Close
Have a question?
Browse our FAQs
Call
Write
Department Contacts
  • List of Academic Faculty Areas

Library – Coast Capital Savings Library

Term Paper research

Too many students think that they can write a good ten-page paper at the last minute. A surprising number of them are wrong!

Hints for success

  • Know your assignment and when it is due.
  • Plan ahead! Ask an expert if you are in doubt (instructors, librarians)
  • Avoid Plagiarism!

The following steps outline an effective strategy for finding all information needed to complete a term paper in most courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

The Research Process: 10 Steps

  1. Choose Your Topic
  2. Focus Your Topic
  3. Identify Key Concepts
  4. Identify Potential and Appropriate sources
  5. Find Background Information
  6. Prepare a Search Strategy
  7. Evaluate your information
  8. Write/present your paper
  9. Create a bibliography
  10. Proofread Your Paper

1. Choose Your Topic

So it's time to do some research in the library?

First of all, make sure you understand what type of paper your instructor has assigned:

  • the length of the paper,
  • type of resources,
  • bibliography (citation) style (e.g. APA, MLA or Turabian),
  • and due date.
  • Whether it's information required to prepare for a 5-minute in-class debate
  • or for a 10-page term paper,
  • you must first choose your topic.

For some students this is the hardest part of writing a paper.

The following tips may make the process a little easier:

  • Choose a topic from a list supplied by the instructor whenever possible.
  • Choose to write about something that interests you, and discuss your topic ideas with your instructor to make sure they are appropriate.
  • Check the catalogue to see what resources are available for a particular topic. (If you have a very short period of time to conduct your research, you might want to pick a topic for which books and articles may be more easily found).
  • Browse current Kwantlen periodicals on the shelf, electronic journals that Kwantlen subscribes to, or browse the subject and keyword lists in full text databases to see if any of the topics covered there spark your interest.
  • Ask a librarian to help you get started. Remember: Our Library Works for You.

Active Learning Exercise

Which of these topics might be appropriate to choose for a 5-minute class presentation and which might be more suitable for a 10-page paper?

Why?

  • B.C. greenhouse industry statistics for 2006
  • Discuss one cause of water pollution
  • Interior design through the ages
  • Post-traumatic stress syndrome

2. Focus Your Topic

Now that you have chosen your topic, make sure it's well focused.

Map your topic to a broader (or narrower)subject.

For example: "Asthma" (The topic is too broad. What about asthma? What aspects do you need to explore?) "Asthma in early childhood" (It's narrower, more specific. It's much better.) "Asthma in Canadian girls, aged 1-5" (Too specific. There will not be enough information.)

Consider posing your topic as a question: "What are the main causes of childhood asthma?" Or "Is childhood asthma in North America on the increase?" Make a thesis statement

Ever had a paper returned to you with an instructor's comment "Where is your argument"? It's because you probably missed forming a thesis statement. A good thesis statement will condense your argument into a couple of sentences. It will provide a focus or main argument for your paper.

It will take a stand!

It will help you organize and develop your argument and it will guide the reader through your paper. Avoid the weak "I will show..." thesis statement whenever possible. Instead, choose a more vibrant thesis that takes a stand, grabs interest and helps you focus on an idea that you can successfully develop.

Active Learning Exercise

You have been assigned or have chosen the topic of drug addiction for a psychology paper.

Here is a fragment of a thesis statement:
the psychology of drug addiction

Here is a weak thesis statement:
There are many causes of drug addiction

Which drugs? Prescription, injection or illegal street drugs? Where are your key points? Have you taken a stand? Have you set down a statement over which reasonable people might disagree? You decide on opiates like cocaine and further develop a thesis statement like this: Depression is a major motivation for cocaine addiction Much better!

You have now taken a position and have added another key word – depression – to your search strategy.

