AiCSC Research Guide  

Carefully read any guidelines your instructor has provided.

1. What type of assignment is it? (Research paper, essay, opinion paper, other?)
2. How long does your paper need to be?
3. How many sources do you need?
4. What types of sources are required for this assignment? (scholarly articles, trade articles, statistics, primary sources, other?)

1. Brainstorm ideas.

• Think of some topics that interest you. (ex. BP oil spill, seafood)
  

2. Find Background information.

• Background information will give you an overview of the general topic and give you ideas for narrowing down your topic to a more focused research question.
  
• Places to look for background information:
  
  • Newspapers - if your topic is a current issue look for news articles.  
  • SIRS Issues Researcher - current events. 
  • Google & Wikipedia - these can be a good place to look in the early stages of your process, however, there is no guarantee that the information you find is authoritative or reliable. (Note: Some instructors will not accept papers with Wikipedia as a source.)

1. Choose the best research databases to find articles on your topic.

2. If you are retrieving too many or too few results, narrow or broaden your topic further.

3. Narrow or Broaden your topic.

• Are you focusing on a specific population? (women, Asian Americans, chefs, business owners, restaurants, teen mothers)
• Are you focusing on a specific time period? (18th century, 1990s, 2010)
  
• Are you focusing on a geographic area? (Charleston, Europe, New York, Midwest)

ex. Broad: impact of the BP oil spill on South Carolina's seafood industry

ex. Narrow: economic impact of the BP oil spill on the restaurants industry of Charleston, SC