Research Skills
Skill Building Series
This series of tutorials highlights and clarifies the parts of the research process so that you can develop the skills to create well documented research papers more effectively.
- Choosing a Paper TopicExplore how to choose a paper topic that fits the length and depth of your assignment requirements.
- How to Narrow Your Paper TopicFind out how you can take a topic that is too big and broad for your needs and narrow it to fit the scope of your assignment.
- How to Broaden Your Paper TopicFind out how you can take a topic that is too specific for your needs and broaden it to fit the scope of your assignment
- Developing a Search Strategy: Choosing KeywordsThis tutorial provides tips on how to select keywords that will give you the best results when searching academic databases for your paper topic.
- Developing a Search Strategy: Choosing Where to SearchLearn how to choose which database to get you the best results when searching for academic articles related to a specific topic.
- Navigating & Searching Academic DatabasesThis video explores how academic databases are organized and the tools you can use to make sure your search results are the best fit for your topic.
- Accessing Full-Text Articles at a Later DateLearn all the ways that you can save access to research articles found in a database.
- Finding Additional Resources Using an Academic ArticleThis tutorial will demonstrate how you can find additional sources on your topic using an article that you have already found that matches your research needs.
- Popular, Trade or Scholarly: Identifying Article TypesIn this tutorial, we explore the three main types of articles that you are likely to be asked to use for an assignment and identify their key characteristics, how they differ from one another and where to find each type.
- Intro to Lateral ReadingThis video gives a brief overview of the evaluation technique known as lateral reading.
- How to Read Laterally: Evaluating Online SourcesThis video explores how to utilize the lateral reading technique to evaluate information you find online.
- Evaluating Social Media Posts with Lateral ReadingThis video looks specifically at evaluating claims found on social media sites using lateral reading.
Navigating Academic Articles
This series of videos will help you better understand the parts of academic journal articles so that you can find the information you need for your research quickly and efficently.
- Locating Scholarly ArticlesThis video explores the best way to locate scholarly articles for your research projects.
- Identifying Scholarly ArticleThis video explores the criteria that identify something as a scholarly article.
- How to Read a Research Article Like a ResearcherThis video introduces techniques for reading academic articles that you can use when you are exploring a scholarly topic.
- Understanding the Parts of a Research Article: Arts & HumanitiesThis video breaks down the arts of an academic article that is published in fields related to the Arts & Humanities.
- Understanding the Parts of a Research Article: Sciences & Social SciencesThis video breaks down the arts of an academic article that is published in fields related to the Social Sciences and Physical Sciences.
Creating Search Strategies
The following tutorials will help you get to the information you need as quickly and efficiently as possible by helping you develop the best search strategy to meet your needs.
- Which Database Should I Use?This video gives you tips on how to select which database to search for a specific topic.
- Searching Library DatabasesThis video gives a brief introduction to searching academic databases efficiently.
- Boolean OperatorsThis video explores how you can use boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT when searching academic databases to get better search results.
- How to find a Full-Text ArticleThis video demonstrates how to locate and access the full-text of an article you find in an academic database.
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