Gathering Your Tools
Before you use this guide, set yourself up with some tools for success:
- Your research assignment instructions. If you don't fully understand your professor's expectations, don't hesitate to ask!
- Technology. You might find it easier to use this guide and Library search tools on a computer than a mobile device. You can borrow a Chromebook from the Library.
- A place to take notes. Use a Google doc or physical notebook to keep track of useful keywords and search strategies, and notes on the sources you find.
Using This Guide
Each page of this guide focuses on a different aspect of completing a research assignment.
- Using the Library covers how information is organized in libraries, how to use the Luria Library website and why you might choose to use library resources instead of searching the internet.
- The Research Process covers understanding your assignment's expectations, understanding the nature of the research process, and planning your research journey.
- Choosing & Developing Topics covers brainstorming topics, narrowing or broadening a topic to a scope that is appropriate for your assignment, writing research questions and thesis statements, and identifying keywords to use when searching for information.
- Finding Sources covers the different types of sources you might use in a research assignment, and search strategies for using Luria Library resources and the internet to find them
- Evaluating Sources covers how to distinguish between different types of sources, and strategies for fact checking and evaluating their credibility.
- Using AI covers practical and ethical issues regarding using artificial intelligence tools in the research process.
- Synthesizing Information covers how to pull together and present what you've learned from your research, including information from your sources and your own ideas.
- Citation & Annotation covers why and how to cite sources, as well as how to create an annotated bibliography.
Getting Help
See the "Research Help" and "More Research and Writing Help" boxes on this page for links to more online tutorials and support materials and ways to connect with a librarian or tutor. We are here to help you succeed!
