VII. Researched Writing

Introduction

Terri Pantuso

While in high school, chances are you were assigned a research paper at some point. You may have had to find your own resources for supporting a chosen topic or your teacher may have provided resources to you for analysis. These methods are excellent ways to introduce you to the concept of research. However, now that you are in college, you will be expected to do more of the preliminary work (eventually all) on your own; so how do you start? What makes a good research topic? How do you find the right sources when there are literally millions of hits on a given Google search?

In this section, we help you find answers to this process as well as model ways to locate sources. Keep in mind that you can always consult your librarians for help – that’s what they want to do. But the elements in this section will provide a foundation for research strategies and ways to support your chosen topic.

Pantuso, Terri, Sarah LeMire, and Kathy Anders, eds. Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research. Rev. 2nd ed. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2022. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research Copyright © 2022 by Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire, and Kathy Anders is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.