Research Tutorial

It is important to have a basic understanding of your topic before you start a more in-depth investigation or analysis. Background research helps you identify key ideas or themes related to your topic. This information can be used to narrow your topic or identify search terms to help you find sources (See Find Sources - How to Search). 

Depending on your topic, you may already have some background knowledge, but it's important to build on that knowledge. Background research can provide us with:

• Context that helps you understand the significance of the topic and how it relates to larger ideas or concepts
• Key terminology, words, or phrases people use to discuss the topic
• Names of people or organizations that are important to the topic
• Specific issues or subtopics that relate to the broader topic (this is a great way to get ideas for focused research questions, which we will talk about in the next Module).

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