  • Weak or Strong? Spousal abuse has many societal causes.
  • Weak or Strong? Treatment options for bipolar disorder are increasing

3. Identify Key Concepts

You have your well focused topic and the thesis statement.

Now you have to start your research. Whether using the on-line catalogue, an article index or a search engine on the World Wide Web, you will need the best possible search terms or key words.

The success of your search will depend on your choice of these words. Ask a librarian if you are in doubt. Analyze your topic for key concepts to use as search terms (keywords).

For example: The key concepts for the topic "Is shoplifting in girls related to eating disorders?" are shoplifting, girls and eating disorders.

Your concepts can be a subject (eating disorders), an event (World War II), a person (Jane Austen)

After you have identified the key concepts, try also to identify synonyms for your terms, related terms and spelling variations (e.g. marihuana, marijuana). For example, for the concept eating disorders you might also want to use the terms bulimia and anorexia; for the concept girls use also teenage females, etc.

4. Identify Potential & Appropriate Sources

Before you start searching for the material on your topic - think. What type of material do you need to complete your research project? Your instructor will usually tell you what sources are appropriate and will ask you to use books and scholarly journals or will suggest that you use newspapers or scholarly web sites.

Do you need Primary Sources?

Primary sources enable the researcher (you!) to get a close as humanly possible to the actual event(s) that you are researching during that time period. By definition then, primary sources are the documents, real time reflections or observations left behind by the observers and participants.

    These are all generally considered to be primary sources:
  • Diaries
  • Speeches
  • Census data
  • Birth, death, marriage certificates
  • Treaties
  • Letters
  • Memos
  • Experiments (written up by participants or observers; NOT review articles)
  • Interviews
  • Memoirs (as long as too much time has not passed)
  • Books or articles published at the time of the event and written by participants - not by journalists!
  • Photographs
  • Movies or videos or DVDs of the actual events

Of Special Note: In science, "primary literature" refers to the first publication of original research results in a well recognized journal. Primary literature counts towards tenure in a university environment.

Secondary sources or literature refers to any subsequent appearance of these results in review articles, book chapters or conference proceedings. Typically secondary literature publication has less status.

Use To Search For

  • Library Catalogue Books, e-Books, textbooks, reference books, videos, DVD's, slides, kits, cassettes, names of journals that Kwantlen library subscribes to but not journal articles.
  • Article indexes and databases Journal magazine and newspaper articles, statistics, book reviews, web documents
  • World Wide Web Quick information, current events, popular personalities, company information (e.g. annual reports), government information. You will not find a great deal of peer reviewed or scholarly material on the Internet - it is more likely to be found in journals.
  • Dictionaries and encyclopedias Definitions and background information. Encyclopedias may often be the best starting place for a broad overview of a research topic.

You need... Find it in...

  • Up to the minute information Newspaper articles
  • A telephone number (e.g. of a company) Directories, Internet
  • An overview of your research topic Reference resources, Library Guideposts or Subject Guides
  • A definition of a term Dictionaries, subject encyclopedias
  • In-depth information (secondary sources) Books, journal articles, videos
  • Statistics For Canadian statistics go to the StatsCan Web site or consult our Statistics Internet Subject Guide. Ask a reference Librarian what other statistical sources you might use.

Keep an open mind! Don't confine yourself to any one information source (like the Web) and miss other appropriate information. If you are in doubt about a source, ask for help at the Information Desk.

The Grey Zone

Scholarly, refereed or Popular journals?
Primary or Secondary sources?
What's the difference??

There is often confusion surrounding the difference between scholarly or refereed journals and popular journals; or between primary and secondary sources. To help you clarify the refereed or scholarly issue - look at our Refereed Journals: A Guide to the Differences . It will help you determine what type of source you are dealing with.

For more information on the comparisons between Primary and Secondary sources, try these sites:

5. Find Background Information

The Guideposts (Kwantlen Library subject guides)

Check the Guidepost Kiosk at the Kwantlen Library, or The Subject Guideposts Guide on the Library Home Page for simple guides to key background information sources in your discipline.

