How To Do Research

What Is Proper Research?



Research is the search and retrieval of information. For term papers, research should be done for the topic that has been given or the topic that is chosen. Not all places of sinformation are considered appropriate, however. all sources must be AUTHORITATIVE sources.

Newspapers and Magazines: Only reliable newspapers and magazines that focus on reporting news and such are considered authoritative. Tabloids are NEVER considered authoritative and entertainments magazines are usually not considered authoritative.

Nonficitional Works: Books that discuss the facts about topics, biographies and autobiographies are usually considered authoritative, as long as they are not "trashing" in tone.

Scholarly Journals: These are "magazines" that are issued several times a year and are focused to one area of research, such as medicine, literature, etc. They are written by "scholars" in those fields and are considered the "top minds." These journals are usually located through the MLA Bibliography and are stored on microfilm or microfiche.

Interviews: If it is at all possible, talking to a "top mind" in the field of your topic is always a very authoritative source. The questions are developed by you and therefore, the answers are specific to the ideas you want to discuss in your paper.



Where To Go


The Library
The card catalog: Look for the name of the author or the name of the subject you are writing about.
The MLA Bibliography: Look up the Modern Language Association Bibliography, which is either in book form or on the internet. Look for the title of your subject (either author, literary title or topic). It will give you a list of sources to find both in periodicals (magazines, journals, newsletters, etc.) and in books.

**At either of these places, you will have to go to the shelves to obtain the books, the magazine, the microfilm or the microfiche. You will probably need to make photocopies of these sources.

The Internet

MLA Bibliography: The Modern Language Association compiles the list of the books and periodicals written published for each year, focusing on literature and the arts and humanities. There are volumes found at the local library or you can access it via the internet. For more information on the MLA Bibliography, click here .
MSN.com: By typing in the name of the author or the subject of your paper, you can attain a list of the related websites. This does not guarantee you authoritative information, however. Many sites are posted just to relay information and are not actually scholarly in nature. Any website that posts articles should have the original publication information which would include the name of the article, the original journal or book title and all the necessary publishing informaiton.

The website itself is NOT an authoritative source. This holds true
especially when doing literary research. There are countless websites that
exist with information on Shakespare and Shelley and Poe and so on. Many of
these are created by students and professors to help you better understand
the works. These sites are basically electronic "cliff notes." Although
they will help you in your undersatnding of authors and in your
interpretation of written material, they are not "quotable" sources and
they are not considered by most of academia to be authoritative
sources.

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