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Research Tutorial

Determine Your Scope

Your first step is determining the scope of your research. Think about your topic and the kind of information you need. 

Define your research scope by thinking about the following: 

  • Amount: how much information do you need?
  • Content: what types of information do you need?
  • Format: what type of source do you need (e.g. books, articles, videos)?

Assignment Requirements

Identifying the boundaries of your research might come from your assignment guidelines. Review your assignment requirements and look for the following pieces of information: 

" "

  • How many sources are you required to use? 
  • What type(s) of sources are you required to use? (e.g. Only scholarly?)
  • What type(s) of sources are you allowed to use? (e.g. Websites? News?)
  • What kind of information do you need? (e.g. Statistics, local examples, government reports)
  • How long is the assignment?

Information that is appropriate for one research project might not be appropriate for another. For a short five-minute presentation on the pros or cons of an issue, you might only need a few sources that cover the key aspects of the issue. But for a longer 20-page paper, you would need sources that cover the topic in more detail.

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Unless otherwise noted, this guide is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License).

The information on this page is adapted from LIN 175: Information Literacy by Steely Library Education & Outreach Services, Northern Kentucky University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License