College Survival Guide (ENGL 1010 )

Let's take a look at the big picture of what all is involved with writing a paper as well as all the resources you need to check out available through the library.

To get started you need to choose your topic. Let's see what makes for a good topic as well as how to narrow a topic down to a more manageable subject.

Once you have your topic and you start researching it you find that needs to be some give and take with your topic. In other words, you'll find yourself tweaking your topic as you let your research guide you. This video will help you undersand how that process works.

Before searching for resources, think about what type of information you need and where your topic is in the information life cycle. Then, search resources that have that type of information.

Choose your words carefully. The words that best represent your topic are called "keywords." When selecting your keywords, consider these points:

• Do you need this word? Eliminate any unnecessary words.
• Is this how experts write about the topic? Check background sources for terminology.

Am I using a phrase? Do the words need to stay together?

• Use quotation marks around "search phrases" to specify terms. For example: "health care," "gun control," "head injuries."

Consider potential synonyms for your search terms.

Social media can be a valuable resource for research, especially when investigating recent events. However, it's important to approach it critically, as it often contains inaccurate or misleading information. This content typically falls into three categories:

• Misinformation – Incorrect information shared by someone who believes it to be true.
• Disinformation – Deliberately false information shared with the intent to deceive.
• Malinformation – Information that is factually accurate but presented out of context to mislead.

Because of these risks, it's essential to carefully evaluate any information you gather from social media. For guidance, refer to the “Evaluating Information” box below.

News media is useful in research because it provides up-to-date information on current events and public issues. It helps us understand how events happen and how different people react to them. Articles, opinion pieces, and reports can offer helpful background and different viewpoints. Still, it’s important to check if the news is trustworthy by looking at the source, spotting any bias, and making sure the facts are accurate. Below are some helpful tools when using news media in your research.

The News Literacy Project identifies five types of bias in news coverage:

• Partisan - political or ideological views affects news coverage
• Demographic - race, gender, ethnicity, culture, economic class affect news coverage
• Corporate - business interests affect news coverage
• Big Story - perception of an event as major event distorts coverage
• Neutrality - attempts to avoid appearing bias misrepresents facts

Helpful Factchecking Websites include:

• Snopes - Investigates and debunks rumors, urban legends, and misinformation circulating online and in popular culture.
• Politifact - Fact-checks statements made by politicians and public figures, rating their accuracy on a scale from “True” to “Pants on Fire.”
• FactCheck.org - A nonpartisan site that monitors the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims and media coverage.

Useful Media Bias Charts include:

• Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart - An interactive chart rating news sources based on political bias and reliability
• AllSides Bias Chart - Categorizes news outlets by political bias—left, center, or right—based on editorial perspective and reader feedback

The "Free Web" are those websites that can be searched through a search engine like Google and which there are generally no fees to access the information. Below you'll find a couple tips for searching two of the most popular search engines, Google and Google Scholar.

Evaluation of the information you find is crucial to good research. While especially true for information found on the "free web" it is also helpful to be able to evaluate and analysis information found in journal articles. Below are two brief videos , one featuring the CRAAP Test and the other highlighting Lateral Reading, on evaluating information as well as some helpful handouts.

Databases are organized collection of information. They are most often used to find journals and other periodical literature which are usually the best sources for an academic research paper. Before using a database let's get a good understanding of how they work and how to find solid resources using one.