FAQS

Generally, you will want to begin with background information on your topic. Gathering background information will help you identify keywords related to your topic and will help you identify the "conversation" around your topic (the pros and cons, the differing points of view, the arguments or unresolved areas), which will in turn help you turn your topic into a thesis.

Background information might come from:

• Your textbook or eTextbook
• Your instructor
• Encyclopedia and Reference Book Articles 
  • Credo Reference
  • Gale Ebooks
• Background articles from databases like:
  • Points of View Reference Source
  • CQ Researcher

Once you have background information and you have an idea of thesis you want to support, you will likely want to look for information that supports your thesis.

Try the following research resources:

• Books
  • Search the ebook collections for electronic books
• Articles from magazines, scholarly journals, professional journals, newspapers and newsletters
  • Search these collections because they cover many, many topic areas:
    • Discovery
    • Academic Search Complete
    • ProQuest Central
• Webpages and websites
  • ​​Search using Google, Bing, or a similar search engine
  • Realize that websites and web pages can be published by anyone with or without the qualifications to know what they are talking about.
  • Learn to "read" urls so you know more about the web pages before you even open them.
  • Be sure to evaluate the web sites you decide to use!
  • Consider limiting your search to web page addresses or urls that include .gov (government) or .edu (educational institution) sites.
    • Google allows you to add site:.gov to any search to retrieve only government sites
      •   Example: thyroid disease site:.gov