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ENG 112                                       Dr. Templeton
Essay 3 Assignment

This library training session will (hopefully) help you to develop the basic research skill of choosing a topic, which is often the most difficult part of academic research projects. Dr. Templeton will provide you with general guidelines, such as possible topical areas and the scope of your project, but then it is up to you to determine the particular aspect of the general topic that you wish to turn into a research question. 

Take a look at Part I of the assignment.

Things to consider while choosing or refining a topic

YOU:  Consider your personal interests. What social phenomena have you read about or seen in the news that interests you? How can you make the topic personal?

CLASS/MAJOR:  What are the topics being discussed in the courses that you are currently taking, or would like to take? Look at your class notes. Look at the texts from your various courses and examine the tables of contents.  Browse through the text and look at the bold headings for ideas that may catch your eye.

Example: I am personally interested in and concerned about the environment. I am trying to get a student recycling program going for NC Wesleyan. I am also majoring in Environmental Science.

I'd like to know what other colleges and universities are doing to recycle on their campuses. I'm working on a similar project in another class. Before finding info on school recycling programs, the people answering my question should probably learn a bit about recycling in general and then move on to see what's being done in schools, colleges, and universities.

Before this can be my research question, I need to make sure that the students answering it can find more information about it in books and articles. Where do I go from here?
 

Books - AN EXCELLENT place to start. Books often contain older, established information on topics that have been studied for years, decades, eons. Use books to learn basic information. Only move on to articles after you have a good foundation of knowledge on a topic. 

Use the Library Catalog to search for books - A basic example of how to find books in the library

How to get there: (1) Library Homepage (2) Click on the "Find Books" link

Search the library catalog to find books about recycling. What did you find? How did you find it/them?

 

 

Articles - Articles tend to contain information that is very current rather than historic information. For example, if your topic has to do with recycling, you'll find basic, historical information about it in BOOKS. You'll find that articles will contain specific and current information about recycling, which started as early as the 1950's...what are people still discussing on the topic today? Find out in article databases provided by the library.

How to get there: (1) Library Homepage (2) Click on Find Articles (3) Select databases by subject.

Search the article databases to find articles about recycling programs in schools, colleges & universities. What did you find? How did you find it/them?

Tip: The library's research databases are accessible by students from their dorms and from off-campus. Learn how to authenticate via EZ Proxy.

 
   
Guides: Research Assistance:
Research Guides by Subject

Citing Sources: APA, MLA, etc.

NCSU Citation Builder

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