Where To Get Information For Your College Research Papers

There will come a time in every college student’s life when they will be asked to write a research paper. It’s inevitable. If you know this from the very start, you won’t be as shocked when you’re assigned a big essay or research paper to write. You usually have a reasonable amount of time until the deadline; start on it as soon as possible so time doesn’t become a constraint.

Depending on what general field your essay is on – science, language arts, and English literature – you will be able to find some good source material for your research paper by searching:

  • School library
  • Online scholarly sources
  • Public library
  • Local university library
  • News articles
  • Published works

The crucial thing about your information is making sure it’s authentic and legitimate. In other words, ensure that it can be verified. Usually if you take information from a government or university website you can trust its authenticity. However, any random website can be put up by anyone and they can write whatever they want to with very few restrictions so don’t just trust any site you come across in your research.

You can’t fool a good professor by using low quality sources for your information. You need to use top quality information and the latest research results unless your paper is historical in nature of course.

If you notice your research skills seem to be a little rusty, ask the librarian for some assistance. They probably spend most of their day shelving and checking out books but they have been trained in research methods and would be able to give you some really good advice and direction as to where to look for the information you want.

For internet searches, you can specify academic or scholarly results for each search. The college librarian can also help you to find the scholarly sources you’re looking for online. From a computer at the college or university library you can access journal articles if that’s what you need.

Original insight into your research topic comes from your head. It’s based on your knowledge and experience and what you’ve learned so far in your research. That’s a good reason for taking good notes as you’re reading along. You can go back over your notes later,