So, you've been assigned a research project
where you need to make connections between
an original text
like Gwendolyn Brooks' Annie Allen
or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
and scholarly research related to the themes,
events, or ideas within those texts
and to present your findings in a polished
research paper or presentation.
Though research may sound a bit intimidating,
it doesn't have to be overwhelming.
In fact, it can be really exciting!
Research allows us to explore different kinds of sources
that we may have never looked at before -
from historical artifacts and documents
to research data from scientific studies.
It asks us to make connections between a topic found in literature,
such as the idea of utopia found in Thomas Moore's Utopia,
or the nature of technology as explored in Frankenstein,
and our own lives or historical or currents events.
It also gives us an avenue to express our own analysis
in conversation with ideas and findings from other scholars.
Some notable steps in the research process will be
selecting and brainstorming ideas about your original, broad topic;
creating a research question
that will guide your more in-depth research;
applying search strategies
to search the Libraries' catalog and specific databases;
and examining sources for relevance and credibility,
the connections between sources,
and why they are useful or not to your research assignment.
This video will focus on the first few steps,
which will help you select a topic
that you can research and eventually write about.
First, you will want to pick a general research topic.
If you find yourself stuck here,
take a moment to think about something that you know or
care about that can inspire a research topic
relevant to the course and the assignment.
Have you read or watched something interesting lately?
Did a particular passage, quote, or chapter
from one of the course texts resonate with you?
Do you see connections between your major and the
course assigning this research project
that you can explore in the research paper?
For example,
can you compare the theme of harnessing science
in order to create Frankenstein's monster
to notable historical or current examples
such as the rise and associated concerns
with artificial intelligence?
This example research topic
will be used throughout this video series
to demonstrate phases and processes involved
in conducting research.
Next, you can begin your background research
to help you learn more about a possible research topic
and one aspect of the broad topic you can focus on
for the more in-depth research.
As you conduct background research,
you are looking for information that expands,
confirms, or changes what you already know about the topic.
You may want to focus on
how other people talk about this topic.
What disciplines they incorporate into their discussions of the topic.
What they talk about most.
Different perspectives on the topic.
Is there consensus or are there drastically different interpretations?
Is this related to when the sources were written?
The terminology used or aspects of this topic that are focused on.
Can these help generate keyword terms to search for in the catalog?
You can look to several resources to help at this preliminary
background research stage.
Many people start with a Google search
or by exploring Wikipedia for information about a topic.
But, you may quickly encounter the challenge of
of determining if the source is credible,
meaning you should trust its content or author.
If it is an individual's blog
can you be sure that the content is correct and worth citing?
Or, would you need to find
another source written by experts on your topic
anyway to make an argument that a reader would trust?
To save you time and effort during this
early stage in the research process,
You can instead look to information available
from the Purdue Libraries,
which offers quick and convenient ways to determine if
an encyclopedia entry, article, or book
are credible or scholarly.
You can use reference databases -
organized collections of information that will provide short
overviews on a given topic -
to learn more about your selected topic,
identify aspects of the topic you may want to
focus on,
or find cited authors,
articles, or books to look to for more information.
In short,
the Libraries databases and other resources
will help you find reliable information
written by experts on a range of topics
to help you orient to a potential research topic.
As you find more information about your research topic
by conducting background research,
your notes should reflect your updated understanding of the topic.
Are there new aspects to the topic that you had not
considered initially?
Are there more examples or connections
to related topics,
or is there different evidence and perspectives to account for?
You may wish to document what you find,
where you find it,
and how it relates to your topic using a template
that can aggregate all of your notes and insights in one place.
As you gain a fuller understanding of your topic
through background research,
you can formulate a research question
that will guide your more extensive and in-depth
research efforts.
Unlike a research topic,
which is stated broadly,
a research question will be written in clear and succinct language,
have an obvious target or subject,
be arguable and situated in relevant scholarship,
and be well-scoped so it is not too broadly or too narrowly defined.
Our example topic
about the dangers of technology
in Frankenstein is good place to start.
But, you may need to more clearly or narrowly
define this research topic as a research question
that will help readers see a purpose to the research paper
and how it relates to other scholarship.
You can use the insights you gained
from the background research you did
to write a research question
with a more specific focus.
Once you have your research question,
you can begin digging deeper into the scholarship
around your topic
by searching the Purdue Libraries' catalog
or subject-oriented collections.
To learn more about searching for materials
from the Purdue Libraries,
see the next video in this series.
This video provided an overview
to selecting a research topic
and beginning to narrow it to a more researchable topic.
For help with the initial stages in a research paper,
please visit the Ask a Librarian webpage
to chat or email a librarian.