Think Big: Your Research for Class is Adding to Our Intellectual Pool. Keep Up the Good Work!
Here are some tips choosing a research topic:
1. Choose a topic that you are interested in! The research process is more relevant if you care about your topic.
2. Narrow your topic to something manageable.
3. If your topic is too broad, you will find too much information and not be able to focus. Background reading can help you choose and limit the scope of your topic.
4. Review the guidelines on topic selection outlined in your assignment. Ask your professor or TA for suggestions.Refer to lecture notes and required texts to refresh your knowledge of the course and assignment.
5. Talk about research ideas with a friend. S/he may be able to help focus your topic by discussing issues that didn't occur to you at first.
6. Think of the who, what, when, where and why questions:
From The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
Information literacy is being able to identify your information need. It is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use, and communicate it in an ethical and legal way.
The skills and competencies that are needed to be information literate require an understanding of:
The research process is a cycle that can apply to research for any course through these steps:
Critical Thinking in terms of Information Literacy involves
Fair Use: Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act allows for some provisions of using a reproduction of someone else's copyright-protected work if it is used for one of the following purposes: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. However, fair use does not automatically qualify every educational use of a copyrighted work. A fair use evaluation is needed for each use or re-use of a work. The evaluation as to whether the reproduction is fair use must be made based upon four factors:
The legal defense for using the fair use provision would be in front of a federal court.
When providing copyrighted works under the provisions of fair use, notify users that the works may be subject to copyright protection.