The Guideposts will suggest starting points such as key bibliographies in a subject area, key reference books, some useful indexes and relevant periodicals.

Encyclopedias

Your instructor may have said "Don't use encyclopedias"; but this likely means don't rely on them as a main or primary source. You may still consult them for valuable background information. For brief or background information, don't overlook specialized encyclopedias, such as the

  • Encyclopedia of Psychology (REF BF 31 E524 2000 all campuses) or the
  • Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada (REF PR 8906 E53 2002 all campuses) These resources can give you the history, development and current thought on your topic.

Encyclopedias also often provide a brief bibliography, which would give a good start on finding standard works on the topic. Dictionaries Check subject-specific dictionaries (such as The Sage Dictionary of Criminology (REF HV 6017 S24 2001 all campuses)for definitions and valuable context for unfamiliar terms. Hints for success Look carefully at your sources, and use appropriate ones. Consider the content, relevance, and currency of the sources.

6. Prepare a Search Strategy and Perform the Search

Whether you search the library catalogue for books on your topic, or the databases and indexes for articles, your search strategy will be the same.

If you like, you can also consult our on-line tutorial Library Basics to see more tips on how to search the catalogue, understand a call number or library term or use a subject index.

Keyword Searching

Start with the most flexible search strategy: keyword searching. Remember your key concepts that you identified for your topic? Now you can use them. Don't worry about the capitals. Type in any of the words (eg asthma, children) you think represent(s) your key concepts.

Use the operators AND, OR to combine your keywords and to retrieve more relevant results.

  • For example: asthma(will retrieve all the articles that somewhere mention this word. You will get a huge number of hits.) asthma AND children(will retrieve articles that contain both these words. You will get a smaller number of hits than above.)
  • teens OR teenagers OR youth (will retrieve articles that contain either teens or teenagers or youth You can expect to get a large number of results).
  • asthma AND (children OR childhood) Use a wildcard (an asterisk*) to shorten or truncate your terms: asthma AND child*. (child* will pick up child, children, childhood.)

Subject Searching

Now you have a list of records. Some are relevant and some are not. Because you used the keyword or "search everything" function the computer simple matched the words for you.

Imagine if you had typed in "Nursery" (meaning the greenhouse and plant type of nursery)and the computer retrieved you sources on a baby nursery.

It's time to add precision to your search with the use of subject headings. Explore each record. Use the VIEW button in the Catalogue or Full display option in the article indexes to see the full record with the Subject Headings (also called Subjects or Descriptors).

These subject headings are linked to other items and with a click you may search them. Subject Headings are already assigned by cataloguing librarians at the Library of Congress, so you cannot choose your own. This is why you started your search with keywords.

Click on a Subject Heading that you find the most specific or appropriate. Using this strategy you will add precision to your search. For example a "search everything" search of the word "teenagers" gets you 155 items; a search of the subject heading "teenage girls" gets you 47 specific sources. Try these searches:

Search Everything
Subject Heading
  • Alcohol
  • Alcoholism prevention
  • Depression
  • Depression mental
  • Brain
  • Behavior
  • physiology

Active Learning Exercise

Term Paper Exploration #1

Topic: "What are the effects of television violence on children?"

  • Resources to be used: Books only
  • Start your research.
  • What is your field of study? (psychology or perhaps sociology?)
  • What age group are you going to consider?

Indicate with a "K" what you feel are the key concepts below Use an "R" for related concepts adolescence

  • television
  • violence
  • children
  • parents
  • cartoons
  • aggression
  • youth
  • fighting
  • adolescents
  • preschoolers
  • desensitization
Now use these keywords to search for books.

(HINT: For books you can search the catalogue only.)

Use AND, OR to combine keywords.

Remember to click on VIEW button to see the Subject Headings.

What Subject Headings appear in these book records? Which one is "the best" for this topic?

