College of DuPage Library

Introduction

This unit will help you find an appropriate topic or question for research and demonstrate how that question can be focused to suit the limits of time available, length of assignment, or scope of the problem to be solved.

Objectives

• Select an appropriate topic for research
• Generate questions from a topic
• Broaden and narrow a question
• Identify key concepts and vocabularies related to a topic
• Broaden and narrow concepts and vocabularies related to a topic

Library Learning Outcomes

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After this module, the student should be able to:

1a. Determine a focused, clear, and manageable topic.
1c. Identify key concepts and terms that describe the topic.
1d. Explore general information resources to become familiar with the topic.
1e. Narrow or broaden the scope of the topic based on preliminary research.

The following unit provides specific information about various source types.

Introduction

This unit will help you to understand how information is produced and how information about a topic or event changes over time.

Objectives

• Acquire a basic understanding of information production and distribution
• Identify differences among information source types

Library Learning Outcomes

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(Click for full list of learning outcomes)

2b. Understand the characteristics and value of different types of resources (books, periodicals, Web sites) and their different formats (print, electronic).
3c. Use the components of a citation to choose those sources most suitable for the research project.
4b. Understand the different ways that resources are organized.

Introduction

The information world can be viewed from many different, overlapping points-of-view. For example, common concepts like fiction and non-fiction or speech and writing divide information into broad categories that can be helpful in understanding and organizing it. We start by looking at 3 of these points-of-view as a context for doing research.

Objectives

• Gain a basic understanding of the Internet
• Distinguish scholarly from popular communication
• Distinguish primary from secondary information sources

Library Learning Outcomes

(Click for full list of learning outcomes)
After this module, the student should be able to:

2b. Understand the characteristics and value of different types of resources (books, periodicals, Web sites) and their different formats (print, electronic).
2c. Understand the characteristics and value of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

A question that is too narrow or specific may not retrieve enough information. If this happens, broaden the question. Most questions have multiple contexts and varying levels of specificity.

The underlined terms below represent broader ways of asking without changing the basic meaning. If you find sources that treat a subject broadly, use the index or table of contents to locate useful sections or chapters. 

Or ask yourself, "How might the arguments made here support my argument?"

Research requires a question for which no ready answer is available. What do you want to know about a topic? Asking a topic as a question (or series of related questions) has several advantages:

1. Questions require answers.
   A topic is hard to cover completely because it typically encompasses too many related issues; but a question has an answer, even if it is ambiguous or controversial.
   

   TOPIC	QUESTION
   Drugs and crime	Could liberalization of drug laws reduce crime in the U.S.?

2. Questions give you a way of evaluating answers.
   A clearly stated question helps you decide which information will be useful. A broad topic may tempt you to stash away information that may be helpful, but you're not sure how. A question also makes it easier to know when you have enough information to stop your research.
3. A clear open-ended question calls for real research and thinking.
   Asking a question with no direct answer makes research and writing more meaningful. Assuming that your research may solve significant problems or expand the knowledge base of a discipline involves you in more meaningful activity of community and scholarship.

Research questions are open-ended and require a variety of accumulated data to develop an answer. ("Could liberalization of drug laws reduce crime in the U.S.?") Review or report questions are typically answered with what is generally known about a fairly narrow topic. ("What is the rationale for California's "3 strikes" sentencing policy?") Reference questions are typically answered with single known facts or statistics. ("What percentage of drug-related crime in 1999 was committed by dealers, not users?")

Developing a question from a broad topic can be done in many ways. Two such effective ways are brainstorming and concept mapping.  

Brainstorming is a free-association technique of spontaneously listing all words, concepts, ideas, questions, and knowledge about a topic. After making a lengthy list, sort the ideas into categories. This allows you to inventory your current awareness of a topic, decide what perspectives are most interesting and/or relevant, and decide in which direction to steer your research.
 

You may create a concept map as a means of brainstorming; or, following your brainstorm, you may take the content you have generated and create your map from it . Concept maps may be elaborate or simple and are designed to help you organize your thinking about a topic, recognize where you have gaps in your knowledge, and help to generate specific questions that may guide your research. Combining brainstorming and concept mapping can be a productive way to begin your thinking about a topic area. Try to establish as your goal the drafting of a topic definition statement which outlines the area you will be researching and about which you will present your findings.

Combine brainstorming and concept mapping now.

The word "research" is used to describe a number of similar and often overlapping activities involving a search for information.

Need help picking a topic?

When you don't find a needed source on the Internet, a citation can be used to find the source somewhere else, typically in a library. The source for discovering what a library owns and where they keep it is a catalog.

The library catalog is a database of everything a library owns; but its records don't include article titles, and rarely include chapter titles. So, don't search for article or chapter titles: search for book, journal, magazine, or newspaper titles.

Citations represent more than just books and magazines. They represent any written, spoken, or broadcast source, including Web sites, a single chapter from a book, the text of a law or treaty, an interview, or a documentary video. Accurate citations allow you to track down the most difficult-to-find sources, wherever they may be located.

A citation is a brief description of one specific information source, usually appearing in a bibliography, list of references, or a database. It includes enough information to permit the reader to find the source and may appear in a number of variant formats, e.g. American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), Council of Biology Editors (CBE), or Chicago Style (CMS).