Guide to Researching

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Literary Analysis 1
Thesis Statements 2
Topic Sentences 3
Evidence 4
Parenthetical Citations 5
Analysis 6
Effective Intros and Conclusions 7
Imbedding Quotes 8
Taboo Words 9
MLA Format 10
Brainstorming your paragraphs 11
Analysis (TKAM) 12
Questions to ask while researching 13
Internet sources and Search Engines 14
Powerful Search Engines and the “Invisible Web” 15
Other places to search and Online References 16
Online Libraries, Newspapers, and Articles 17

 The quantity of information available is so staggering
 It's estimated that anyone attempting to research what's known about depression would have to read over 100,000 studies on the subject!
 Huge quantity available but a very uneven level of quality
 Convince you to buy their products, agree with their opinions, rely on their data, vote for their candidate, consider their perspective, or accept them as experts.
 You must sift and make decisions all the time, and you want to make responsible choices.

 Make decisions about what to search, where to look, if it is a valid or useful source for your writing.
 Before you read a source or spend time hunting for it, begin by looking at the following information to evaluate whether it's worth finding or reading:
 Consider the author, the title of the work, the summary, where it is, and the timeliness of the entry.
 Evaluate this information to see if it is relevant and valid

 Check for a list of references or other citations that will lead you to related material
 Determine the intended audience . Consider the tone, style, level of information, and assumptions the author makes about the reader. Are they appropriate for your needs?
 Determine if the content of the source is fact, opinion, or propaganda.

 Do you think there's enough evidence offered ?
(As you learn more and more about your topic, you will notice that this gets easier as you become more of an expert.)
 Is the language objective (neutral) or emotional ?
 Are there broad generalizations that overstate or oversimplify the matter ?

 Does the author use a good mix of primary and secondary sources for information ?
Check out their bibliography.
 If the source is opinion, does the author offer sound reasons for adopting that stance? ( Is this person reputable ?)
 Check for accuracy.
 Are arguments very one-sided with no acknowledgement of other viewpoints ?

 How timely is the source? Is the source 20 years out of date?
 Some information becomes dated when new research is available, but other older sources of information can be quite sound 50 or 100 years later.
 Do some cross-checking. Can you find some of the same information given elsewhere?
 How credible is the author? If the document is anonymous, what do you know about the organization?

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 Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, are large databases of information
 No search engine or web directory will have the same sites listed in the same order, and none will have all of the possible sites on the Internet listed.
 The ranking of a website within a search engine (i.e. how high up on the results list it appears) is not important to your research.
 Avoid "sponsored links"; links that appear on the first few pages of the search results and that are paid for by advertisers.

 Search engines are good for finding sources for welldefined topics. Typing in a general term such as
"education" or "Shakespeare" will bring too many results, but by narrowing your topic, you can get the kind (and amount) of information that you need.
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Example:
○ Go to Google (a search engine)
Type in a general term ("education")
Add modifiers to further define and narrow your topic ("rural education Indiana")
○ Be as specific as you can ("rural education Indiana elementary school")
○ Submit your search.
 Adjust your search based upon the number of responses you receive (if you get too few responses, submit a more general search; if you get too many, add more modifiers) .

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All4one : One of the first metasearch engines, All4One allows simultaneous searching of 10 major search engines.
Alta Vista : Allows you to search for websites, audio, video, and news. It also allows searches by location and language.
Bing : Microsoft's search engine.
Dogpile : A metasearch engine that will search Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask.
Environment Web Directory : A web directory that focuses on environmental and health issues.
Excite : A search engine that lets you search by language, for video, audio, and mp3, and by relevant date.
Google : Includes a new type of search, "Google Scholar," which allows you to search for more academically-oriented searches.
Lycos : A search engine that allows for news searches but does not have many advanced search features.
Metacrawler : A metasearch engine and will search other search engines.
The Open Directory Project : One of the largest and most comprehensive human-edited directories in the world. Only higher quality websites will be listed here as each site submitted must be approved by a directory editor.
People Search : People Search has online white-page directories for telephone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses, etc.
WebCrawler : Another search engine that allows searching by location, domain name, and for multimedia.

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Alexa: A website that archives older websites that are no longer available on the
Internet. For example, Alexa has about 87 million websites from the 2000 election that are for the most part no longer available on the Internet.
Complete Planet : Provides an extensive listing of databases that cannot be searched by conventional search engine technology. It provides access to lists of databases which you can then search individually.
The Directory of Open Access Journals : Another full-text journal searchable database.
FindArticles : Indexes over 10 million articles from a variety of different publications.
Find Law : A comprehnsive site that provides information on legal issues organized by category.
HighWire : Brought to you by Stanford University, HighWire press provides access to one of the largest databases of free, full-text, scholarly content.
Infomine : A research database created by librarians for use at the university level.
It includes both a browsable catalogue and searching capabilities.
Invisible Web Database : A database maintained by Chris Sherman and Gary
Price, authors of the book Invisible Web , that provides a host of links to invisible web resources in a variety of categories.
MagPortal : A search engine that will allow you to search for free online magazine articles on a wide range of topics.

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Librarians' Internet Index : Provides librarianreviewed websites and material on a host of different topics. While this site is not exhaustive, it will provide you quality information on a large variety of topics.
Some of this material is invisible-web material.
About.com
: Provides practical information on a large variety of topics written by trained professionals.
Wikipedia : The largest free and open access encyclopedia on the internet.
Refdesk : A site that provides reviews and a search feature for free reference materials online.

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AllRefer offers encyclopedia entries and references for a variety of fields.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online provides articles from the famous encyclopedia.
Infoplease has a complete encyclopedia, dictionary, and almanacs for research as well as information organized by subject matter.
Libraryspot.com
is one of the most comprehensive site you'll find on the Web for links to libraries across the world.
The University of Victoria's Writer's Guide offers a hyper-textual set of information relating to writing. This site could be of special interest to writers in first-year composition.
The Writing at the University of Toronto offers over 50 "homemade" files concerning writing and links to writer resources for various fields including engineering.
Ask Oxford is a very comprehensive site produced by the editors of the Oxford
English Dictionary that has answers to questions on English grammar, spelling, and usage and access to searchable dictionaries.
Writer's Free Reference is an extensive list of free information on the Internet that could be useful to writers (or anyone else doing research online.
Wikipedia is a collaborative project that is attempting to produce a free and complete encyclopedia in every language.

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The Internet Public Library is an online reference site, the IPL organizes websites into subjects as well as provides links to e-texts, magazines, and newspapers.
The Library of Congress provides information about the world's largest library as well as links to popular collections and topics.
Libraryspot.com: is a comprehensive portal to libraries around the world.
Purdue's Libraries searches Purdue's catalog as well as an extensive list of online databases and eJournals.

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The Chronicle of Higher Education provides news and and articles concerning education and research.
The Washington Post provides links to articles from one of the world's most popular newspapers located in America's capital.
New York Times provides links to articles from one of the world's most popular newspapers.
USA Today provides news and articles on sports, money, weather, and more.
Wall Street Journal links to the articles concerning politics, the world, sports, and international format of the paper.
Electronic Journals is a collection of links to databases and collection sites for e-journals.
Pathfinder (Time Warner publications) provides links to magazines owned by Time including "CNN Money", "Instyle" and "People".
The Associated Press site provides links to stories posted by one of the world's largest news agencies.
Reuters News Media is a collection of stories from one of the world's largest news agency.
Newseum allows you to find daily newspaper front pages from 68 countries across the globe.