Starting Out - ENGL 1A / 1AS - Kristin Smith - CCSF Library at City College of San Francisco

Where do I start?

Let's go!

It may feel disorientating to receive a research assignment from an instructor, especially if you have never done academic research before. You may be familiar with the topic of the assignment a bit, but how will you complete the work? It can help to follow a "process." Try the one we outline below. Not comfy? Mix it up to suit your personal research style!

Process

Spend some time trying to understand the assignment. For example, you may be asked to write a research paper on a particular aspect of something broader you are discussing in class. It may help to jump into a background resource to get a broad understanding of the topic again. A background resource might be an online encyclopedia of some kind. Encyclopedia articles are usually short and give you a broad overview of, or introduction to the topic.

Here are some that are available to you as a CCSF student.

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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference offers background information on topics from hundreds of full-text general and subject-specific reference/encyclopedia titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.

Opposing Viewpoints | Browse Issues
Covering today's hottest social issues, and includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. Using a category from this "Browse Issues" section will provide helpful overviews.

Take notes as you read the background source. Did your brain gravitate to any particular angle on the topic? Is this something you could pursue in your paper?

After exploring the broad topic in a background resource (such as Credo), and thinking through your focus/aspects, it's a good idea to write down words to help with the search.

The table below is an example on how to brainstorm related, synonymous, and adjacent terms that might help you find great sources! The words you use access different information from different communities.

Example research topic: teen use of social media

Search Keywords
main words	main topic: social media	focus/angle: teens
synonyms	snapchat, instagram, facebook, twitter	high school students, middle school students, adolescents

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Try the library's OneSearch to cross search all the excellent high quality content you have access to as a CCSF student! CCSF Library resources are often NOT available for free in a Google Search. In addition, searching the library's materials will not give you 'hallucinations' (fake, totally made up information) like the AI sources sometimes do.

Here is an example using search terms for information on a different topic: can chatbots help you feel less lonely?

(Want to see? The demo search is available .)

Notice that the search can be limited (or 'filtered') to show you only the results that are available to you online on the left side of the results. Pro tip: You can also limit your results to only those in scholarly (academic or peer reviewed ) journals.

By skimming your first page of results, you will get a sense of whether your combination of search words was helpful. If there is not one single helpful result on the page, go back to your word brainstorm and replace an old search word with a new one. Here are some things to consider when looking at the results of a search:

Skim the initial set of results and think, "Where are my search words coming up?"
- In the title?
- In the subjects?
- When you click into the item, do you see any of your search words in the abstract?

Look at the page length of the items you are surfacing.
- This is not to say that you don't want to use long items - there are some gems in there! But think about your assignment and the amount of time you have to complete it. If an item is too long to use in it's entirety (such as an entire ebook), you may be able to use a section (such as a relevant chapter within an ebook).
- Too short can also be a red flag. Beware of book reviews, letters to the editor, abstracts, etc. Book reviews may alert you to a good book that you should find, but reviews are probably not sources you want to cite themselves. Letters to the editor may alert you to good articles that they are responding to, but like book reviews you usually won't want to cite the letter itself as a source. Abstracts can indicate an article worth reading, but you would need to find and read the article, not cite the abstract.
Can you focus your search beyond the words you put in? In some library tools, you may see some options to limit your results.
- If you are looking for academic sources, clicking the filter for "Peer-reviewed journals" may help.
- You may also want to adjust the date range of results.

Resist the urge to pick ALL of your needed sources in one go!
Instead, pick a couple of sources, read them deeply, and take notes.
You can find more in your next layer of searching!

Did you read your first few sources? Really REALLY read them? Good! Your brain is probably swirling with ideas! Good ones, bad ones, annoyed ones, anxious ones.

What are you thinking about? What did you highlight the most? What is sparking interest in your brain?

Pay attention to what your brain is gravitating toward,
brainstorm some new search words, and
search again!

You will find results that did not come up last time, and your search words will be even more specific to your interest, and this will help you find what you need to write your paper. By giving your brain room to think deeply, you can find even more sources to include in your project, and they will help you write an amazing research paper.

Good luck! We are here in the library and ready to help. Visit us in person or online today!

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