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Philosophy Program at HFC

Take It Step by Step!

When doing basic research, you can follow these steps. If you would like Librarian assistance, you can Live Chat with a librarian during regular library hours. You can also submit an email question at any time, and a librarian will respond within two business days.

Step One: Choose your Topic.

If you haven't already decided on a topic, you would need to do so before running any searches.

  • Your topic should be broad enough that you can find sources.
  • It should narrow enough that your paper can sufficiently cover the topic in the required number of pages.
  • For example, a topic of "Medical Marijuana" is too broad for a 3-5 page paper.
  • But, a topic of "Medical benefits of marijuana for the chronically ill" is just about the right size.

Step Two: Figure out Search Terms

Once you have a topic, you will want to figure out how your topic translates into "keywords" or "search strategies".

  • For example, if you are researching the question: "Should the U.S. provide free college for every student?" you can't type the question in as is. What you can search would be:
    • "free college tuition" and "United States"
    • "tuition-free college" and "United States"
    • "free college" and United States"
  • Make a list of keywords that you can use to search. You may need to try several terms from your list to get the best results.

Step Three: Background Information and eBooks

If you don't know very much about your topic, it can be useful to get some background information before looking for articles. It can also be useful to look at books before articles when doing research. Books are good for getting an overview of a topic and provide a lot of information in one place. Try these for background information or for finding eBooks:

Step Four: Find Articles using your Keywords

When are ready to search for your articles, take your list of keywords and head to the library's Research Databases. You can select one of the specialize databases such as Literature Resource Center (LRC) (Gale), if it applies to your topic. Otherwise, try one of these broad databases and use your list of keywords to search:

Step Five: Cite your Sources

For help citing your sources try: