The Research Process

Recommended Research Resources

Research Tips

Preview the Text

  • Read subject headings, the first and last paragraph.  Get an idea on what the paper is about.
  • Look at illustrations or graphs.  What are they trying to tell you?
  • Make notes of unfamiliar words but don’t look them up just yet.
  • Thesis – What is the paper going to tell you?

Active Reading

  • Active reading – Helps you understand and remember the content you are reading. As you read the text make notes around sections that you will want to include in your paper.  
  • Use any method to take notes: highlight, underline, color coordinate, etc. 
  • Use your own language.  This includes checkmarks, arrows, brackets, emoticons, i.e. your own shorthand.  No one else will see these but you and so long as it makes sense to you, you will be able to read the work faster and reference it easier later on.

Summarizing

  • Summarizing the text can help your comprehension.  Summarize the entire text or by section for longer works.
  • Keep your summaries short and to the point.  Focus on main points and ideas.  Use quotes sparingly.  You are trying to work the ideas down to the most basic points of the text.
  • Remember to consider:
    • Purpose—What is the author’s intent?  Entertain? Persuade?
    • Audience—Who is the intended audience? Colleagues? Experts?  Casual readers?
    • Genre—What is its genre?  Argument? Analysis?
    • Stance—What is the author’s stance?  Knowing stance can help you detect biases, if it should be taken seriously, and how you understand the text in general.
    • Design—What format is the work in?  Is it a trustworthy source of information?  Who published the information?  

Below is a Rhetorical Analysis Worksheet that can be used to help you take notes or evaluate difficult to understand sources.  This worksheet was created by Susan Cowart for her ENGL 1301 class.

Personal Database Accounts

Creating personal accounts in the Library’s databases is not necessary to access the database content. A number of Library databases do give you the option of creating accounts.

Why bother creating accounts if you can access the content without them?

There are a number of benefits to creating personal database accounts, particularly within databases you frequently utilize. Personal database accounts may allow you to save and organize resources, retrieve your search history, set up various alerts, and more.

How to Create Personal Database Accounts

Persistent URLs

A persistent URL (PURL), or permalink, is a durable link that connects you directly to an article, eBook, or other item in the TSTC Library. Persistent URLs can be helpful if you wish to share a library resource with a classmate or an instructor, or if you wish to quickly link back to a resource. PURLs also help us remain in compliance with copyright rules when sharing and linking to Library resources.

Be aware that while PURLs are persistent, they are NOT necessarily permanent. PURLs may become obsolete over time, especially as our Library database subscriptions change year to year.

You may be prompted to provide your TSTC OneID in order to connect to the resource. Additionally, each Library database has a different process for capturing PURLs.  You can find this process below.

Another alternative to PURLs is to create individual library database accounts. Two of our most popular Library databases which allow you to create personal accounts where you can save resources are EBSCOhost and ProQuest. See our page on Personal Database Accounts for more information.

Persistent URLs by Database