How to Develop Researching Skills

Research is essential to writing a quality paper for school or a convincing report at work. With the development of the World Wide Web, you may think researching is just a matter of typing words into a search engine. But there are many materials that aren't available on the Internet that can give you the exact information you need. Here are strategies to develop your researching skills.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Identify the topic you want to research. This may sound basic but every subject demands different skills. Write your subject as a question or a statement such as "I want to find out how to develop product X to appeal to market Y."
2. Underline the keywords in your topic statement. A paper on alcoholism among college students would need "alcoholism," "college" and "students" as keywords. You may have to get creative in identifying hidden keywords. For example, books and articles about substance abuse among college students may also refer to alcoholism in this population.
3. Use a general reference book like an encyclopedia to get an overview of your topic. In the above example, entries on alcoholism may help give you focus, as well as keywords, to search. Look for an encyclopedia that specializes in your topic for more detailed information
4. Tap into bibliographies in articles and books you already have on hand. These are great resources for materials relevant to your topic. Be aware, though, they only contain works that were published before the one that cites them so you'll probably need to supplement this list with newer materials.
5. Ask a librarian for help in searching the catalog. They are experts at retrieving information from these sources. Try your local public library for popular topics and an academic one for college papers and business reports.
6. Look up articles in a periodical indexing and abstracting publication. ERIC, for example, covers topics in education. Your public library probably allows patrons access to such databases through a gateway service. University library catalogs are better if you're a student or on the faculty.
7. Take the resources you find on the Internet with a grain of salt. Part of developing your researching skills is knowing how to evaluate the information you find. The Internet is the least reliable source of information, so verify any fact you're going to use in your paper or report with a reputable source.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget to search for synonyms of your keywords when researching. Synonym.com offers a useful free online dictionary of definition synonyms which can suggest many alternate keywords.
• Don't neglect specialty libraries at research centers, government agencies and other institutions.