Chapter 8: Gathering Research and Establishing Evidence
Reviewing and Applying What You’ve Learned
- You have identified databases appropriate for your subject area using your library homepage or subject specific database guide
- You have a research question or a tentative thesis statement
- You have broken your research topic into two or three key concepts or keywords
- You have thought up some synonyms for your concepts that can be used with the OR Boolean operator
- You have decided to search for multiple concepts using the AND Boolean operator
Activity
Now, run your search.
Use the limiting filters of your database search tool to narrow your results.
Choose two articles that are relevant to your research topic. Not every article presented in the search results will be appropriate. Read the titles, abstracts, and, if necessary, skim the contents of the articles to determine if they are truly relevant to your topic.
If present, use the citation tools embedded in the database to help you cite the articles.
Briefly (in one or two paragraphs) explain how each article will be useful in supporting your thesis statement.