Research Guides: WRIT 150: Technology & Social Change: Finding a Topic

Searching as Strategic Exploration

"Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops." ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

Scope

First, it is important that you review your assignment guidelines. Are you required to use a specific number of sources? What kind of sources are can you use (books vs. journal articles vs. newspaper articles, for example)? How long is your paper? Are you presenting this research?

Second, identify your topic based on your assignment's guidelines. It's okay to start with a broad topic and narrow down as your do more research.

Third, identify databases to search based on your topic and what kind of sources you want to find.

image from: https://libguides.lorainccc.edu/research-process/refine

Brainstorm

Starting brainstorming your topic early on. If you already have a topic in mind, you can begin doing some preliminary searches to learn more about your topic. If you do not have a topic ready, you can look at newspapers (like Wall Street Journal) and popular science magazines (like Popular Science and Scientific American) to find current STEM topics.

image from: https://clark.libguides.com/brainstorming

AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
Access Engineering is an engineering reference tool that provides access to authoritative and regularly updated engineering reference information.
AccessEngineering provides integrated access to thousands of pages of trusted content from such renowned resources as Perry's Handbook for Chemical Engineers and Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers across desktop and mobile platforms. Users can access more than 530 books, 760 instructional videos, 3800 interactive graphs, and an Excel calculator tool to streamline calculations.
AccessScience This link opens in a new window
AccessScience contains various resources in science and technology: the unabridged McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, and much more.
AccessScience has over 7100 articles; 115,000 dictionary terms; hundreds of research updates in all areas of sci/tech, including medicine; over 2000 biographies of leading scientists; weekly updates on breakthroughs and discoveries; and links to Web sites for further research.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 645 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research.

Search Log

Keeping track of you searches will help you stay organized and avoid repeating your searches. It helps you stay efficient with your time and provide a record of your work thus far. A search log can document date of when you searched, where you searched (what databases?), what terms you searched, any filters you used, number of results, and any notes or comments to yourself about what was successful or unsuccessful.

Developing Keywords

Identify the main ideas/nouns from your research question.

ex. What are the environmental and economic impacts of lab grown meat?

Brainstorm synonyms for these important terms.

ex. environmental: environment, agriculture, sustainability

economic: economics, cost, socio-economic

lab grown meat: plant based diet, plant based nutrition, meat alternatives

The main words you highlight along with their synonyms provide the foundation for what terms you should try searching.

Filtering

You can also refine your search using any databases' filters. They are often a variety of ways to filter a search via refining the publication date, the format (article, book, conference proceeding, etc.), etc.