Start Your Research Here

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

- Zora Neale Hurston

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Research is a Process

Writing a research paper doesn't have to be overwhelming. It helps if you just think of it as a project that has a series of manageable steps you take to complete it. You can use this guide to follow those steps. Remember, real librarians are here to help you along your way.

1.Understand your assignment

What topics can you explore? Are any topics off limits? How long is the finished product? When is it due? How many and what type of sources are required? Will you be describing, analyzing, comparing, solving, or persuading?

2.Choose a meaningful topic

Research is an opportunity to explore topics relevant to you and your life. If your topic isn’t personally meaningful, the research process will quickly become tedious. If you have trouble connecting with a topic, your MJC librarians will have lots of ideas to help.

3.Develop your topic through preliminary reading

Think of preliminary reading as front-loading your learning: giving yourself the background knowledge and vocabulary you need before tackling the more complex content you'll use as your actual sources. Preliminary reading -- sometimes called background reading -- helps you to familiarize yourself with existing information, current research, and various viewpoints concerning your chosen topic.

This type of inquiry helps you evaluate the viability of potential topics and gauge your continued interested in exploring those topics. Preliminary reading can also help you refine or narrow broad topics into a manageable focus. Where are other researchers and writers focusing their attention?

To be clear, preliminary reading isn't about finding your sources -- though you may find some along the way -- as much as it is about finding and expanding your ideas. 

4.Create research questions

Research questions help shape your paper, plus save you time as you focus on finding sources answering specific questions. As your research progresses, you may revise and even add to your questions. Research librarians are happy to help you develop some questions to get you started.

5.Gather your sources

Use library databases to find high-quality sources answering your research questions. Follow the assignment’s source guidelines, and rigorously evaluate everything you plan on including in your bibliography. Be sure to follow the citation style set out by your professor.

6.Read, reflect, write, revise!

It’s simple: the more you read, think and write about your topic, the more you’ll learn about it. Read your sources closely and often, tracking the information you plan to use. Get your ideas down on paper as they develop, and cite your sources as you go.

Use the Library & Learning Center

MJC librarians can help you get started with your project, and assist you with each and every step of the research process. Tutors in the L&LC will help ensure the grammar, spelling, and organization of your paper is turn-in ready. Visit us early and as often as needed!

Finding the Topic Sweet Spot  

The topic sweet spot is where three factors overlap: your assignment, your sources, and your own interests. Balancing these equally will set you up for success.

1. Understand your assignment.
Know exactly what’s expected. Pay attention to the guidelines:

• Required or restricted topics

• Page length/word count/timing

• Number and type of sources

• Mode of presentation (informative? persuasive? analytical? compare-contrast? problem-solution?)

2. Check source availability.
The right sources can make or break your topic. A paper requiring 8 peer-reviewed sources will push you toward more scholarly subjects than one that asks for 3 substantive sources. Before locking in your topic, preview what’s available in the types of sources you're required to find. A librarian can help you match topics to potential sources.

3. Choose personal meaning.
If your topic doesn’t matter to you, the work will feel like drudgery. Pick something you’re genuinely curious about or connected to. When you chase knowledge instead of just chasing the grade, the research process becomes more rewarding and the final product stronger.

Pick a Topic Databases

You can get ideas for research topics from several MJC article databases.

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All research begins by learning basic facts about your topic and what others are saying about it.

Preliminary reading -- sometimes called background reading -- allows researchers/writers to familiarize themselves with existing information, current research, and various viewpoints concerning their chosen topic. This type of inquiry helps evaluate the viability of topics as well as refine or narrow broad topics into a manageable focus. To be clear, preliminary reading isn't about finding your sources -- though you may find some along the way -- as much as it is about finding your ideas. 

Use These Databases to Start Exploring Your Topic

Database content is free for MJC students, faculty, and staff. If you are away from campus, simply log in just like you do for your MJC email or Canvas.

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Why Create Research Questions?   

Think of research questions as your shopping list for information. Just as a list keeps you focused in a crowded store, your questions keep you on track in the vast “supermarket” of sources. They help you:

• Locate the most relevant information quickly and efficiently.

• Stay focused so you don’t get lost or sidetracked while exploring.

• Stay organized as you gather evidence and start shaping your paper.

And just like a grocery list, your research questions aren’t fixed. They may grow, change, or shift as you learn more and further refine your topic.

Sample Research Questions

As you shape your research, different types of questions will help you focus on different parts of your paper: introduction, body, and conclusion. The following are sample questions to help you get started. Think of them as a menu of possibilities—some will fit your project, others won’t. Use them as a starting point to spark ideas, and adapt them to fit the scope and goals of your research.

