Mar 6 - Pre-research

Today we will...

1. explain the importance of gathering background information at the beginning stage of research paper writing
2. learn effective search techniques to find reliable and relevant information for your chosen topics
3. collect background information about the chosen topic by doing some research about the problems, existing solutions, new terms and possible organizations

Importance of Pre-research

As we all know, writing a research paper is a long process, and you can't expect to finish it within 2 days (like SpongeBob did). Basically, research paper writing requires a lot of planning and preparation, and we call it pre-research.

Remember the different steps for writing a research paper?

Search for Information

There are a lot of ways to search for information for your research paper topic. For example, you can use CQ Research, Google Scholar, or EBSCO Databases.

To access the EBSCO DatabaseS, you need to go to the Undergraduate Library Guide, then you click on the "Find Articles" bar. Click on the "Academic Search Complete" link, and then click on the "EBSCO Databases".

Collect Background Information

It will make your writing process really easy if you now collect sufficient background information for your research topic. Now let's see an example of a Pre-research Portfolio.

Practice

Now please open your shared Googledrive foler, and you will see a document titled "Pre-research Portfolio Template". It is the same as the example we just saw, and it will be your second major assignment for this course.

Please complete Steps 1 to 4 based on your chosen topic and the organization that you have found.

Reminder

We won't be having a regular class in this classroom next Monday (Mar 9). Instead, we will go to the Undergraduate Library (Room 291) to have our library day. Please have your topic and your organization ready, and bring questions you have in searching for sources.