Beginning Research
The introductory guides below may overlap as each guide can be used individually on its own or use in sequence depending on the background experience of the user.
Click on the PDF link for the guide.
Collating Information
► Beginning Research PDF
Preliminary Advice
Research Defined
Major Types of Research
The Basic Steps of Research
The Research Topic
Preliminary Information Search & Locating Sources
Evaluating Resources
CRAAP Evaluation
Taking Notes
Writing the Paper: Outline, First to Final Draft
A Model Outline
► Developing the Research Topic PDF
The Broad Topic
Narrowing the Topic
Focusing the Research Topic
Forming the Main Title
Characteristics of an effective Research Title
The Subtitle
Identifying Keywords
Form Search Strategies
Additional Tips
Finding Information
► Searching Online Book Catalogues, Databases and Search Engines
Search Techniques: Boolean, Proximity, Truncation, Wildcard PDF
Subject vs Keyword Search PDF
Field & Phrase Searching PDF
Evaluating Information
► Evaluate Resources
Evaluate Print Books & Ebooks PDF
Evaluate Articles from Databases PDF
Evaluate Websites PDF
Managing Information
► Zotero
Zotero is a citation manager designed to store, manage, and cite
bibliographic references, such as books and articles.
It can be downloaded as a browser extension to Firefox, Chrome,
and Safari. You can also download Zotero Standalone to your desktop.
Citing Information