Research Quick Guide

What do you want/need to find out in your research?

Your question should be:

• Interesting to you!

• Open to Research: Something you'll have to dig around for

• Something you don't know the answer to

• Answered in more than one way: not yes/no,  ask "WHY" not "what"

• Focused: Not too big or too small

• Reasonable: able to get credible information

• Asked with clear terms: Don't use "good", "cool", "nowadays"

• Leads to new questions!

Examples of strong essential questions for research:

• How do revolutions change society?

• What role does technology play in scientific discovery?

• What makes a story "timeless"?

• What does it mean to be a responsible global citizen?

You should always start on the library databases.

Why should you start on the library databases:

• They are always reliable and trustworthy. 

• They will narrow down your results to help you find what you need faster.

• They will read the articles to you.

• They have a leveling system to help you find just the right reading level.

• They have online note taking tools

• and best of all....They CITE YOUR ARTICLES for you!

Google Sources

When you find an article online that looks promising you must check for reliability and trustworthiness.

Here are 3 things to look for:

Publisher:  

• Who published the website?

  • .gov and .edu are your best bet.

  • .com and .org  mean you need to do some extra digging to see if it is reliable. 

Author:

• Can you find an "about us" page?

• Does the author have expertise in the field?

• Be skeptical if there is no information listed about the author.

Content:

• What is the goal of the site?

• Is it trying to persuade you?

• Can you find a relevant DATE?

• Does it CITE its sources or offer REFERENCES?

• Overall look and feel: grammatically correct?  lots of ads?

Don't Forget about BOOKS

Books are a great source of information and the library has lots of nonfiction that can help!

Destiny Catalog:

Click HERE to access Destiny Discover to see what we have availble here in the KMS library.

SORA:

Click HERE to access SORA.

SORA has a many more resources than we can stock in the library.

Filter your search by "subject" and then choose either "juvenile nonfiction" or "young adult nonfiction"

Don't forget about the always available magazines! They provide a lot of great nonfiction content!

When you read and take notes you must paraphrase what you find.

Paraphrase means putting ideas into your own words. If you copy and paste someone else's words that is plagiarism. 

Some helpful tips for paraphrasing:

The 4 R's of Paraphrasing

Reword - Use synonyms

Rearrange - words in a sentence to make new sentences, rearrange ideas

Realize - that some words (names, dates, titles etc) can't be changed

Recheck - does your paraphrase match the original idea?