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Meet Carlos and his friend Emily. With school, part-time jobs,
and
athletics, these two TCU students lead very busy lives!
Follow their easy
Step-by-Step
guide
for the best way
to start your college papers and gather research.
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Step 1.
Choosing your topic &
few things to consider:
- Purpose of the
assignment.
- Due date of the
assignment.
- Resources required by your professor.
- Resources available at
the TCU Library.
Step 2.
The Big Picture. What are the
main issues associated with your topic?
- Evaluate your topic using
background information.
-
Use encyclopedias, class notes, reserve readings, and
textbooks to supply background
information, facts, and bibliographies.
-
You make the call! Is there is
enough valid information available to support your selected
topic? If not, pick another topic.
Step 3.
What
is your point? Narrow in on the key questions and issues
related to your topic.
- Use the background
information you have gathered to refine your point of
view.
- Make use of the
language/vocabulary within your topic.
Step 4.
Create source list using books,
journals, magazines, newspaper articles and web resources.
How to Find
Articles in Journals, Magazines & Newspapers
-
Finding
quality articles online:
Use
one of our Library's electronic article index databases, such as
Academic
Search Complete,
NewsBank Newspapers,
CQ
Researcher,
JSTOR,
Wilson
Select Plus,
Opposing
Viewpoints Resource Center
(these, and other resources can be
found on the Library's home page at
www.library.tcu.edu
under the
Find Articles
link). These databases contain a variety
of full text articles, citations, abstracts.
-
Finding
articles in hardcopy:
Use the TCU Library Online
Catalog to look up a journal, newspaper or magazine by its title, i.e.-
Renaissance Quarterly. Be
sure to write down the journal's call number and view its
location map so you know where to find it in the
Library.
-
The World
Wide Web contains many organizational and education
institution sites.
In a pinch, try using
Google.com
to search for corporate/business home pages.
FYI...
It's okay to explore
your topic on Google, but remember;
your professor wants you
to use and cite only official, creditable sources when writing your
college papers! Using the resources at
http://www.Library.tcu.edu will make your professor
happy :)
- Find Books Using the
TCU
Online Catalog
- Title and author searching
for known titles of books and journals. PLEASE NOTE: The
TCU Library Catalog only searches for books and journals
at the TITLE level. To search for items on the
article level you must use a database (see
Step 4).
- Keyword searching for
complex topics. Searching
by Keyword searches all indexed fields in the record.
- Subject searching for
broad topics. When using
phrase searching, the system displays links to
broader/narrower search terms and alternate forms of
names & subject headings.
Hint!
Visit
the in-depth TCU Library catalog tutorial
HERE for a detail explanation of how to use the
online catalog.
- Most items are shelved by
LC
(Library of Congress) call number.
Federal government
documents are shelved by
Superintendent of Documents
(SuDocs) numbers and
Music & Media materials are shelved by a unique
number.
Hint!
Each item in the library catalog has a
location map link next
to its call number so you can see the exact physical
location of that book, journal or magazine before you
head for the stacks!
- Can't find that book or
article at TCU? Try using our
Interlibrary
Loan service.
Please note:
You can only request items not already owned by the TCU
Library.
Remember!
Always print or write down where you found your
information so you can assemble a usable,
complete citation for every resource listed in your
bibliography.
BUT
WHAT IF...
Psst! Click
HERE if this
is happening to you!
Step 5.
Consider the source!
- Authorship: Bias vs.
Balanced
-
Authority
-
Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly
-
Relevance and Quality of
information
- Currency/Timeliness
Hint!
For information on
judging the credibility of a resource, use these
guides:
 Evaluating Journals
& Magazines in a Nutshell
(Adobe PDF document)
Evaluating
Web Pages in a Nutshell
(Adobe PDF document)
Step 6.
Consider and use only the
most relevant and reliable sources.
Step 7.
Making copies.
Photocopying is
available through the use of your TCU ID at the copy
machines located throughout the TCU Library. All library
photocopiers, except those designated for faculty only, accept
the TCU student ID as payment. Transaction date, time,
location, number of copies and cost per copy ($.10) are sent
directly to Financial Services and appear on your monthly
billing statement. Go to:
Printing
& Photocopying at the TCU Library for a complete list
of fees.
Step 8.
Composing your paper & citing your sources.
 The
TCU
Writing Center is available to help you compose your paper
correctly. You can also e-mail your composition questions to
the Writing Center with the
On-Line
Writing Lab service.
Basic citation
formats can be viewed
here.
You many also want to consider
learning to use the TCU Library
citation creating software called
RefWorks®
FYI... RefWorks is a web-based bibliography manager that
allows you to create your works cited page by importing
references from text files or online databases and other
various sources. You can use these references in writing
papers and automatically format the paper and the
bibliography/works cited page in seconds!
Learn to use
RefWorks®
here.
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