Kristy's+Research+Process

How I Begin:

The way that I approach research is very different if I'm coming up with my own research topic than if I'm being assigned a topic to spend time researching. First I'll go over what I do when I have a topic assigned.

If I have a topic assigned to me the first thing I do is sit down and figure out how much I already know- usually this involves getting out the text book(s) and my class notes.

Since I'm old school, as I go through my text and class notes I pull out quotes, ideas, facts, etc that are relevant and write them down on a piece of notebook paper. I leave a couple of lines of space between ideas/thoughts.

Next I hit up the library. The library is the best place for research- since it's the digital age and Hanna is the best- The Library is available to you right here on Wikispaces. Check it out. Hanna has organized it in a very accessible way- according to subject as well as database. So- go play around- and don't get discouraged by the amount of information. Find Hanna and ask for help, or your teacher.

At the very early stages of reasearch Encyclopedia entries can be the most helpful- they're broad and general, but if you need a beginning point from which to head out- this is the place to go.

Next- I do some searches in the databases. For US History I start with the **History Research Center: US**. When doing searches- keep them BROAD and simple. The fewer words you use the better. If you have a specific time period that you're looking at- add in a date. This is the best way to limit the material and only get hits that are particularly relevant. If you have a SAT vocabulary type word in your search- it's probably not going to go too well.