Research essays

If you do not know where to begin, or you are not finding what you need, ask for research help right away.

Librarians and library technicians working at the Research Help Desks at the Lansdowne and Interurban libraries can save you valuable time and would love to help you find the information that you need to write a successful research essay.

Remember that the only silly question is the one you did not ask.

Research help is also available by phone, by email or online through AskAway.

When you write a research essay, you  enter a conversation with others.

When you research your topic, you will

• discover what participants (scholars) in the conversation (academic articles and books) have said (written)

When you  write your essay, you will

• respond and add to this conversation

For Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst, English instructors and authors of the popular They Say/I Say books, "broadly speaking academic writing is argumentative writing, and [they] believe that to argue well you need to do more than assert your own position. You need to enter a conversation, using what others say (or might say) as a launching pad or sounding board for your own views" (3). 

Use:

• Encyclopedias and Dictionaries  to get an overview of your topic
• Single Search to find research starters, books and articles
• Library Guides  and Databases to find the best sources in your subject area

Focusing your topic

• is your starting point for a successful research paper
• is a process that may need to be repeated throughout your research
• usually involves narrowing your topic

Narrow your topic by subtopic                                                     

• Broad topic                                                    Global warming                                              
• Narrowed topic                                              Rising sea levels

Narrow your topic by degree

• Broad topic                                                   Social media
• Narrowed topic                                             Facebook
• Specific topic                                                Facebook and privacy
• More specific topic                                       Facebook privacy risks and protection strategies for youth

Narrow your topic by category

• Geographic place                                        German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II
• Social place                                                 Bullying in the workplace
• Time period                                                 Scottish emigration in the 18th century
• Age, group or gender                                  Heart disease in middle-aged women
• Discipline                                                    Stress management for college students

Scholarly sources are

• written for an academic audience
• authoritative
• accurate
• evidence based
• peer reviewed (evaluated before publication by experts in the same field)
• usually found in library databases 
• published in peer reviewed journals

Scholarly sources are NOT written for a

• general audience
• commercial or political purpose

Why do I need to use scholarly sources?

• In academic writing, students must refer to an authority (or usually a number of authorities) to substantiate their argument.

For information about evaluating websites, explore the following pages in our Camosun library's Website Evaluation guide.

To identify parts of a book that are relevant to your topic, look at the

• table of contents
• chapter headings (if available)
• index

To determine if an article is relevant to your topic, read the

• abstract
• introduction
• section headings
• topic sentence for each paragraph
• conclusion

Ask yourself

• what is the purpose of this information?
• what is the the thesis statement (main point and perspective the writer is taking on the topic)?
• what are the supporting points?
• is there a bias in the information?

Think about

• why this information is important to your topic
• your reaction to the information
• whether or not you agree with the information

To better understand sources that are relevant to your topic, you may want to

• read the source a second time
• write a brief summary of the information presented