Use these to get background information and define your topic.

• What is ___?

• Why is ___ an important issue?

• What background information is necessary to understand ___?

• What are the different types of ___?

These guide you into deeper analysis and evidence.

• What causes ___?

• What are the effects of ___?

• What are the arguments for ___?

• What are the arguments against ___?

• What is being done about ___?

These help you pull your thinking together and point toward implications or solutions.

• What conclusions can you make about your topic, and why?

• What can you argue about your topic, and why are those arguments valid?

• What should be done to address your topic, and why?

After you've done your background reading and understand the basics about your topic AND after you've created some research questions to direct your exploration, you're ready to dig deeper and seek answers to your research questions.

OneSearch

You can begin by using OneSearch, the MJC Library Catalog. Using OneSearch will help you discover books and other sources that the library has either in print at the L & LC or online.

 

 

Additional Resources to Explore Your Topic

All of these resources are free for you. When you are off campus, simply login like you do for your student email or Canvas.

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Before you jump into hunting and gathering your information, be sure you know how not to be fooled by unreliable, false, or misleading information. It's not hard if you train yourself to ask some simple questions that will help you explain why a particular source is reliable and a good fit for your research project.

When you encounter any kind of source, consider... (CRAAP Test)

1. Currency - When was it written? Has it been updated?
2. Relevance - How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
3. Authority - Who is the author? What is their point of view? 
4. Accuracy - Has the source been reviewed? Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?
5. Purpose - Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience? Where was it published? In what medium?

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Evaluating AI Content:

• Verify everything: AI output can sound confident, but these tools can make up (“hallucinate”) or misrepresent information, draw false conclusions, make major mistakes and generate fake sources 
• AI doesn’t “understand” the way humans do; these models lack real-world experience and context, so they don’t easily handle irony, humor and complex metaphors 
• Don’t just read AI-generated summaries; take time to read original articles and understand detailed points and context 
• Be aware that many of today’s AI tools are trained on information up to a certain date and may not have access to recent events or new discoveries 
• Challenge AI responses and require the AI to justify its output by citing sources and data 
• Beware of biased AI output 
• Guard against overreliance on AI; challenge yourself to learn and exercise your mental muscles

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Finding Information to Help You Evaluate

To find out more about an author: 

Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical databases.

To find scholarly sources: 

When searching library article databases, look for a checkbox to narrow your results to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed or Peer Refereed publications.

To evaluate a source's critical reception: 

Check in the library's article databases to find reviews of the source in order to get a sense of how it was received in the popular and scholarly press.

To evaluate internet sources: 

The internet is a great place to find both scholarly and popular sources, but it's especially important to ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources. If it's unclear who exactly created or published certain works online, look for About pages on the site for more information about the authorship, or search for exact quotations from the text in Google (using quotation marks) to see if you can find other places where the work has been published.

To see what others say about your source, use lateral reading:

While applying the CRAAP Test to a website, that site isn't always the best place to answer questions concerning authority, accuracy, and point of view about itself. You can not always trust what an author or organization says about themselves, and there are sites that may look very professional and credible that are actually promoting a certain agenda or viewpoint. 

If you are unfamiliar with a online source, it is good practice to open a new tab and perform a search on the author and/or organization providing the source. This process is called Lateral Reading. In addition to reading "down" the webpage in order to evaluate it, you open additional tabs and read "across" multiple pages to determine what others are saying about your potential source. This helps you build the body of evidence needed to determine if the source is suitable for your research need or not.

If you need materials (books, articles, recordings, videos, etc.) that you cannot find either in OneSearch or in our databases, we can get it for you. Check out our Interlibrary Loan page below.

Once you're done with your research, you're ready to write.

When you write a research paper, you use information and facts from a variety of resources to support your own ideas or to help you develop new ones. Books, articles, videos, interviews, and websites are some examples of sources you might use.

Citing these sources of information in your work is essential because:

• It gives credit to the author of the original work who provided you with the information or idea
• It allows your audience to identify and find the source material in order to learn more about your topic
• It gives your paper more credibility because it shows you're supporting your arguments with high-quality source. It also helps earn your readers' trust because you're telling your readers the source of your facts so that they can confirm them for themselves
• It helps you avoid plagiarism

Watch this short video from The Learning Portal to learn why you cite and when you cite. Watch, Learn, and Enjoy!

"Why You Need to Cite Sources" by The Learning Portal is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

MLA, APA, & Chicago

Start by selecting your style from the list below. If you're not sure which to choose, ask your instructor.

Other Styles

Learn more on the go with our library of how-to videos on YouTube.

Learn how to research like a pro with our credit-bearing MLIB 100 or our free, non-credit courses.