Active Learning Exercise

Term Paper Exploration #2

Topic:"Present the pros and cons of circulating the names of convicted sex offenders and known pedophiles."

Resources to be used: popular magazines, journals and newspaper articles

Start your research. Consider these questions:

  • What is the field of study?
  • Define the key concepts (keywords).
  • Must your examples be Canadian?
  • Would you search the library catalogue for journal articles?
  • Decide which article index(s) (i.e. databases) is/are the most appropriate.

7. Evaluate your information

Use this checklist to evaluate all your sources (especially books and articles):

  • Is it relevant to your topic?
  • Is the date of publication appropriate?
  • What are the author's qualifications? including educational background, past writings, experience.
  • What is the author's purpose in writing: to inform? to persuade?
  • How was the information obtained?
  • Is the information fact, opinion, or perhaps even propaganda? (Facts can usually be verified)
  • Are the author's conclusions or facts supported with references? Are there footnotes or a bibliography?
  • Is the work primary or secondary in nature?
  • How do critical reviews rate the work?
  • Who is the publisher?
  • What group controls the publishing company?
  • Is it popular or scholarly?

8. Write/present your paper

If you have defined your topic, kept your research focused, read critically and absorbed the useful information, you are now ready to write an organized and interesting term paper.

Are you writing or presenting?

The library has guides to help you make an oral presentation or use a presentation software program like Power Point. Kwantlen has many books in the GEN COLL area on writing term papers and on using presentation software like MS PowerPoint. Eg.

Lenmark - Ellis, Barbara. How to write themes and term papers. 2nd ed. New York

HF 5718.22 S65 1991 Making successful presentations : a self-teaching guide / Terry C. Smith

Compose an Outline & a Draft

Some students find that organizing their thoughts by using an outline helps them to structure their paper. You may have used outlines when you were in grade school or high school. An outline includes headings and sub-headings for each section of the paper.

Here is a short example

You can use your outline to write a draft version of your paper. Even if you don't develop an outline first, you should still write a draft. The first version of your paper will not be your last .You may still be reading additional sources as you write your draft, and you will need to incorporate additional information into your paper.

It is a good idea to put your draft paper aside for a day before you start working on the final version. You will look at it with fresh eyes and catch problems you might otherwise miss.

9. Create a bibliography

If you do not cite your sources, you are plagiarizing the work of others - a serious academic offense and a violation of the university regulations!

Always check with your instructor to ensure you are using the correct style guide.

For instance, at Kwantlen, History students are required to use the old MLA/Chicago style (which features footnotes and a bibliography).

For more complete information on the Turabian Style, consult the 6th Edition of Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, (especially the examples provided in chapter 11), call number REF LB 2369 T8 1996.

Turabian itself is a simplified guide to the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. Try this quick link for more information on Chicago Style. You can also try our MLA and APA citation style guides to verify your sources.

Some Do's and Don't's of Plagiarism

Students: How Can you Avoid Plagiarism?

Resist the temptation to buy or borrow a term paper from another source! There are more than 150 sites on the Web that offer to provide you with a term paper for a fee. Turning in one of these papers as your own work is plagiarizing. You are capable of doing much better work!

You must give credit whenever you use:

  • another person's idea, opinion, or theory;
  • any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any pieces of information--that are not common knowledge;
  • a quotation of another person's actual spoken or written words;
  • or a paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words.

Try these links

Instructors : You may wish to check out these web sites:

10. Proof-read Your Paper

  • Proof-read your paper not only for spelling and grammar mistakes, but also for logic and flow.
  • Did you develop your central idea adequately?
  • Is each paragraph satisfactorily developed?
  • Are the transitions between paragraphs and sections logical?
  • Are you assuming knowledge on the part of the reader?
  • Do you need to explain concepts or theories, or clarify sections of your writing?

Updated: 18/05/07
Updated by: JA