Chem II - Literature Review: Home

Step 1: Create a Place to Capture YOUR Research: Research eNotes

Step 2: Exploring your Topic:

Ask yourself, 'what do I know about my topic?'.  You should have some idea or context for your research if now you need to begin with a general search to see what is out there on your chosen topic.  This also gets you started on narrowing your big idea or topic to a research topic or question that is manageable.

Exploring your topic by Google Searching with Bell:

Step 3: Identify YOUR question or idea that you will be researching

Using keywords, deeper questions, and what you learned from your Exploring, formulate a question, or direction that will guide your research deeper. This is the time where we want to Narrow Our Topic.  

6 Journalistic Question Words to help you refine by Narrowing:

• Who: Are you interested in a specific group of people? Can your topic be narrowed by gender, sex, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or something else? Are there any key figures related to your topic?
• What: What are the issues surrounding your topic? Are there subtopics? In looking at background information, did you notice any gaps or questions that seemed unanswered?
• Where: Can your topic be narrowed down to a geographic location? Warning: Don't get too narrow here. You might not be able to find enough information on a town or state.
• When: Is your topic current or historical? Is it confined to a specific time period? Was there a causative event that led your topic to become an area of study?
• Why: Why are you interested in this topic? Why should others be interested?
• How: What kinds of information do you need? Primary sources, statistics? What is your methodology?

Step 4: Gather loads of resources (and make sure to capture citations)

Now that we have a direction and we have narrowed our topic we are ready to gather sources. On your Research eNotes, you can now begin collection resources.  Make a slide/card for each piece of evidence or source that you will be using for your final project. Linked on the first page of the doc are links to the Library Website, the Academic Databases that we subscribe to, and other resources.  If you are having trouble finding resources this is a good time to contact Mr. Bell, the Librarian. (christob@isb.ac.th)