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Graduate Student Resources: Academic Research

The purpose of this help guide is to provide a library collection of resources and tips to assist students in the process of writing a thesis.

Research Strategy

Need help searching strategically for research assignments? Here's some tips:

  1. Consult background resources to choose, explore, and develop your topic.
  2. Formulate an arguable and concise research question based on your topic to answer through your research.
  3. Choose keywords from your research question and additional alternative keywords to use when searching databases.
  4. Remember to evaluate search results to see if the searches you're trying are effective.

Subject Specific Help

When doing scholarly research, it's helpful to use resources dedicated to your field. Use the below subject-specific Help Guides as a starting place for research. For more research help, see our Research Help Guides page or schedule an appointment with a librarian.

Research Tutorials

How to Start Research

Initial Topic Formation

Developing a Research Question

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Evaluating Sources for Credibility

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

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