33 Conclusion

Rainbow, textured facade, mimicking the appearance of cloth books on a shelf

The very first steps in the research process are oftentimes the most important because they set the groundwork for the rest of your research. This chapter covered the importance of narrowing your broader topic down into a more manageable topic that interests you and the importance of performing some general background reading. Background reading can be done using library databases, Wikipedia, or quick online searches on your topic, which can help you find narrower sub-topics to focus on. Background reading at the beginning of your research helps familiarize you with your topic and with the specific vocabulary and keywords often, which can be used in your searches later in the research process.

infographic from project information literacy

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Sources

Image: Head, Alison J., John Wihbey, P. Takis Metaxas, Margy MacMillan, and Dan Cohen. “How Students Engage with the News: Five Takeaways for Educators, Journalists, and Librarians.” Project Information Literacy, 16 Oct. 2018. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Image: “Rainbow Frequency” by Ricardo Gomez Angel is in the Public Domain, CC0

License

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Introduction to College Research Copyright © by Walter D. Butler; Aloha Sargent; and Kelsey Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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