Research Guides: Research with Library Resources (Sociology): Research Tutorials

Review your assignment instructions: What kind of assignment/essay is it? Do you need to take a stance? Make an argument? Provide facts or data?
Will you need library sources? What kind?
Use the Picking a Topic tutorial to help you narrow down your ideas and find keywords.
Use Opposing Viewpoints to browse topics and get ideas.
Watch the Developing a Research Topic video

Use Wikipedia to get a background on your topic (but don't cite it as a source for your paper!)
When using Google, be sure to carefully evaluate the credibility of your sources
Use the Evaluating Websites tutorial to help you decide whether a website is trustworthy or not
Think about Author, Publisher, References, and Editorial Process when reading information on the web
Use Opposing Viewpoints to find results similar to Google, but more trustworthy!

Learn how to use the databases in the Using Library Databases tutorial
Watch the Researching using Academic Search Complete video to see a demonstration
Try different searches with different keywords; this will help you find lots of different kinds of results
Keep track of your research using the Research Log organizer
Learn to use other library databases by visiting the Databases guide with how-to videos

Scholarly articles are published in Academic Journals, and have been Peer Reviewed ("Scholarly", "Academic" and "Peer Reviewed" mean roughly the same thing!)
You can find scholarly articles using JSTOR or the "Peer Reviewed" limiter in Academic Search Complete
Use the Finding and Evaluating Scholarly Sources tutorial to learn about evaluating and finding scholarly sources
Watch the Scholarly and Popular Sources video for a brief overview of scholarly vs popular sources

A Works Cited or Reference page list your sources and citations.
Use the Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism tutorial to learn more about plagiarism and citing your sources
Watch this How to Avoid Plagiarim video to learn more