Step 1: Choose your topic
- Choose a topic that you enjoy or are interested in or curious about
- Assignment or Career interest - related to your program at UVAWise or future job goal
- Personal interest - arts/crafts, sports, cars, cooking, gardening, genealogy, etc,
- The world around you - current events, news, social issues, politics, etc.
Step 2: Find information about your topic
- Head for the library databases first. What are databases?
- Online, organized collections where you can find electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, ebooks, data, statistics, business reports, and streaming video
- UVAWise Library subscribes to numerous databases
- Wide range of subject areas.
- Use email or share tools to send an article to yourself
- Use citation tools to copy/paste your citation at the end of a paper
- Sometimes a database citation will mess up the capitalization
- Be sure to make the corrections before submitting your assignment
- Also double-check the italics in the source title and database name. Fix it if not.
- Available 24/7. Login accessible off-campus
- Link to UVAWise Library's complete A-Z Databases list.
- Link to UVAWise Library Database Tutorial Videos to learn more about working with library databases.
Step 3: Evaluate and filter your sources
- Different sources of information have different purposes. What kind of information do you need?
- Straight data and facts?
- Personal perspectives or opinions?
- Academic and scholarly? Peer-reviewed?
- Newspapers, magazines, or encyclopedia articles?
- Choose the best sources for what you are trying to communicate in your assignment.
- A good source backs up its arguments and ideas with solid data, and evidence that can be confirmed. and presented in a neutral tone.
- A bad source generally takes a more emotional tone, and may exaggerate, mislead, or provide completely wrong data and information to "prove" their point.
Step 4: Notice patterns and overlap in the information
- Take notes as you skim and scan the research material
- Jot down the main facts, ideas, and concepts related to your topic
- Note taking LibGuide to learn more about taking notes
- Notice the patterns in your research material
- Are the same ideas, themes, and topics repeated in different sources?
- These are the most important pieces of your topic,
- They represent the main points, secondary points, and boundaries of the subject
- They help you identify the major components of your topic
- They help you identify most common thoughts and beliefs.
NOTE: If you see something mentioned only once or that doesn’t fit the common understanding of your topic, it's probably not worth including.
Step 5: Look at different perspectives on your topic
- At this point you've probably formed your own thoughts about your topic and you have the sources to support it.
- Next, look for sources that show another perspective.
- This is a hugely important step!
- Knowing and understanding other perspectives
- Provides the complete picture of the issue.
- Avoids confirmation bias and demonstrates objectivity about the issue
- Ensures you understand your perspective is not the only one. Confirmation bias
- Shows the validity of your own beliefs
- Shows you understand why others may have different ideas
Step 6: Put all the pieces together
- Apply your research to your paper, speech, or project
- Be confident about your new area of knowledge.
- Explain all aspects of the topic or issue
- The big picture
- Details and small and nuanced points.
- Show that for you "Points X, Y, and Z make sense because… "
- Show that others consider perspectives "A, B, and C because…”
NOTE: If you're not 100% convinced about points X, Y, and Z and perspectives A, B, and C, retrace your steps,
- Go back and review the steps in the research process to fill in the gaps
