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Burris 9th Grade English: Research Paper

Resources to consult for your long-term research project

How to do this "research" thing?

Doing research can be intimidating and confusing!

Here are some basic steps you'll want to take:

  • Consider where you want to search for information
  • Consider how you should search in that resource
  • Search
  • Look at what you retrieve
  • Revise your search
  • Search - Look - Revise (etc.)
  • Evaluate

And make sure to cite where you got your information!

Selecting Information Sources

From McPherson, Heather, and Margot Dubé. "Reducing the Information Literacy Gap in High School Students." Knowledge Quest, vol. 45, no. 2, 2016, pp. 54.

Comparing Library Databases with Google

There are so many sources of information these days!  While we use Google to search the Open Web all the time for simple sources of information (hours a store is open, recipes, etc.), Google has real drawbacks when it comes to searching for information for academic purposes.   Library research databases have distinct advantages that make them the more reliable, authoritative, and efficient choice when looking for sources to use in a research paper.

Here's a comparison:

The Limitations of Google

 

From McMaster University Library.