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College Research Toolkit

Preliminary Research & Topic Exploration

Preliminary research can help you explore a topic from multiple angles, identify nuances of the dialogue, and decide how you might be able to contribute to the conversation. During pre-search, you can use various strategies to browse through available literature without reading the articles. While looking through the search results, quickly note the titles and subjects (tags) assigned to each source. Abstracts and AI-generated summaries will allow you to learn more about the source.

Example:

Topic: Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Legalization

  • Multiple sides of a debate:
    • legal and ethical perspectives
    • doctors’, patients’ & family points of view
    • advocacy groups
  • Legislation and legal cases:
    • U.S. states and countries that legalized MAID
    • legal cases and rulings
  • Statistical data:
    • public opinion polls and survey results
    • number of MAID prescription recipients
  • Terminology:
    • medical aid in dying
    • euthanasia
    • assisted suicide
    • physician-assisted death
    • death with dignity

Multiple Perspectives

If you are working on a persuasive paper or a speech, there is a temptation to focus primarily on your point of view. Try to thoroughly research the other side as well. Furthermore, the reality is rarely black and white. There are usually multiple sides and solutions to any issue. Attempt to explore several different perspectives.

Research Methods

  • Psychological Research [Lecture: 40 min]
    This lecture was recorded by professor Lasegue for the General Psychology course. Learning about how research is conducted can help you develop research questions, analyze data, and design your own studies.

Best Practices

Searching as Strategic Exploration

Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.

The act of searching often begins with a question that directs the act of finding needed information. Encompassing inquiry, discovery, and serendipity, searching identifies both possible relevant sources as well as the means to access those sources. Experienced researchers realize that information searching is a contextualized, complex experience that affects, and is affected by social dimensions of the searcher. Experts will search broadly and deeply to determine the most appropriate information within the project scope. Likewise, researchers select from various search strategies, depending on the sources, scope, and context of the information need.

Adapted from the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.