Welcome to the tutorial on research strategies. This tutorial is designed to help a student learn how to find published sources using the University’s website, search engines, and databases. In addition, we will discuss how to refine the focus of research, how to save and index resources, and how to extract the information efficiently for writing a paper.
Writing papers numbers among the most stressful experiences in university and graduate education. Typically a large percentage of your class grade relies on an ability to communicate effectively through writing. “Paper anxiety” is frequently due to a difficulty in getting your mind around what’s involved in actually writing a good paper. The tutorials in this CD suite correspond to the “four layers” of good writing: style, mechanics, organization, and content. Style refers to the format and presentation of the paper; mechanics include essential skills of spelling, grammar, and punctuation; organization is about the structure and flow of thought in the paper; and content is another name for the substance of your writing, as well as the methods used to gather your information.
In this tutorial on research strategies, we will discuss four skills that are essential to gathering information: How to access sources using the Internet, how to refine your focus for research, how to quickly determine if a resource is relevant and useful, and how to manage your reference file.
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Begin by going to the UNT Dallas homepage: The address is www.unt.edu/unt-dallas. At the homepage, click on “library services” in the left menu.
Next, click on “Electronic Resources”
At this point you will be asked to enter your Enterprise User ID (or EUID for short) followed by your password.
Once you have reached the UNT Libraries portal, choose “E” to open up a popular search engine.
The EBSCOhost search engine is your access to sources.
The Academic Search Premier database should always be selected, in addition to any others.
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Refining your search will simplify your work considerably. For articles, select “peer reviewed” – this ensures a higher degree of validity and reliability in your sources.
Enter your research subject in the Find box, and then click “search”.
Two common presentation designs are PDF and HTML.
Portable Document Format (or PDF) keeps the appearance and original pagination of the source.
HyperText Markup Language (or HTML) is formatted for web pages and does not preserve the source’s original layout.
Choosing PDF format when available is preferred, since it will make in-text citations and the reference page of your paper much easier.
Most articles open with an “abstract,” which is essentially a quick profile of the article’s content. As you read the abstract, be sure it aligns with your primary objective.
Should the abstract indicate a good match with your research focus, be sure to save a copy of the article to your desktop or in a special folder. Be sure to give it a name that will help you find it again later.
At the end of most journal articles there will be a list of the author’s references. This can be a goldmine of additional sources to look up; just think of these as “warm titles” that have already been recognized in the field. Following this path of warm titles can save a lot of time over “cold searching” through electronic databases.
Back again at the Ebscohost Find box, simply enter the warm title in quotation marks and then click “Search.”
The new title shows up in the search results.
Reading through a resource with pen and highlighter in hand can help you begin filtering the “gold from the gravel.” By doing this early, you will be able to isolate the information and start making links among resources in your mind. As discussed in the tutorial on writing organization, this link-and-flow design is essential to composing an excellent paper.
A complete paper will eventually include a reference page listing all the sources mentioned and cited in your text. By creating a “sources index,” as in the example shown here, you can consolidate to a single document the proper APA referencing style, as well as a concise summary of each source.
This may sound like an “extra step,” but it will actually save you time by serving as a crossover from research to the composition phase of your paper.
Now that you have completed this tutorial on Research Strategies, you may be interested in the other writing tutorials available. Simply close this presentation and open a new tutorial from the Resources page.
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