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UNIV 120 / ARSC 120 Transfer Seminars

Getting Started with Research

This guide outlines strategies and tools that will help you complete your research and multimodal projects for English 110. 

  • Developing a Topic: As you start your research, give yourself some time to gather background information and think through different components of your topic. This will help you come up with a creative, engaging topic to investigate!
  • Searching for Sources: From DELCAT to library databases to the open web, you have a lot of options for search tools.
  • Evaluating: Many components go into deciding if a source is relevant and useful for your topic. Doing an in-depth evaluation of your sources during the research process will help you use sources more effectively in your writing. 
  • Creating Multimedia: When you need to create a podcast, infographic, or other multimedia, it helps to plan your creation process and know about all of the tools available to you. 
  • Citing: Giving credit to your sources is an important part of participating in scholarly conversations. 
  • Getting Help: All researchers need help sometimes! There are several options for learning research skills and getting help from librarians.

ENGL110 Interactive Research Module

This module provides an introduction to scholarly research. 

Doing Background Research

When you start a research project, background research can help you:

  • Understand the size and scope of a potential topic
  • Find subtopics that interest you
  • Learn key terminology for the topic
  • Identify influential people and events 
  • Discover highly-cited sources about the topic

Resources for Background Research

In addition to doing a general online search or consulting online reference sources like Wikipedia, try these library resources to find background information about your topic: 

Strategies for Exploring a Topic