to go to war with Iraq?
--Are sponsors having a destructive influence on sports?
--Does Ahab qualify as a tragic hero?

The Scope of Your Topic

Your topic should be
  1. sufficiently limited so that you have adequate time to do the research and to write a substantive essay in the space allotted, but
  2. not so narrow that you won't be able to find enough information.

Neither a 5-page paper on "the causes of World War II" nor a 15-page paper on "high fashion in Romania" seems a good idea. Often you will need to do some preliminary research before you can strike this balance.

The Scope of Your Research

Research assignments will occur within a particular academic discipline and naturally you will look for information from the perspective of that discipline. But do not overlook other perspectives.

Ask yourself, "What might-a philosopher, a psychologist, a theologian, a historian, a business person, a sociologist, a lawyer, an educator, an artist, or a scientist-have to say about this?"

Likewise, when you begin looking for articles in the Library's databases of periodical literature, consider ones outside the discipline of your assignment. For example, there are many articles about Shakespeare in ScienceDirect and about quantum mechanics in the Modern Language Association Bibliography.

Information Sources

The (on site) Library Collection: In searching the Library's online catalog for books, journals, and multimedia materials, do not limit yourself only to Keywords. Catalog records are brief, often listing the broad Subjects but no specific subtopics. For example, if your topic is acid rain, many of the Library's best resources will have catalog records referring only to Ecology or Environmental Protection or Pollution.

The (electronic) Library Collection: Online databases are a fast-growing source of citations and full-text articles. The IC Library subscribes to over 100 of these databases. Some are comprehensive in scope, but many are specific to a discipline. Below are five general databases with a high percentage of full text.

  • InfoTrac Onefile--Search by Subject and take advantage of the "Subdivisions" that will be offered with the results of any Subject search. Standard subdivisions include "economic aspects," "ethical aspects," "religious aspects," and "social aspects."
  • ProQuest--Take advantage of the Subject searching and the "Article Type" option. For example, the Subject "firearms" and the Article Type "editorial" will retrieve several thousand articles taking a variety of stands on gun control.
  • LexisNexis--Probably our best source for full-text newspapers at the state, regional, national, and international levels. Use the Guided News Search. Note that you must choose both a News Category and a News Source. If you choose the Category "U.S. News" you can narrow the Source to regions or individual states. If you choose the Category "World News" you can limit the Source to areas of the globe.
  • Academic Search Premier--Ample full text on a wide range of topics.
  • CQ Researcher--Each issue is devoted to a timely and often contentious issue, supplying a history and positions on all sides.
  • Facts.com--Of particular use is the Timeline of Selected Major Stories where you can scan a year at a time, the Key Issues section where you can select from an alphabetized list of current debates, and the Newspaper Editorials section where you can find opinion pieces by year. There's little depth to the content here, but it can help in identifying a topic.

Searching the Web

Search Tools:

A Search Engine (Google, Ask Jeeves) offers Keyword searching for the full-text of the Web pages it adds to its database. The best search approach is with the precise terms you are seeking, but be sure to allow for synonyms and related concepts.

A Meta-Search Engine (Ixquick, Dog Pile) scans multiple search engines at the same time (or in rapid succession). Use these to determine which search engines are most promising for your topic, but not as a substitute for the more accurate searches that can be entered on a single search engine.

A Directory (Yahoo) offers Subject searching of the hierarchy of Subject terms it assigns to each Web site in its database. The best search approach is with a broad term, which takes you to the appropriate Subject area, where you can scan the available subheadings.

Practical Advice for Web Searches

(Sure you can surf, but can you research?)

  • Read the instructions for the Search Engines you regularly use (usually under Help) and always check out the advanced search version to see if it will be more useful (it will). For example, Google's Advanced Search allows you to limit results to educational, non-profit, or government Web sites, where much of the most authoritative information is to be found.
  • Do not expect the Web to provide extensive access to journal, magazine, or newspaper articles. Virtually all of this material is under copyright: that is, it is someone's property and not available for free. Magazines and newspapers will sometimes provide limited access to current issues, but this is usually to encourage paid subscriptions for full access.
  • Try likely synonyms for your main search terms. Search Engines perform keyword searches of full-text Web pages, so if a topic might be referred to in different terms, you need to include them. Otherwise, you will arbitrarily eliminate all the Web pages that treat the topic but don't use whatever word or phrase you happened to try first.
  • Don't expect full coverage of the Web from any one Search Engine. Even the largest covers barely a third of the Web. Likewise, don't expect consistency of results from one Search Engine to another. Different Web tools may provide different degrees of access to the same Web sites.
  • Do not assume the order in which your results are displayed is a reliable indication of their quality or value. Each Search Engine has its own retrieval program, but the criteria are fairly standard: how many of your search terms occur on the Web page, how many times they occur, how close together they are, or how many other Web pages link to this one. But neither counting Keywords nor gauging popularity is a guarantee of quality or relevance.
  • Don't believe everything you read, especially on the Web. There is no quality control or fact-checking for the Web at large, however conscientious particular sites may prove. Any individual or organization with technological access can post Web pages presenting private opinion, group ideology, prejudice, or fantasy-as fact.

Criteria for Evaluating Your Sources

  • Authority: Always ask who is responsible for the content of a source and what are his or her credentials. In a book, periodical article, or Web page, look for any information about the author(s). Is he or she a free-lance writer, a journalist, a researcher, a practitioner, or an academic? Is he or she affiliated with an institution or organization? Is the publishing house or periodical well-known and respected?
  • Accuracy: Consider whether the information provided is (a) internally consistent and (b) verifiable by outside resources. If it is a book or an article, are there footnotes or a bibliography documenting the author's sources? On the Web, look for the source of any "facts" or figures. Always try to verify information you find on the Web from another source. Remember, no one regulates the content of the Web.
  • Objectivity: Ask yourself what seems to be the ultimate purpose of the person and/or organization responsible for the information. Does the purpose seem to be to inform or to persuade or to sell? If persuading or selling is involved, how might that affect or even bias the intent to inform?
  • Currency: Check to see when the resource was created or last updated. Keep in mind that book publication usually takes at least a year, so the information in even the most recent book may be one or two years old. Journal articles can often provide more current information, but always glance at any bibliography to see what is the most recent of the author's sources.
  • Coverage: Ask yourself if the breadth and/or depth of the information is adequate for the topic. In particular, ask who this resource was created for and how that affects its suitability for your research. (Is a site aimed at the general public or posted by a middle school class going to be comprehensive or detailed enough for your purposes?)