Research Process
What is a Research Paper?
A research paper is an inquiry and investigation on a given topic/subject. It may be defined as the culmination and final product of an involved process of research, critical thinking, source evaluation, organization, and composition.
General Steps to Writing a Research Paper
For additional information, check out the Writing Process, where we breakdown different writing concepts that fall slightly outside the purview of a research paper. The information within the writing process pages also provide a more thorough look at quotation integration and understanding academic lingo, which is not fully explored in the general steps that we have provided here.
Video Resources
YouTube channels that exemplify a research-based essay:
Pop Culture Detective videos
Just Write videos
Lindsay Ellis's videos
Everything is a Remix series by Kirby Ferguson
Feminist Frequency's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games by Anita Sarkeesian
Videos from TED-Ed:
Lea Gaslowitz's How to Spot a Misleading Graph
Mark Liddell's How Statistics Can Be Misleading
Michele Weldon's Capturing Authentic Narratives
Ingram Library Resources
Ingram Library provides students with free access to multiple academic journals for a wide-range of subjects. When starting the research process, check out the academic databases below:
Gale Literary Sources: Contains 5 literary databases: Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, Scribner Writers on GVLR, Something about the Author Online, and Twayne's Authors on GVLR. These resources include literary criticism and biographical and critical essays on the lives and works of influential literary figures from the US and beyond.
Literary Reference Center: Information from respected reference works, books, and literary journals. Includes work overviews, articles of literary criticism, author biographies, book reviews, and short stories and poems.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism: Historical survey of the key literary figures, schools, and movements.
JSTOR: Access to back issues of core journals. Includes extensive content in literature.
MLA International Bibliography (Literature and Language): Journal articles, books, and dissertations. Subjects include literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, and the performing arts.
ProQuest Research Library: Multi-disciplinary database with many full-text scholarly articles.
Project Muse: Scholarly publications in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Includes extensive content on literature.
Important thing to remember: to use the University's databases off campus, be sure to log in with the GALILEO password first. (The GALILEO password can be found in the Resources box in CourseDen--lower right)
Ingram Library also contains subject-based guides to help students find the best research databases.
Additional Resources
Google Scholar: Google search engine for scholarly sources.
Refdesk.com is a free and family friendly web site indexing and reviewing quality, credible, and current Internet reference resources.
Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States.
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Open Library provides online access to many public domain and out-of-print books.
Project Gutenberg is a collection of public domain books.
Library Extension is a helpful aid in finding books in local libraries.
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.