• Keep in mind the "re" in research. The usual procedure is to look and look again and then look some more until you find the sources that suit your purpose. That's one reason college classes allow more than a few days and sometimes many weeks for research projects.
• Your textbook offers advice about locating sources on a wide range of topics.
• Spend some time exploring the Website for TCC Library and Learning Resources Centers, getting to know this Website the same way you would a physical library the first time.

  • Of particular importance is the link to Subject Guides for many topics, academic disciplines, and professional fields. Therefore, I expect you to consult those guides early in your investigation.
  • You might want to follow links to indexes and databases which provide references to print and other media as well as full texts of selected articles.
  • You can visit the library at TCC in person for librarian assistance, for print resources not available online, and for locating books. Even online students can get to a library for print and audiovisual resources; however, keep in mind that a college or university library is more suitable than a public library, which is not intended to support scholarly higher education research even though it might have some useful resources. You can check the collections of many libraries through online catalogs at their Web sites.
  • Follow the Ask a Librarian link to email research questions or to have a live chat with TCC's research experts.
  • You can check the library collections of local libraries through their Web sites. You can visit another college or university library in person. To check out materials at Virginia college and university libraries, you will need a Virginia Tidewater Consortium card, available at TCC library circulation desks.

• Scrupulous recordkeeping is essential for a developing a research project. Become familiar with and committed to your obligations for Academic Integrity so that you can receive credit for your own work at the same time you credit others appropriately for theirs.
• As soon as you begin the project, keep careful records of all sources consulted and recommended, including authors, titles, publishers, dates, and page numbers.
• Develop your working bibliography, which is a list of sources that sound promising whether or not you ever actually locate or use them. Your final bibliography listing includes only the sources you actually reference (cite) in your paper and will be headed Works Cited.
• Taking notes on all the necessary information as you conduct your research will help you document accurately and save you time later. A system of Note Cards as described in most college research writing guides and handbooks remains one of the most efficient methods for keeping track of potentially useful information as you conduct research. Technological alternatives include typing your notes into a computer database or word processor or using one of the special software programs for scholarly research records.
• Be sure full information about the source accompanies any notes you take.
  • You must be faithful to the meaning and context of the original source so that you do not distort the intention or significance of the original.
  • In your notes as in your final paper, use summary, paraphrase, quotation, and combinations correctly. See your textbook or Selected Glossary for Academic Research for definitions of these important concepts.
  • When you do quote, be sure to quote accurately. Place clearly in double quotation marks the entire section quoted and place in single quotation marks any internal quotations. Remember that these marks are the only way you'll know whether the information in your notes is a direct quotation. If you are quoting material that covers more than a single page, use a slash / mark to signal to yourself the page change, just in case your paper uses only a portion of the quotation. See the sample at Note Cards.
  • Copy all information and punctuation and capitalization exactly as they appear in the source, including any errors. Identify any errors with [square brackets]. If the error is a fairly obvious spelling error, simply place [sic] after the term. If you feel it appropriate to write the correct information or, in some cases, to insert a comment—called an interpolation—use [square brackets to distinguish your remark from the author's words.
  • If you feel it necessary to quote portions of the original, leaving out words and phrases, use ellipsis points/marks to signal omissions. Ellipsis points are not usually necessary for omissions at the beginnings of sentences or for obvious short phrases. Consult a handbook for correct use of ellipsis points.
• Become familiar with the required documentation standards (MLA for our class but you might be asked to use another type for another class) so you'll know what kinds of information you'll be expected to document in your Works Cited listing, where you will be required to list vital information about sources.
• Because online resources are not always present when you return to them, print just the top page of any Website you think you might use. Be sure you have set your page and print preferences of your Web browser to print the Web address (URL) and printout date so you'll have a record..
  • Double check that the complete Web address (URL) and date are included on the printout; write them in clearly if they are missing. You should also print other pages from which you are likely to cite information, but please don't print more pages than you need to. This way you have a record of the existence of the site and can return to double-check the accuracy of your quotations and paraphrases.
  • Make a photocopy of any book or article pages you might cite in your paper, and circle the passages you actually use. Be sure to write on each page which source it came from and be sure the page number is visible or written in. That way you can return to double-check the accuracy of your quotations and paraphrases.

• For both books and periodicals, evaluate the usefulness and credibility of material.
  • For content, search indexes, contents, appendixes, glossaries, major headings and subheadings.
  • For content, read beginnings and endings of chapters or paragraphs or sentences, as appropriate.
  • For currency, check dates of composition, revision, copyright, and publication
  • For author's credentials, see dust jacket, foreword, preface, introduction, and further information about author in specialized Who's Who listings and Contemporary Authors and similar works. For periodicals, is the writer a general journalist or a specialist?
  • Consider the type of publisher: university press, commercial press, special interest group with a particular perspective
  • Critical evaluation by other specialists in sources like Book Review Digest, Book Review Index, Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, Index to Book Reviews in the Social Sciences)
  • Use your own good judgment to evaluate
    • Thoroughness of investigation
    • Documentation of sources
    • Accuracy of information in relation to other material you have read or seen or heard
    • Presence of logical fallacies: faulty generalizations, faulty cause-effect relationships, failure to define terms fully or use them consistently, etc.
  • When possible and appropriate, use primary sources (see Selected Glossary for Academic Research)

• Among the acceptable Web resources are the following:
  • refereed online journals from a college or university or academic association such as the Modern Language Association or American Psychological Association
  • scholarly articles by textbook authors placed online at a publisher's Website
  • refereed print journals digitized for the Web (usually accessible only through a college library site with password-protected restricted entry)
  • online archives and resource lists prepared and maintained by academic institutions or specialists, for example, Voice of the Shuttle or Valley of the Shadow
• To determine whether a Website is hosted by a college or university or educational organization, move backwards through the Web address until you reach the institution's homepage. Most accredited academic Websites have as their root an address that ends .edu such as http://www.clemson.edu. Others may be related to an academic site, as mine is. For example, move backwards through my Documentation Guide Website http://wordsworth2.net/writing/documentation.htm, eliminating and visiting each Web segment back to the / slash mark one section at a time: first to http://wordsworth2.net/writing, and eventually you will reach my homepage http://wordsworth2.net. From that site, you will find links to my academic and professional sites.

Unacceptable Resources

• The following sources usually are usually not acceptable for academic research projects:
  • most general encyclopedias and some specialized encyclopedias
  • summary books like the Magill series, Masterplots, and Cliffs and Spark Notes in print and online
  • papers composed by other undergraduate and master's degree students because students are novice scholars learning to be expert scholars and do not yet have credentials or refereed publications
  • most general magazines except when assigned or approved by your teacher
  • On the other hand, you may find some of these "unacceptable" sources are valuable to stimulate your thinking and provide general background information that will help you narrow your topic. You can use the bibliographies and Works Cited listings from these sources to help you identify acceptable sources that they used and that you can use too.
• Occasionally, these "unacceptable" sources can be used in addition to required scholarly sources. If you ever are in doubt about the acceptability of a source, check with a librarian and your teacher.

Become familiar with and committed to your obligations for Academic Integrity so that you can receive credit for your own work at the same time you credit others appropriately for theirs.