Students on the steps of Ingersol Hall, 1962

You may be new to doing research or perhaps you haven't written a research paper in a long while. These are the best steps to follow when beginning research. This guide provides you with information every step of the way.

First, you will need to find a topic. Figure out what interests you and what meets the requirements of an assignment.

  Next, you will want to learn more about your topic. Learning about your topic will help you formulate a research question. Reading about something new often sparks you imagination and sense of inquiry. You have learned some new information and now you want to learn even more. What questions has your reading left unanswered?

Once you have formulated a research question, you need to think about the important words in your question. Learn how to identify the keywords that you can pull out and search for in the library search tools.

 OneSearch is a great library search tool that pulls together in one place a number of subject-specific library databases.  You will find books, articles and media on a wide array of topics using this single tool.

 If OneSearch seems too broad in its coverage, learn how to search a subject database. The library has many subject databases that work for researchers studying in any of the Schools in the College and those looking for specific types of information such as news and biographies.

 Once you are ready to write your research paper, this guide will help you through the writing process. From your topic sentence through your final list of citations, we are here to help.