Research Tips from Professors

In an interview with a couple First Year Writing professors about they have been able to maximize their research time.

• Use subject librarians. They know specific terms and research in your subject and the best ways to find the information you are looking for.
• Search one particular aspect at a time. For instance, if you are studying a comparison between public transportation systems, you should first search specifically about environmental impact. Then research differences in cost, etc. 
• Remind yourself of your topic as you read abstracts of articles. If it is not completely relevant to your topic (even if it is interesting), do not read it. 
• Keep a schedule. For the earlier example, you could spend one hour on researching differences in environmental impact and one hour on differences in cost. 
• Keep a research log. Write down the particular aspect of your project you are researching and how much time you are spending on it. This makes you accountable for sticking to your schedule and evaluate where you need to go next in your research. This also allows you to keep track of your sources and how you got there (key phrases and databases used in an EBSCO search etc.)
• Have a research buddy to keep you on track and help find sources.
• Use university websites to find experts
• Google scholar has great sources most of the time, but it takes a lot of time to find what you need. Google books is usually more helpful and has lots of great sources.
• Take time to get off the computer and out of the library. Talk directly to people in offices that can supply useful information. Interview sources, collect stories, and distribute surveys to wide groups of people. You will be surprised at the amount of information you can gather from real people as apposed to journal articles.